Playing With POV

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A Lesson in POV With 

Nightbitch

 by Rachel Yoder

Audible Performance: 

Excellent!  Cassandra Campbell does a masterful job of portraying the emotion the rage, and the whimsey of Yoder’s work.  I was not taken out of the story at all by her performance.  Even in some of the wildest, weirdest parts of the story Campbell plays it with the seriousness the scene calls for.  

Spoiler Free Review: 

For me this book is “Catcher in the Rye” meets a modern Shirley Jackson. The trailer for the movie adaptation of this novel was a siren’s song for me and some of my friends.  The line “Can’t anyone in this damn house clean their own ass” struck a particular cord with me, as everyone in my house seems to be having trouble finding their perspective bathrooms here lately.  But the title!  The moment I saw the title I knew I was going to see this movie or read the book, whichever came first. Audible came first.   A few weeks later I was engrossed in this horror story, this feminist essay, this documentary of a mother falling into such familiar madness before our eyes.  For a more detail spill please check out my blog: 

What I liked 

 I delighted in the weirdness of this hard feminist horror novel essay.  It was very cathartic to watch this woman go through what I have also experienced as a Stay-At-Home Mom in these modern times.  I found “the mother” in the story to be very relatable.  Her thoughts are very much my thoughts. I have felt her rage, worries, and woes about not being able to quit this new job I’ve started were I make literally no pay and never have a day off, about not  working a real job while my friends all seem to advance in their careers including my single working Mom friend with two kids!  How Does she do it? 

  Nightbitch  was loosing her shit just being an introverted mother with no friends she could talk to, while her husband spent the week away from home.  I know I’m not alone in feeling this way, but feeling this way is so terribly lonely.  

    Nightbitch’s dissolving mental stability does not excuse her from taking care of the child - from making sure  he is fed, bathed, and entertained at all hours of the day and night! 

Her husband is not present.  Even when he’s there he’s not present.  She still has to cater to her husband and son’s physical needs and desires.  Neither notice her needs - not until she completely breaks and fully morphs into a wild beast.  Even then she doesn’t  actually leave the kid unsupervised. 

I enjoy how it’s never really clear weather or not she, or anyone else, is literally turning into a dog.  In her mind sure she’s a full blown she-beast, but in the book she only appears to change once.  Every time after that it’s questionable what other people might be seeing.  

Note: She doesn’t start her metamorphosis until after she names herself Nightbitch before the story begins. She also turns into the very dog she hated growing up, her Grandmother’s husky with the human voice and the cold dead blue eyes.  

What I loved:

I loved how the whole story is told through the POV of the Wanda White.   During the novel, Nightbitch is trying to find answers as to why she may be turning into a dog.  She discovers a book,  A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography by Wanda White.    Nightbitch  sends e-mails to Wanda which are never reciprocated.  She researches about her.  But the university where she worked no longer exists.  Nightbitch wonders if Wanda is even still alive, after all she’s likely in her eighties.  But there is a moment where Nightbitch sees this woman watching her, observing her, in the dog park.  Nightbitch runs after the woman but she gets away.   The narration starts, getting closer and closer to Nightbitch after that. And as the story progresses, the language of the novel begins to sound similar to the field journal Nightbitch has been reading.

This makes us the audience, to Wanda White’s  documentary about Nightbitch.  We are always watching and judging her but never able to help.   We coldly observe as she spins in the wind - just  as society observes STAHMs but never seem to want to help us. Dealing with the needs and cries of a young kid with no village or support system is very common in these modern times.  Families have grown far apart.  Daycare is extremely expensive.  Kids only see grandparents on holidays.   It really is a sink or swim situation for most of us.  

   Does Nightbitch sink into madness without anyone noticing?  Or did she swim?  Are any of us swimming?  Was the play at the end a sign of her successfully getting back to work?  Is she now fore filled working on her art and helping her new friend.  Is incorporating her child into her work healthy?

The novel closes on her son, standing on stage unharmed, but completely covered in blood and holding a dead rabbit - a gift from his mother.  

To me this shows that as he was there for every inch of her descent into madness that he is stained by it, over and over.  He is the casualty of her being left to figure it out on her own.  He is alive and unharmed, but he has stains on him now that he will no doubt hold on to and pass on to his future wife, and child. And whose fault is that!?  

