Wow. Reading this book is literary equivalent of being being smacked in the face with a frying pan. It is painful. It will make you stop in your tracks. But, unlike a frying pan in the face, it is oh so necessary.
Usually I gobble up a book in a few days but with this one I would read one chapter and then set it aside, sometimes for weeks, because I had to be in right frame of mind to face its burning intensity. It’s so powerful and so angry. I’m not sure what the ending means – most of the women distracted by cheap trinkets while Verla exits the bus into a harsh environment, knowing she will probably die- but it’s not really about what happens to the women. It’s about the myriad ways in which women are judged and hated, not just by men but also by one another. And it’s horrifying to have misogyny laid bare before us in all its glory and to recognise ourselves and our society in it. It is, to say the least, an uncomfortable read. But a profound and unforgettable one.
