Blurb; In the formally experimental tradition of Grief Is the Thing with Feathers and Ducks, Newburyport comes a dazzlingly original shot-in-the-arm of a novel that reveals one young woman’s every thought over the course of twenty-four hours.
little scratch tells the story of an unnamed woman living in a world of office politics, clock-watching and emoji-texting as she relays what it takes to get through mundanity in the wake of a recent sexual assault.
Formatted in continuously interweaving columns that chart the feedback loop of memory, the senses, and modern distractions with witty precision, our narrator becomes increasingly anxious as the day moves on; and increasingly intent on distracting herself. Must she really drink eight glasses of water a day to stay hydrated? Does the word “rape” apply to what happened to her? Why is the etiquette of the women’s bathroom so fraught? Does the colleague who keeps offering to make her tea know something? And why can’t she stop scratching?
Fiercely moving and slyly profound, little scratch is a fearless and defiantly playful look at how our minds function in– and survive–the darkest moments.
My Review; I’m not one to downgrade or give a book a bad rep that’s not me. I just want my say on this one. I got this from the library and saw it was a short read (201 pages) and the format was an easy read, very similar to poet format so I thought I’d give it a go. It was a very quick read for me. But for many readers this writing format would be hard to follow or drive them insane.
From the beginning I just couldn’t figure out the main character at all. She wasn’t what I would consider ‘normal’. Different. She was very repetitive in his routine and words throughout this story and had a problem with scratching herself raw. Now I don’t think I fully understood this book so I apologise if that’s the case. But trigger warning the book does contain rape. So maybe that is why she is the way she is. A very different read for me strange.
But remember everyone’s reading tastes are different I might hate a book and you love it and vice versa. This is not a bad review just wasn’t for me. I can see its been nominated for awards and maybe other readers can relate to this story that spans out over the woman day. Whereas I couldn’t relate.
Between The Pages Book Club 