The Water Cure
Sophie Mackintosh
Doubleday
2018
Ms. Hen had read about this novel a while ago, so she put it
on her library list and requested it, and it took months to be delivered to her
branch. She knew that it was dystopian women’s fiction, and that genre is hot
right now. She imagined if there was a long wait for the book it should be
good, but that is not always true. Some people read novels just because the
subject is stylish. That is not true for this novel. Ms. Hen became enthralled.
THE WATER CURE is a novel about three sisters, Grace, Lia
and Sky, who live on a remote island or peninsula with their father and mother.
The parents want to keep their daughters away from society and men, because
they say men are poisonous and bad for women. The novel starts off with the
father, King, disappearing on one of his trips to the mainland to get supplies.
Mother tries to console the girls, but they are depressed that their father is
dead.
One day some men appear in their area. The young women have never seen men
besides their father, and they notice how different they are. They smell
strange and are more vocal. Mother does not want them to be near the men or for
the men to touch them, but of course she can't stop what comes naturally between men and women. Dark things happen to the
family. Grace was pregnant and loses the baby. Mother disappears. The girls
have to fend for themselves against the men. They have never learned how to
take care of themselves.
This novel reminded Ms. Hen of THE TEMPEST and LORD OF
THE FLIES because it’s about a society with no rules and everyone runs amok.
It’s obviously also reminiscent of THE HANDMAID’S TALE, since it is feminist
dystopian fiction. It takes place in a time in the future that is not known.
Not much technology exists, but we know it’s the future because of the way the
parents explain how society crumbled because of men.
Ms. Hen noticed that the tone of this novel is quiet. Not a lot of noise happens in these pages. She could hear the sounds of the
water, and of whispering, but the book never turns up the volume.
The last novel Ms. Hen read, BLUE ANGEL, was loud and at times it screamed at her. Every novel has a different tone, and the author directs the
sound like a conductor does a symphony.
There are not many chickens in this novel, because they are
in a remote area and do not have animals anymore or that much fresh meat to
eat, but there is one significant mention of a chicken, “When I put the blade
to his neck and press, aiming for just under the ear, dragging down under the
jaw, I might have thought about your lifting the chickens by their feet and
swiping the knife across their throats.” She is thinking of King and when they
had chickens and what he did to them.
Ms. Hen read this novel quickly, and after she finished, she
had a book hangover, and had to stop reading for a day. That doesn’t happen
often, but she likes it when it does, because she gets so involved in a world,
that she doesn’t want to let go and go into another one. Ms. Hen approves of
this novel and thinks you will too J
No comments:
Post a Comment