Her Body and Other Parties: Stories
United States

Her Body and Other Parties: Stories

by Carmen Maria Machado

Identity & Belonging Literary Fiction 2017

Summary

In this electric and provocative debut, Carmen Maria Machado bends genre to shape startling narratives that map the realities of women's lives and the violence visited upon their bodies. A wife refuses her husband's entreaties to remove the green ribbon from around her neck. A woman recounts her sexual encounters as a plague slowly consumes humanity. A salesclerk in a mall makes a horrifying discovery within the seams of the store's prom dresses. One woman's surgery-induced weight loss results in an unwanted houseguest. And in the bravura novella 'Especially Heinous,' Machado reimagines every episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a show naively assumeded had shown it all, generating a phantasmagoric police procedural full of doppelgangers, ghosts, and girls with bells for eyes.

Reviews

Login to leave a review.

No reviews yet. Be the first!

You might also like

The Taste of Sugar
The Taste of Sugar
Marisel Vera
There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven
There Is a Rio Grande in Heaven
Ruben Reyes Jr.
Dominicana
Dominicana
Angie Cruz
Neruda on the Park
Neruda on the Park
Cleyvis Natera
Country
United States
North America
About the author
Carmen Maria Machado
Carmen Maria Machado

Carmen Maria Machado is an American writer known for her inventive, genre-defying fiction that blends horror, fantasy, fairy tales, and literary experimentation. Her work explores gender, sexuality, identity, relationships, and the darker dimensions of human experience, often challenging traditional narrative conventions. Her debut short-story collection, Her Body and Other Parties (2017), was a finalist for the National Book Award and won the Shirley Jackson Award. Her memoir, In the Dream House (2019), received widespread acclaim for its experimental approach to documenting an abusive same-sex relationship. Machado is celebrated for her bold storytelling, imaginative prose, and exploration of the intersections between the personal and the uncanny.

View author page
Details
Published
2017
Author
Carmen Maria Machado