In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado

In the Dream House

By Carmen Maria Machado

  • Release Date: 2019-11-05
  • Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 342 Ratings

Description

A revolutionary memoir about domestic abuse by the award-winning author of Her Body and Other Parties

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.

Reviews

  • Thank you.

    5
    By erin m cross
    I needed this.
  • Incredible

    5
    By dtarpss
    How can you sum up Carmen’s work? You can’t. But I was deeply moved by her story, outlined by prose that changes and shifts in the most brilliant of ways. A combination of detailed, heart-wrenching domestic abuse, a literary review of queer theory on the topic and an exercise in dynamic writing. My heart is with you, Carmen. What a beautiful piece of work this is.
  • Important and beautiful.

    5
    By margauxwill
    I read the sample on iBooks and then purchased a print copy. Finished it in a day. Incredible.
  • Incredible

    5
    By taramann
    Beautiful.