Fionnáin reviewed Seed by Joanna Walsh
Dissonant chords
2 stars
Seed is described on its cover as a "polyphonic novel". It is told with two voices that jar with one another, a story of a protagonist that is becoming an adult. Her experiences as a woman are often stomach-churning, and there is a constant tension of threat that hangs over the words in this book, such as in an early passage describing the flowing yellow plant: "rape is an unnatural thing". That tension is effective in creating fear of violence constantly to the reader.
Unfortunately, the method of writing becomes too disconnected as the book continues. The voices tell too much and show too little, and the rhythm is slowed by the story. A story of sexual oppression of women is not really analogy here, just reality with a small bit of narrative tacked on, and that narrative gets repetitive and uninteresting quickly. The grittiness of threat of violence doesn't …
Seed is described on its cover as a "polyphonic novel". It is told with two voices that jar with one another, a story of a protagonist that is becoming an adult. Her experiences as a woman are often stomach-churning, and there is a constant tension of threat that hangs over the words in this book, such as in an early passage describing the flowing yellow plant: "rape is an unnatural thing". That tension is effective in creating fear of violence constantly to the reader.
Unfortunately, the method of writing becomes too disconnected as the book continues. The voices tell too much and show too little, and the rhythm is slowed by the story. A story of sexual oppression of women is not really analogy here, just reality with a small bit of narrative tacked on, and that narrative gets repetitive and uninteresting quickly. The grittiness of threat of violence doesn't really need the imagination of a novel when told this way.