In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming.
And it’s that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope―the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman―through which Machado holds the events up to the light and examines them from different angles. She looks back at her religious adolescence, unpacks the stereotype of lesbian relationships as safe and utopian, and widens the view with essayistic explorations of the history and reality of abuse in queer relationships.
Machado’s dire narrative is leavened with her characteristic wit, playfulness, and openness to inquiry. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek, and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction. The result is a wrenching, riveting book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.
##這本書讀來很痛。它是作者對曾經的一段激情但又充斥暴力與痛苦的同性親密關係的迴溯。它是非虛構的,是碎片式的,是一個人從外到內被摧毀後自我重建的一種嘗試。它也隻能是非虛構的,因為那種經驗太過深刻以至於無法轉化,太過切近以至於無法抽離。它也隻能是碎片式的,因為那些對自我的厭棄、懷疑和否定,那些在伴侶熟睡的臉龐上望見的無盡黑暗與深淵,那些在本該是安全舒適的私密空間中噴湧的殘酷與暴烈,在漫長的歲月裏,像細小的塵埃,如影隨形。這本書讀來也很有力量。作者找到瞭描述痛苦的正確語言,進而創造瞭安放痛苦的恰當居所。於是過往的痛苦在此處,可以觀看但不用於獵奇的展示,可以迴味但不陷於無休止的自憐自艾。它構成瞭作者個體生命必不可少的組成部分,也構成性少數群體被噤聲的曆史上一句響亮的呐喊。
評分##碎片化的迴憶錄,非常規但是並不難follow 也挺容易理解的,喜歡書中的很多reference
評分##Fine
評分##這本書讀來很痛。它是作者對曾經的一段激情但又充斥暴力與痛苦的同性親密關係的迴溯。它是非虛構的,是碎片式的,是一個人從外到內被摧毀後自我重建的一種嘗試。它也隻能是非虛構的,因為那種經驗太過深刻以至於無法轉化,太過切近以至於無法抽離。它也隻能是碎片式的,因為那些對自我的厭棄、懷疑和否定,那些在伴侶熟睡的臉龐上望見的無盡黑暗與深淵,那些在本該是安全舒適的私密空間中噴湧的殘酷與暴烈,在漫長的歲月裏,像細小的塵埃,如影隨形。這本書讀來也很有力量。作者找到瞭描述痛苦的正確語言,進而創造瞭安放痛苦的恰當居所。於是過往的痛苦在此處,可以觀看但不用於獵奇的展示,可以迴味但不陷於無休止的自憐自艾。它構成瞭作者個體生命必不可少的組成部分,也構成性少數群體被噤聲的曆史上一句響亮的呐喊。
評分##Fine
評分我們queers也是人,當然也會PUA和傢庭暴力。夾敘夾議,語言優美而脆弱,但還是感覺敘事得星星點點、鋪墊不太夠,令人有些感同身受,但又有些支離破碎、進展有些突然(可能也是篇幅小的緣故)。可能是迴憶錄的原因,女主的視角非常限定,所以顯得女朋友就像一個沒有心的神經病和怪物。我寫文章時也常常這樣,豐沛地錶達自己的視角和情感,以及對周圍人言行的無措和不解,對身邊的信息感到很passive、overwhelmed。我最近漸漸覺得這其實是作者本身不大能觀察和分析預測和總結周圍人行為語言和性格的緣故,換句話說就是有點self-focused、情商比較一般。我也想提高一下。
評分##Inventive structure of an abusive relationship told in many genres and devices (road trip, Chekhov's gun, queer villain)--had very low expectations of the 'gimmick' but turns out to be brilliant and fluid. An antidote to silence of queer abuse (is it homophobia if the abuser gets away with abusing the voiceless), entering the canon of folklore
評分##作者說她在灣區的dating不成功因為“Bay Area lesbians are pretty testy about the whole bisexuality thing”. ( ̄▽ ̄)”我隻覺得灣區人好敏銳!!附注裏麵說到女權主義理論一直不願正視les伴侶中存在的暴力和虐待,越是要麼對虐待現象視而不見,要麼試圖把虐待者從”真女人“群體中劃分齣去,說這些人之所以虐待伴侶是因為她們的內心被男性氣質汙染瞭。作者呼籲不要把les關係宣傳成烏托邦,les也是人,也有人的陰暗麵和劣根性,正視les中的傢暴現象,承認受害者遭受的創傷和虐待是真實的,法律對傢暴受害者的保護纔會惠及les群體。
評分##3.5/5. All in all a book that deserves to be written and read. The experimental lenses are not entirely "exercises in style" for their own sake, although I found the heavy folk literature footnotes uncalled for. "I broke the stories down," Machado writes, "because I was breaking down and didn’t know what else to do." That I can understand.
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