Tag: Domestic Abuse

Ep. 78 Educated by Tara Westover — The Stacks Book Club (Sarah Enni)

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We are talking about Educated by Tara Westover on The Stacks Book Club today. Author and podcast host Sarah Enni helps us break down why this story became a mega-bestseller and why its the book that everyone is still talking about. We also debate the role of fact versus memory in memoir, and what this book means in the current political climate.
There are spoilers on this episode.

LISTEN NOW

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Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

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Connect with Sarah: Website | Instagram | Twitter | First Draft Website | First Draft Instagram | First Draft Twitter
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum

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The Stacks received A Woman is No Man from the publisher. For more information click here

In her debut novel, A Woman is No Man, Etaf Rum tells the story of three generations of Palestinian women who are struggling to be their own person and still be deemed respectable in their culture. The book tackles issues like abuse, gender roles, obedience, and freedom. We watch as the characters grapple with their place in life and the future they see for themselves.

What worked for me in this book was the ambition that Rum displays in taking on this story. She is not afraid to show her audience the bleak reality that so many women who deal with domestic violence confront daily. She shows how the abuse of women is systemic inside a family and how cultural expectation can exasperate that. A Woman is No Man is not representative of all women of Palestinian descent, just as no story about a White man is true for all men who identify as White (something I feel compelled to say, and yet at the same time annoyed for feeling like that isn’t self evident). Rum has created a version of the world that is true based on her experiences and her imagination.

A Woman is No Man has the makings of something powerful, though the execution fell flat for me. I wasn’t moved by the characters. They all blended together. Their pain was collective, and thus they functioned as a chorus instead of three distinct protagonists. Of all the female leads, Fareeda was the most complex and in turn the most interesting to read about. Overall, the men and women in the story felt more like vessels to make a point rather than fully developed humans. While I loved the structure (multiple points of view through generations) I found that the plot was lacking, which led to repetitive dialogue throughout. The ending came as no surprise to me, though the book seemed to be headed toward a big reveal.

Simply put, this book wasn’t for me. I appreciate the story that Rum is telling, even if I didn’t like the execution. I wished for more complexity and depth. A Woman is No Man felt safe, even though it was telling the story of immense pain and inner conflict. It is worth noting, while I didn’t love this book, it has had much success including making it on the New York Times Best Seller list, and being chosen by Jenna Bush Hager for the her book club on The Today Show.

If you have read this book, I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments, and if you’re looking for more about A Woman is No Man check out Etaf Rum on The Short Stacks.

The Short Stacks 14: Etaf Rum//A Woman is No Man

  • Hardcover: 352
  • Publisher: Harper (March 5, 2019)
  • 2/5 stars
  • Buy A Woman is No Man Amazon or IndieBound

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Short Stacks 14: Etaf Rum//A Woman is No Man

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Etaf Rum is a debut author, whose book A Woman is No Man, is one of the buzziest of the season. The story follows three generations of women in a Palestinian family, and throughout we are asked to grapple with the themes of identity, self worth, abuse, and empowerment. Rum shares with us what it is like to hear from her readers, some of her goals, and what books she keeps around for inspiration.

There are no spoilers on this episode.

LISTEN NOW

Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts | Overcast | Stitcher

Everything we talk about on today’s episode can be found below in the show notes and on Bookshop.org and Amazon.

Connect with Etaf: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook | Website | Books and Beans Instagram
Connect with The Stacks: Instagram | Twitter | Shop | Patreon | Goodreads | Subscribe

To support The Stacks and find out more from this week’s sponsors, click here.

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks received A Woman is No Man from the publisher. For more information click here.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website, and this comes at no cost to you. This in no way effects opinions on books and products reviewed here. For more information click here.

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

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Reading The Bluest Eye for The Stacks Book Club was my first time ever reading the work of Toni Morrison. I knew it would be great, simply because so many people told me so, but getting a chance to read her words for myself, I now understand. You can listen to my conversation with Renée Hicks (founder of Book Girl Magic) about The Bluest Eye right here on The Stacks.

Here is more about The Bluest Eye

Pecola Breedlove, a young black girl, prays every day for beauty. Mocked by other children for the dark skin, curly hair, and brown eyes that set her apart, she yearns for normalcy, for the blond hair and blue eyes that she believes will allow her to finally fit in.Yet as her dream grows more fervent, her life slowly starts to disintegrate in the face of adversity and strife. A powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity, Toni Morrison’s virtuosic first novel asks powerful questions about race, class, and gender with the subtlety and grace that have always characterized her writing.

Morrison does an expert job of writing about the darkest parts of our humanity. The book is haunting. Her characters are real and simple and purely themselves, for better or worse. She uses her words to make sure we never look away, that we examine the humanity of these characters. She finds our own vulnerabilities and uses them, forcing the reader to confront pain and trauma in a three dimensional way. To extend our sympathy to the abusers and the abused. Even when it feels impossible.

