Hyllning till en älsklingsbok
Det finns böcker och det finns Böcker. Detta är en kärleksförklaring till en som förändrade mitt liv och mitt sätt att tänka...ja det är stora ord men helt sant.
En sådan bok har rätt att se sliten ut, ha lösa sidor, blyertsklotter och hundöron efter mååånga läsningar:
Det är helt enkelt en sån bok man plockar upp och läser några sidor ur när man vill trösta sig, skratta lite eller bara umgås med en gammal bekant.
Sommaren -94, bilsemester med dåvarande pojkvän. Vi stannar i någon norrländsk stad, kan ha varit Skellefteå. Jag dyker in i en bokhandel, på jakt efter något att läsa. Det vulgära, färggranna pocketomslaget möter min blick och jag tänker väl "varför inte?" trots att jag aldrig hört talas om författaren.
Resten av semestern förflyter i en magisk dimma - jag är bara nätt och jämnt närvarande. Mitt feministiska jag har väckts med ett rytande. Och min syn på världen kommer aldrig vara riktigt densamma igen.
Såhär skriver en recencent:
"Antieau's amorphous debut, having no truck with orthodox novelistic ambitions, takes the form of an extended feminist polemic.
Keelie, still healing and unable to talk yet, awakens to the realization that she's a composite of three distinct individuals, surgically fused together. Her head once belonged to drowned Anna, her body is that of poor murdered Bella, while her dancer's legs derive from suicide Lee. Keelie has been created by Victor to be his lover, and she's attended by timid medic Griffin, psychiatrist Hart, and Lilith, Victor's deformed wife. All of these people, as the young woman's experiences unfold, are shown to be related by blood or marriage, through space and time. Indeed, Keelie relives something of the miserable lives and sad deaths of the women whose hybrid she is.
A powerful and impressive statement, with lots of complicated scenarios, relationships, and symbols, though descriptive rather than prescriptive"
Keelie, still healing and unable to talk yet, awakens to the realization that she's a composite of three distinct individuals, surgically fused together. Her head once belonged to drowned Anna, her body is that of poor murdered Bella, while her dancer's legs derive from suicide Lee. Keelie has been created by Victor to be his lover, and she's attended by timid medic Griffin, psychiatrist Hart, and Lilith, Victor's deformed wife. All of these people, as the young woman's experiences unfold, are shown to be related by blood or marriage, through space and time. Indeed, Keelie relives something of the miserable lives and sad deaths of the women whose hybrid she is.
A powerful and impressive statement, with lots of complicated scenarios, relationships, and symbols, though descriptive rather than prescriptive"
Ska jag försöka beskriva det underbara med boken, så är det framförallt kontrasten mellan ett korthugget humoristiskt språk, rikt på ordvitsar och modern amerikansk slang, och en berättelse som är fylld av raseri och sorg över patriarkatets hänsynslösa framfart genom århundradena.
Keelies resa genom sitt eget inre är full av smarta hänvisningar till saga och mytologi, startande i berättelsen om Frankenstein, via Trollkarlen från Oz, sumeriska Inannamyter, Alice i Underlandet, Hans och Greta osv. Fast jag läst den säkert 30 gånger hittar jag ibland nya saker.
Några citat:
"She needed to awaken on her own and discover all her bits and pieces - to find out what glue holds her together, or binds us all together.
We are all jigsaw people after all, aren't we?
Scattered and shattered, perplexed and puzzled beyond hope or hopelessness.
But she - she will surprise us all. She will remember what tore us apart. She will remember past knowing."
--------------------
"What do you think History is anyway? If you want some Her-story instead of Hisssss-story, talk to me. Iv'e got the scoop."
-------------------
"An owl hooted at me from an old oak.
"They're coming, they're coming!"
"Who?" I asked
"Shouldn't that be my line?" the owl asked.
"But you know who's coming. They. This time, shouldn't you tell someone? They're coming, coming, coming."
Fuck.
"Lilith!" I screamed"
--------------------
"I sighed and closed my eyes. Yes, I got it.
"The Goddess went underground for five thousand years - or three days, depending upon who's telling the tale," I said. "The God, the Father, took over."
Eriskegal nodded. She leaned forward. "So, you've put all the pieces together, Jigsaw Woman?"
I tried to feel in my body once again what I had come to know: I had to remember those thousands of years before the father - I had to feel all the people who were me, who are my body.
"It's time for the Goddess to be reborn", I said. "To come up of the underworld."
"And kick some butt!" Eriskegal roared"
-------------------
Detta var alltså Kim Antieau's debutroman som jag råkade snubbla över då för snart 20 år sedan. Sedan dess har hon skrivit många fler, alla läsvärda. Tyvärr finns ingen av dem översatt till svenska...men Jigsaw Woman finns glädjande nog i nyutgåva,med ett mycket snyggare omslag: