![]() It has no eyes, but still, it looks at me. I crouch down and stroke its shoulder, or what I think is its shoulder. When the narrator confronts her former self, it is a soft, helpless ghoul: “It is just a body with nothing it needs: no stomach or bones or mouth. In “Eight Bites,” a woman’s basement is haunted by her old body after she undergoes gastric bypass surgery. Machado’s use of horror amplifies the bizarre pains, joys, and restrictions women face. The woman, dismayed by this invasion, asks him to let her have this one thing, this one secret. ![]() Machado’s rendition follows this green-ribboned woman’s relationship with her husband, whose curious fingers constantly mess with the ribbon-trying to slip under it or untie it. The first story, “The Husband Stitch,” was inspired by Alvin Schwartz’s children’s horror story “The Green Ribbon,” in which a woman relies on a green choker to keep her head attached to the rest of her body. This collection of stories utilizes elements of gothic, speculative, and horror fiction to examine life in a female body and its relationship to sex, food, disease, and the supernatural.įollowing horror tradition, objects carry great significance here. ![]() Her Body and Other Parties (Graywolf 241 pages) by Carmen Maria Machado, which was recently shortlisted for the National Book Award, lives up to the critical acclaim it has accrued. ![]()
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