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Wow, I’m behind on these! This was originally posted on Chapter and Verse Reviews.
This book was recommended to me by my mother, and like a lot of books my mother recommends, it contains quite a lot of sex (which she claimed to have no recollection of), including a particularly striking passage in which one of the characters compares a particular act to being sucked by a heifer. When I showed this passage to my current companion their only question was, “What is a heifer?”
So why I am recommending this heifer book? I didn’t love it. Isn’t it weird to recommend books you don’t love? Maybe, but I’m still thinking about it. It was a rather odd book, really. It centres on this character, Maud, a scientist working in pharmaceutical research, her relationship with her partner and her child and, most of all, other people’s assessment of her, and of her coldness and apparent self-interest.
A lot of the blurb extols what an incredible character Maud is, but what I found most interesting was the way that the other characters seemed not to be able to fathom her, and what that says about what both the author and society at large consider strange, unacceptable, mysterious, unusual, and incompatible about Maud’s personal qualities and womanhood and/or femininity.
Food for thought.
You’ll love this book if you like:
– Unusual family dynamics
– Lots of detail about boats
– Heifers
You might want to avoid this book if you dislike:
– Tattoos
– Boats (there really is a lot of detail about boats)
Happy Reading!
