Sex and Lies, Leïla Slimani
This slim volume by Slimani, which I read recently, could serve as a counter narrative, or even an updated one, to Mernissi’s. And indeed, Slimani does make it a point to reference Mernissi throughout her work, which is a collection of interviews she carried out with Moroccan women across the spectrums of age, location, and profession to discover their views on sex, and how sex interacts with their daily lives. I especially enjoyed reading the opinions of the sexually adventurous women and the lesbians, as there is so much to learn from their perspectives. Morocco, as many of the Muslim nations, can be a hard place for women who are not interested in a traditional life (i.e., marriage and children) to survive and thrive, and that is exactly what these interviews are testimony to. Anyone who wants to live outside the predetermined social order smacks right into it, making a different life altogether impossible. Slimani notes that this is because “the tension between the desire for modernity and the attachment – whether genuine or superficial – to traditional values is wearing down Moroccan society”. In other words, the younger generations who are ready to let go of the older traditions related to sexual promiscuity are simply not allowed to, because the government has put laws in place which make it difficult, or impossible, to live any other way. And this book serves as testament to how these laws are particularly damaging for women, because in addition to their own frustration, the weight of men’s frustration comes down on them as well, often in the form of physical violence. This book is only 5 years old and has hopefully made, and will continue to make, room for more conversations about sex to take place.
Vicious, V.E. Schwab
I first heard of V.E. Schwab from reading The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue (if you haven’t read it yet I 100% recommend it) and when I saw Vicious in an airport bookstore in Indonesia, immediately picked it up. It was Schwab’s first try at adult fiction, and it was an excellent start in my opinion. In her writing Schwab seems to have a tendency toward science fiction—science fiction “light” I would say, but is not fully committed to the genre, which I actually prefer. Her plots have touches of the fantastical, as readers of the The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue well know, and Vicious is no exception… Victor and Eli are university friends researching the same area of interest: ExtraOrdinaries, or people who have survived near death experiences and not only lived to tell the tale, but also picked up extra “skills” along the way. After Victor and Eli discover the secret to becoming an ExtraOrdinary, they decide to try their hand at twisting fate, and the devastating consequences of their subsequent experiments will force their paths apart forever.