I don’t know what to think of Notable American Women by Ben Marcus a little bit after finishing it. In one word, I’d call it interesting. Not great or a revelation, but very interesting. It is a complex book, in that it is hard to follow. It doesn’t have a narrative and seems to deconstruct what a story is the way Beckett would. It actually goes on to create a new kind of use for words that is funny, astounding and irritating in different spots in the novel. I also wouldn’t really call this a novel. It is more of a collection of ideas that form something that is to convolute to be looked at as a whole by even the most accomplished reader. It is best to pick out certain aspects and ideas it presents and read it sentence-by-sentence, and sometimes word-by-word. What little plot there is deals with the fabricated history of Ben Marcus’ family in Ohio (the biggest surprise for me was, for a book where the main character shares the name with the author as well as a book that puts the author’s knowledge in the forefront of its image, it doesn’t come off as being arrogant or narcissistic); from his father, who is buried out back (voluntarily, I might add), and his mother, some sort of feminist guru bent on using Ben as a “breeder” for all her followers in order produce absolute stillness. For a plot this weird, it really takes a back seat to what Marcus says about language. He really treats words and phrases like objects within this world he has crafted. Words carry physical weight to both harm and hurt, and food exists just to give people power to produce these words. Names are so important, that some people do not possess them. I am really not doing justice to this story, but I think what Marcus is doing is using a very unsubtle metaphor for how words might as well be things, because they are the tools that can chain us together or rip us apart. So, go seek out this book, you are likely not to find anything else like it.
Rating: 4/5
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