As we follow the life of our protagonist, a young dark-skinned Black girl named Pecola Breedlove, we see the world she sees, and we flashback to how her 1940s Ohio world was created. Morrison is brilliant in setting the scene as we think it should be, and then showing how it really is, how we got here, and why it is more complicated than we could have imagined.

The Bluest Eye takes on much that ails our society. The book confronts racism, colorism, beauty, sexism, sexuality, sexual abuse, trauma, rage, toxic masculinity, and more. Instead of looking at each idea as an isolated problem, she folds everything together and dares us to unpack the mess. To see that none of these isms or societal failures works on its own, but rather that they are entangled. While the story itself is painful and bleak, Morrison’s writing makes it palatable, something her readers are willing to stick with and sift through.

I could have read more of this book, but Morrison says what she needs to say in about 200 pages. She is specific and direct. There is no extra fluff. She doesn’t give us time to wallow. That directness enhances the book. She shows us the evils of humanity, the tender moments of kindness and never allows one to take on more weight than the other. Never allows us to pick sides. We just have to keep moving forward.

This is Morrison’s first novel, she wrote it at age 39, which is hard to believe, but then again seems right. This book is a force of a debut and while I did sometimes find myself confused, especially during the ending, I was engrossed with her language and her characters. You can feel that there is room for growth in The Bluest Eye, which says more about Morrison’s potential to be one of the greats than anything else. For many authors, this would be their top, this would be the best they could do. I look forward to reading more Toni Morrison, and I am so glad I finally got started reading her at all.

Don’t forget to listen the The Stacks with Renée Hicks discussing The Bluest Eye

  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; Reprint edition (May 8, 2007)
  • 4/5 stars
  • Buy on The Bluest Eye Amazon

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page. We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of this show. If you prefer to do a one time contribution go to paypal.me/thestackspod.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs. We receive a small commission when products are purchased through links on this website. Shopping through these links helps support the show, but does not effect my opinions on books and products. For more information click here.

 

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare

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696DE5D5-9E54-4A03-BA88-36EE192E3792The next play up in the #ShakeTheStacks challenge is a relatively well known play The Taming of  the Shrew. While most people might not even know they known The Taming of the Shrew, you might be familiar with the plot as it is been adapted into famous movies and musicals (Kiss Me Kate, Ten Things I Hate About You, and Deliver Us From Eva are all adaptations of this play). There is also a famous version of the play with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (Taming of the Shrew film)

If you’re not familiar with the adaptations or the play itself, the general premise is that a father won’t allow his younger, prettier, more sought after daughter Bianca to get married until her older sister, Katherine (Kate) is married off first. However, Kate is a strong willed woman who intimidates mostly everyone. I won’t give away much more. The play is presented as a comedy and has a lot of mistaken identity and subplots that Shakespeare plays are known for, but its actually pretty dark.

I was in a production of this play in 2007, and I liked it fine when I was in it. I feel similarly about the play over a decade later. The show is fine, its not particularly funny, more silly, but there are some great verbal sparring scenes between the clowns in the show. In this rereading of The Taming of the Shrew I found there to be a nuanced conversation about what it means to be a wife and a bystander in the face of domestic abuse.

Many people have said this play is sexist. Even the title implies that Kate is a wild woman (shrew) who needs to be tamed. Sure, that is sexist. I found in reading the play, Kate was not the villain, her suitor Petruchio was. He manipulates Kate into submission. He is both physically and emotionally abusive, using starvation, exhaustion and embarrassment to control her.

I would love to see a production of this play that doesn’t settle into the comedy and absurdity of the play, but really presents a man who uses torture techniques to control his wife. And more than that, the people around him allow it to happen, from his servants to his new father-in-law. We  all watch as a man destroys the spirit and will of his wife, for no other reason than his own ego and own control. That is the play that Shakespeare wrote, or at least how I read it.

If you’ve not read this play, it is just fine. There are some great scenes and speeches and then there is a lot of fluff. The Taming of the Shrew isn’t all together anything special, but it is searching around a much bigger question of women and control, something I know Shakespeare deals with in his future plays. Plays I’m ver excited to get to as I continue to #ShakeTheStacks. Next Up, Titus Andronicus, I hope you’ll be reading along with me.

  • Paperback: 113 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin Classics; Reissue edition (December 1, 2000)
  • 3/5 stars
  • Buy The Taming of the Shrew on Amazon

To contribute to The Stacks, join The Stacks Pack, and get exclusive perks, check out our Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/thestacks). We are beyond grateful for anything you’re able to give to support the production of The Stacks.

The Stacks participates in affiliate programs in which we receive a small commission when products are purchased through some links on this website. This does not effect my opinions on books and products. For more information click here.