 

I hated:

The husband was insufferable, to me, even when he was being nice to Nightbitch.  He never once noticed that she was in crisis or needed help.  She had a whole breakdown and he just thought she was sexier for it. 

 

I also felt like this could have been a much shorter story.  Some drastic editing could have turned this into a novella as strong as a shot of whiskey.  

The conclusion with the husband was thought provoking.  All the had to do was ask for more help is probably the best solution you can come up with for a majority of women.  It still bugs me how the husband still has no clue, and is actually benefiting from his wife becoming Nightbitch.  Does he even go to a show?

The surreal ending, is right up my alley though I know it probably throws a lot of people.  I loved that weirdness of it.  Since it’s horror there is no relief expected for the MC since no one learned a lesson.    

For me, I can’t relate to Nightbitch’s mother not wanting anything to do with the grandson.  My motherwould crawl into my skin and help me raise my kid if I’d only just do it the way she wants me to.  I relate to the movie Hereditary in that way.  But everyone has a different experience.  

What was yours?

Does your mother stay out of raising your kids, or is she willing to take over if you’d just let her?

What breed of dog would you turn into?

Is your husband helpful or hardly there?  Leave a comment below!

In conclusion

This book is mommy level intrusive thoughts made manifest.  It’s why we need a village, and how it feels to not have one.  Its how it feels to love someone that you’d kill for them, you’d kill anything for them, you’d kill yourself for them except that they need you.  But no one needs that cat, not really.  

Recommended for: 

- Young men and women considering parenthood.  

- Stay-at-home-Moms and Stay at home Dads who feel alone in the storm.  

- Dog Moms and Dog Dads who hate cats.

Wives who work all week and wonder what their stay-at-home-dad husbands are going through. 

Would Not Recommend for:

Kids

Young men and women considering parenthood.

Husbands  who work all week and have little empathy for their spouses.  

Cat Mommies who dislike dogs.

If you like this book you might also enjoy:

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

       Please consider ordering these  through my Amazon Associates links! I really helps me out!

    

If you enjoyed this review please subscribe to leave a comment here, or leave a comment on X - @PB&JellyPhish and Or my Facebook at P.B.Yeary

   

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The Color Purple by Alice Walker

Synopsis:   A love triangle between a bisexual diva, a straight share cropper and his lesbian wife set in a black community in 1920s Georgia.   

 

Don’t be afraid to read this book!  This story is actually wonderful!

  

       The Color Purple was written in 1982 by activist and Spelman College Alumni, Alice Walker.  The novel has won a Pulitzer Prize and has two movie adaptations, which pale in comparison to the source material.  

 I was afraid to read the book for decades.  I was afraid to expose myself to more trauma against black bodies.  I was afraid it would be yet another book that makes me love the characters only to kill in the worst ways.  I was sure the whole story was just full of white villainy, brutal murders, and graphic rape.

But after a while it became unfair to continue putting “The Color Purple” on the back burner. If I can survive Toni Morison (twice) and go through the apocalypse with Octavia E. Butler (six times) then maybe I should just give Alice Walker a chance.   

Of course, I’ve seen the first movie, with Whoopie Goldberg (whom I adore, and whom was perfectly cast as Ceilie in the OG film)  and the legendary Oprah Winfrey (whom I suspect got her name and. her start acting in this film).  However, I could tell from the editing that they were leaving a lot of material form the book out.

So finally, I read it.  And I was pleasantly surprised.  This novel was  like sitting down with a good friend after a long trip and catching up.     Yes, there were parts that were depressing, devastating, and gross.  These things were not written with the same gravity and heaviness as other novels with similar themes.  The delivery was more conversational as  Ceilie relays the horrors she experienced growing up poor, black, and “ugly” in rural Georgia with the same matter of fact manner black women are known for -  just stating what happened without really waiting for sympathy or handholding.   Despite the darkness – this story has a few things I never expected - tender homosexual lovers, real humor, and  most surprising of all A HAPPY ENDING!

Seriously!  Go Check it out if you haven’t already, or listen to it, as did, on Audible, if you’re too busy to turn pages (as I am).

SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS*****SPOILERS**

What I Hated

The Beginning

    The Color Purple is set in 1920s Georgia, over fifty years after the Civil War.  The story starts with all the dark themes that made me scared to read this book.  Celie is the oldest daughter of a mean and abusive man who beats and raped her mother into having more children than he could afford.  When the mother died, Celie became his new entertainment.  This disgusting blight of a man gets her pregnant twice, thus ruining her chances at getting an education.  She is however able to read and write.  So it’s through her journals and letters that we discover her voice – as timid and shy as it is, but full of intelligence, curiosity, and passion.    Her rapist father gives away both of Ceilie’s children while she’s still breastfeeding.  And then, he gives Ceilie away to a man named Albert. 

     Albert/Mister marries Celie to replace his late wife.  Albert needs a new mother/whipping girl to take care of his many terrible children because Albert thinks being a man excuses him from all such responsibility.  He wasn’t in love with his wife, and he isn’t in love with Ceilie.  He’s just doing what you’re supposed to do.    

    Celie is thrusts from a father who hates and her and calls her ugly, to a husband that is not better.   She has no long for men, has even less love for the their need to rub up against her with their swollen members whenever they feel like it.  Men might as well be like frogs down there as far as she is concerned.  However, there is a bright side.  Living with Albert gives Celie her only chance to meet a woman that's she's long been infatuated with - Albert's distant flame, and the only woman he’s ever loved,  Shug.

Now to say I hate this beginning of this book is not a critique on the writing or the art of this novel.  Alice Walker paints this an intelligent  setting and she does it so well that I knew we were in Georgia without looking it up.  The personalities are as rich as Dutch chocolate, and the characters are timeless.  I've seen elements of these personalities in folks I've met, known, loved, and hated my entire life.  

     I completely related with Celie’s personality. The way she loves to read, the reasons she has to write, the way she talks to her sister.  Her actions, her reactions, her descriptions of people and places, her ideas about God,  were all … me.  I've read about people feeling characters in books were their friends.  But this was the first time I've really experienced a character I could hang out with, take a walk with, even pick up a phone and call and ask how she’s been.  Celie is my friend within the first chapter.  With every turn of the page I love her more.  I became so invested in her happiness that it scared me, because she was a black woman in the South already living a horrible life in just ACT I!

What I Liked

The Middle of this Book

    Predictably, once Celie out of the house her the Father turned his evil eye onto her little sister Nettie.  Fortunately, Nettie had some place to run.  Ceilie was able to take her in but not for long.   Due to Celie's protection Nettie was able to get an education and some since of self-worth.  She uses that to shield her sister from Albert until Albert has an enough and kicks Nettie out.

At the time this feels like more horror on horror.  But due to some wonderful twist of literary fate Nettie gets herself adopted by the same family that has adopted her niece and nephew.  WHAT ARE THE ODDS!?  I don't care! 

    Also, somewhere at this point Shug arrives.  Sick and mean and beautiful.  Celie is in love and Albert finally eases up on his wife because the woman he really wants is back in his life.  

Writer Alice Walker

    This is the first of the unexpected turns that made my eyebrows rise.  Are they both in love with the same woman?  Yes.  Is this an LGBTQ story?  No way, not for the times?  Right?  Not written by a
famous black author.  But the drama of their growing affection for each other... namely the scene when Old Mister comes for a visit and both Albert and Celie defend Shug in their own ways.  This was delightful.   But I still,  I was scared.  Celie was taking a turn I hadn't anticipated, even after watching the movies.  And while it only made the love the character even more, I also made me more afraid.  What is going to happen when Albert finds out this is real competition for Shug's heart is Celie?  What did they do to homosexuals in this time period?  

This tension helped distract me from the horror of Sophia's situation.  But about that I wanted to say. I loved the African American dominate story.  

    I anticipated Caucasian villainy but not like this.  For the black characters of this book, the danger of white people is as old as knowing fire will burn you.  It's not a surprise to anyone that when a white man disrespected Sophia she got mad and disrespected him back.  They not surprised to hear that the white people over reacted to self-defense and demand for respect from a black woman.  They are not at all surprise that this results in Sophia going to jail.   To them it’s as shocking as someone saying they were bite by an unfamiliar dog.  But the real magic is when Albert, Ceilie, Shuge, Harpo, and __ come together in  a real Mission Impossible of the 1920s black south operation to get Sophia out of jail.  

