Synopsis:
A collection of poignant, perceptive essays that expertly blends the personal and political in an exploration of American culture through the lens of our obsession with dead women.
In her debut collection, Alice Bolin turns a critical eye to literature and pop culture, the way media consumption reflects American society, and her own place within it. From essays on Joan Didion and James Baldwin to Twin Peaks, Britney Spears, and Serial, Bolin illuminates our widespread obsession with women who are abused, killed, and disenfranchised, and whose bodies (dead and alive) are used as props to bolster a man’s story.
From chronicling life in Los Angeles to dissecting the “Dead Girl Show” to analyzing literary witches and werewolves, this collection challenges the narratives we create and tell ourselves, delving into the hazards of toxic masculinity and those of white womanhood. Beginning with the problem of dead women in fiction, it expands to the larger problems of living women—both the persistent injustices they suffer and the oppression that white women help perpetrate.
Sharp, incisive, and revelatory, Dead Girls is a much-needed dialogue on women’s role in the media and in our culture.
My Thoughts:
Although Dead Girls can be a bit meandering at times, it is a very solid bunch of essays. They each explore, to some degree or other, America’s obsession with the Dead Girl. Bolin discusses the prevalence of the trope in television and movies, in books, and even in real life. This is a cobbled together collection of personal essays. Because of this, she does stray far beyond her chosen topic from time to time. Often she’ll wind up talking about various aspects of the story of why/how/when she moved to LA. I could have done without about 90% of that. But still, she does typically find some tenuous connection to Dead Girls.
I didn’t love it, but I didn’t hate it. Total middle of the road, here. When she’s “on,” Bolin’s essays are really good, but she’s only on for about half of them in my opinion.
Rating:
Read it if you think you’ll dig it – you just might!
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession By Alice Bolin William Morrow Paperbacks ISBN: 006265716X Published: June 26, 2018 Paperback, E-book 288 Pages
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