i really meant to start off my blog about reading with something classic and great like anna karenina, something that would make me look serious and pensive...you know, to set the tone for the blog and what not. something i even happened to be reading at the time thanks to the recommendation of my bestest pal. unfortunately i'm still not finished anna, so figured i'd start out with some other material, tone of the blog be damned. i hardly ever read just one book at a time, particularly when we're talking about the long tomes of tolstoy. it's nothing personal, i just that if i find something i really want to read, i can never seem to wait...
anyways, so while taking a break from anna, which by the way is thoroughly enjoyable...i'm so glad to be giving leo another chance after reading war and peace as a teenager...i've actually read several books. i've just moved to a new city, so am getting a lot more quality (read: enforced) reading time. seeing as the local bookstore, in this case chapters, is something i always locate within a few days of moving to make me feel at home, i found myself looking around for something new to read as per. the cover for charlotte roche's 'wetlands' jumped out at me. it's bright pink with half an avacado on the front. i know what they say about not judging a book by its cover, but bollox to that. in my mind there are so many books out there and i need something to judge them on. the inside cover claimed that the book was changing the conversation about female identity and sexuality around the world. intriguing. it also mentioned that it was explicit and fantastically sexual. sold.
i finished the book that day...it was bizarre and outspoken, not to mention exceptionally explicit. actually i don't think explicit quite covers it. the narrator, helen, is an 18 year old girl in germany struggling to identify herself as a sexual and mature woman while also desperately wanting to throw up two fingers to the established rules and regulations of society like any good teenager. i have never read a book that so graphically describes bodies and what people do with their bodies in the privacy of their bedrooms and bathrooms. sometimes the intimacy of it was frankly uncomfortable. and i get the feeling that helen knows that and takes a great deal of pleasure in it.
we meet helen as she is entering the hospital to have surgery on an infected anal lesion. that pretty much sets the stage for the types of things we are about to learn about her. not only do we get an intimate look at her current injury, but also an insider view of her sexual preferences and daily hygiene habits. if helen's stories are to be believed she has an exceptionally healthy and liberal sexual appetite. she should be writing a sex column to help the more prudish members of society (read: pretty much anyone i've ever met!). however, the sex is not sexy, this is clearly not a mis-categorized piece of erotica, but it is exceptionally detailed and very matter-of-fact.
we also get an inside look at helen's hygiene routine from popping pimples and shaving to how she avoids a 'chocolate dip' when preparing for anal sex. helen's biggest form of rebellion seems to be in her fight against what she sees as the repressive nature of traditional hygiene. she fights girlish cleanliness at every chance she gets and takes a lot of joy in the thought of spreading bacteria...often by leaving bits of toilet paper covered in menstrual blood in random locations. i feel like helen has a point, maybe an extreme point, but a point nonetheless. especially as women, we are taught to be disgusted by our bodies and told that they need to be disinfected and perfumed on a daily basis to remain healthy and attractive. this is of course rubbish. too many people are afraid or turned-off by what our bodies naturally do.
despite all of her sexual bravado, helen is also quite obviously a lost little girl. her parents are divorced (she hopes to get them back together by meeting in her hospital room) and she describes a scenario where she comes home from school to find her mother and brother asleep on the floor with the gas on and the oven door open, something she isn't sure if she dreamed or really happened. she sees her mother as a tyrant of traditional femininity and has a difficult time relating to her father.
overall i found the book extremely interesting, though often shocking, not necessarily in its detail, but in how i related to these details. i don't know that the asserted aims on the jacket were achieved...that the conversation was changed about female identity and sexuality...but there was certainly an interesting discourse being introduced. i liked 'wetland' for its honesty and frankness and i felt more than a little commonality with the ideas of the mixed up, overtly sexual teenaged narrator.
