A previous colleague of mine, whose taste in literature and fashion is impeccable, recommended this book to me. I had reach Carmen Maria Machado’s debut collection of short stories, Her Body and Other Parties, and enjoyed them. Though, not enough to dash to the bookstore for this most recent release. But then the fashionable and well-read ex-colleague either dm’d me directly or posted something on their Instagram stories that convinced me it was in my best interest to read In the Dream House. I will be forever grateful.
I don’t have much to say about In the Dream House, except that it is a very clever approach to memoir, one that I wished I had considered before —the telltale sign of the originator’s brilliance. The way Machado weaves criticism and research of lesbian domestic violence into her own story of an abusive relationship cracked my heart open. There is no other way to put it, because at every turn Machado has found another way —through pop culture reference, court case transcripts, seventeenth century law— to explain why this happened to her, and why it’s happened to many others without acknowledgement.
I enjoyed this memoir immensely.