     Despite how dysfunctional this family is, they never once considered abandoning her to her fate.  They all pulled together help get her out of jail.  They took care of her children while she was away.  And they accepted her back into their fold when she returned.  It all felt real, honest and true.  And reading it didn't feel like going through someone's dirty laundry or peeking into a window.  If felt like setting down in a Sista-girl's salon and hearing Celie tell me herself what was going on.    

   What I loved

The Use of Voice

     The Color Purple is a beautiful text for studying the art of writing in voice.   Walker, who also narrates the Audiobook on Audible, is able to demonstrate so much of her character’s ages, intelligence, even their level of literacy by use of writing with voice.  

 The book is written as Celie’s diary entries.  So, the most chapters are written in Celie’s careful, frightened speech – writing freely because she knows not many people in her world can read, but still fearful because she’s always afraid.  Her words are slow, plodding and simple because she didn’t finish school. 

Celie’s voice changes, becomes braver, bolder and warmer as Shug helps Celie to understand herself and to learn about her body. As Celie begins to finally experience kindness, arousal and yes even love, her voice changes to reflect it.  

And Finally, when Celie discovers that Nettie has been writing to her all these years, and Albert has kept the letters from her.  Her voice becomes sharper, the swears more. She makes more definite choices with less second guessing.  The others see Celie as weak, quiet nothing.  But we know she has changed. That is why everyone but us is so surprised when Shug takes Celie with her when she leaves.  

  Chapters seen through the point of view of other characters further flex Walker’s skill in vice.   Nettie's voice, in her letters to Celie, demonstrate more confidence with the pen, a better worldiness with the vocabulary, and her self-esteem. 

Likewise, Sophia’s voice is harsher. Blunter. Almost masculine before she is sent away.  She is a little softer when she comes back, but there is still a solidness to her character.  You can feel that she can’t be pushed around, even now.  And you know the old Sophia is just under the bruises waiting to resurface once she’s healed.  

Also What What I loved.

The Ending Light Spoil-ish

    I was not expecting a happy ending!

None of my previous experiences with books of this genre had prepared me to be delighted with the ending of this one!

I was not prepared for the three-way romance between Shug Avery, Mista and Celie.  I was not expecting the love of one woman to create a family between three people who otherwise hated each other, nor for Celie be able to assume a more masculine role at the end of the book with no pushback from the rest of her community.

  I was not anticipating that the forced separation of two sisters would lead me to cry actual tears of happiness when they were reunited, even though I'd seen the movie!   I was not expecting Celie and Mista to become friends?!  Like what?  Or for the incest to be corrected and result in Celie and Nettie coming into a windfall that they never could have imagined.  

    I will not spoil this part of the book because it was not in the first movie and I haven't seen the second.  But the end of the book pays off all the horrors of Act I.  And for these sorts of black narrative novels that is rare.  

In Conclusion! 

     I did not expect to find a friend in this African American Queer Pride story written in the eighties and set in the 20s.  But I’m so happy for Ceilie at the end.  The story does not justify, nor glorify the shame she experiences in the first ACT but it does at least come full circle and leave her stronger, bolder, and brighter and better – surrounded by love and a odd, dysfunctional but working family.  And I fucking loved it!    

  Fantastic.  

I recommend this book to anyone and everyone teens and up – especially nerdy black girls going through a tough time.  10 out of 10.  

SALUTATIONS! 

       If you enjoy my reviews, please like and share them with friends and other readers!  Comment and subscribe.   I have other reviews on this blog as well.  My Jelly-Phish Book Club is mostly classics that I’ve read over the years.  Flip over to JellyPhish Tales to see my breakdown of picture books for younger readers.  And the JellyPhish Cove is a collection of dark speculative short stories that I’ve crafted myself over years!  

         

    Download the Color Purple on Audible to hear the novel read by the incredible Alice Walker herself!  Please, if you perfer to purchase to novel yourself please use my amazon link! Thank you to Amazon for sponsoring this blog.

                            Until next time I hope to see you on the Next Page!