Jim Brown reviewed Negative Space by Gillian Linden
"I often felt harassed, as though I'd stubbed the same toe repeatedly over the course of the day."
A short novel about teaching and parenting during COVID that also addresses some of the power dynamics of "Me Too," especially at its tail end. The people with power in this book exert it with a smile and a shoulder squeeze, but that doesn't change anything about the end result.
"I often felt harassed, as though I'd stubbed the same toe repeatedly over the course of the day. During the weekend, I'd carry a book with me from room to room, from the couch to the table, from the able to the couch, starting and restarting the same sentence. Sometimes it seemed that all my family did was insult one another and complain. 'If you hadn't had Lewis,' Jane had said recently, through tears, 'I would have had a peaceful life. A peaceful life.' Sometimes, when my children were sleeping, or walking into their schools, I would feel …
A short novel about teaching and parenting during COVID that also addresses some of the power dynamics of "Me Too," especially at its tail end. The people with power in this book exert it with a smile and a shoulder squeeze, but that doesn't change anything about the end result.
"I often felt harassed, as though I'd stubbed the same toe repeatedly over the course of the day. During the weekend, I'd carry a book with me from room to room, from the couch to the table, from the able to the couch, starting and restarting the same sentence. Sometimes it seemed that all my family did was insult one another and complain. 'If you hadn't had Lewis,' Jane had said recently, through tears, 'I would have had a peaceful life. A peaceful life.' Sometimes, when my children were sleeping, or walking into their schools, I would feel a drowning kind of love, mixed with guilt and a sense of loss piling upon loss and more losses to come. And very occasionally, for a moment or two, it would be as though I was lying on a warm dock, listening to water pleat itself in little waves; my mind would be clear; I would feel content" (106).