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This is not quite the book I was expecting based on reviews. And while perhaps I should harbor some resentment toward how hyperbolic said reviews tend to be, I can't with an entirely clean conscience because, well, didn't those reviews catch my eye? Don't I read many books based on someone's assertion that they're too disgusting to get through, thinking, "Well, we'll see about that"?
Nevertheless, I think that discussing this book in terms of how gory and disgusting it is not only is a bit hyperbolic but distracts from the really interesting parts: How Maeve conceives of herself and her place (or lack thereof) in society, and her engagement with misanthropic literature. Maeve Fly the book and Maeve Fly the character not only know what genre they are in, but they also explicitly engage in conversation with the classics of said genre. Specifically, Bataille's Story of the Eye, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, and Ellis's American Psycho provide both epigraphs and important touchstones for Maeve Fly. Understanding them is important for understanding Maeve on both a character and a book level.
Because Maeve is a character without a place, but one who is forced to try to make one for herself, anyway. (Does any one of us have the option of not finding a way to fit into society somehow?) She knows that she does not fit within society, that the rage (and let's say it, psychopathy) that she harbors inside herself positions her as an outsider, preventing her from ever truly connecting with most people because she can never reveal her true self. One of her tragedies is that she is all too aware of her predicament; her other is that despite her efforts to carve out a space within which she can function, the inevitabilities of death and change eventually deprive her of it.
She is a character in search of depravity and sensation as in Bataille, a character who loses herself to literature and thought but eventually simultaneously craves/reviles the embrace of society as in Dostoevsky, and a character who... Well, I'll let you decide for yourself how much she emulates Ellis.
See, why spend a bunch of time listing gory murders when we can talk about intertextuality instead? Isn't that more fun?
Nevertheless, I think that discussing this book in terms of how gory and disgusting it is not only is a bit hyperbolic but distracts from the really interesting parts: How Maeve conceives of herself and her place (or lack thereof) in society, and her engagement with misanthropic literature. Maeve Fly the book and Maeve Fly the character not only know what genre they are in, but they also explicitly engage in conversation with the classics of said genre. Specifically, Bataille's Story of the Eye, Dostoevsky's Notes from the Underground, and Ellis's American Psycho provide both epigraphs and important touchstones for Maeve Fly. Understanding them is important for understanding Maeve on both a character and a book level.
Because Maeve is a character without a place, but one who is forced to try to make one for herself, anyway. (Does any one of us have the option of not finding a way to fit into society somehow?) She knows that she does not fit within society, that the rage (and let's say it, psychopathy) that she harbors inside herself positions her as an outsider, preventing her from ever truly connecting with most people because she can never reveal her true self. One of her tragedies is that she is all too aware of her predicament; her other is that despite her efforts to carve out a space within which she can function, the inevitabilities of death and change eventually deprive her of it.
She is a character in search of depravity and sensation as in Bataille, a character who loses herself to literature and thought but eventually simultaneously craves/reviles the embrace of society as in Dostoevsky, and a character who... Well, I'll let you decide for yourself how much she emulates Ellis.
See, why spend a bunch of time listing gory murders