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As I tend to ramble on about Caitlin Moran quite a bit, it is only fitting that I give you my opinion of her latest book, and first adult novel ‘How to Build a Girl’.
Let’s be thorough about this and begin with the cover. It’s
very green, the font is very 60’s-70’s styled. The legs of the model girl
aren’t those of a heavy girl's, yet the leading gal here is meant to be a bit on the chunky side.
And to be quite honest, I find the whole cover a little contradictory.
The story itself is from the point of view of Johanna
Morrigan, a working class girl from Wolverhampton, who lives on a council
estate with her family, surviving on benefits. Basically, something happens
which makes her believe that she needs to get a job and make money in order to
save her family from squalor, a modern day twist on 19th century
based stories, where women must fend for their own, kind of like Gone With The
Wind and Scarlett O'Hara declaring that she will 'Live through this'.
In between the introductions of the characters, and
successfully landing a job as a music journalist, Johanna undergoes a
mortifying experience, which results in her idea to destroy herself, and build
a new girl in her place. This new alias of hers is called Dolly Wilde, and this
new alter ego is the one who lands her first kiss, job, sexual experience,
sort-of-crush and begins smoking.
At the beginning of the book, the writer states that it is
‘a work of fiction’ and that the characters are from the writer's own imagination. She
also states that she isn’t Johanna and that the characters family is also not her
own, along with experiences.
As much as I liked the book, it wasn’t personally what I
felt it was hyped up to be. Perhaps it was because I was so excited about it,
but I just didn’t feel any spark. It was good, don’t get me wrong, but it felt
as if I was still reading Moran’s autobiography but with a few changed names.
In some regards it made me feel that some originality was
lacked. I mean I know that the saying goes ‘write about what you know’ but as a
fan, I knew already about the anecdote about the Guinness from Dublin to
Wolverhampton. And you could tell that
ZZ Top was based on her husband, what with him being from Birmingham and being
a guy from the office that she didn’t notice until the end, which she writes about
in her book ‘How to Be A Woman’ too.
And if you think about it the titles aren’t that different
either. In fact the new book sounds like a prequel.
But in the end, you see something, as clear as day. You find
that she is talking to her children, telling them that we all make mistakes, we
all try to better ourselves, and that it is okay to trip up and fall over
sometimes in life. And I like that. Not a lot of kids can say that their
parents did something as difficult and as harrowing as write a book for them. I
know that I can’t.
And I will always commend someone for writing a book, and
somehow manages to quote Elbow in the process. Admittedly, I was also bought
over by the fact that Courtney Love and Stevie Nicks were mentioned. So yeah,
I’m a bit biased.
But apart from all of this, it isn’t sexually graphic, but
it does bring up masturbation a lot. The characters are lovable and each have a
mind of their own, a thing, as a writer myself, I find quite difficult to do.
Krissi is intelligent and demands his privacy while somehow exiting the
proverbial closet, while their father plays music, forever trying to get the
family out of their place in the council estate and to greener pastures. And of
course, the man I ship the lead character with, John Kite, a mixture between Del
Boy Trotter and Guy Garvey.
Part of me is upset with the ending. We don’t learn who
Johanna marries in the end. We don’t learn how Krissi’s life turns out, or what
happens with the parents of little Lupin. Nothing is known of the sexist
douchebag Tony Rich, and we will never truly know what happened when she
finally moved to London.
In a way it ends like how it begins.
But at the end of the day, it may seem quite all over the
place, but it is planned out and you can see it once you try to actually focus.
It’s a life lesson, but it is also one that you wouldn’t want your younger
sister to be finding, so hide it well until she becomes old enough. Hide it
like a big entertaining secret. It may not be as feministy as other books,
but Johanna, is a positive being and once she ventures out into the world of
men she is optimistic and sees herself as objectifying men, NOT the other way
around.
It’s a secret I commend you hide, like a good bottle of
champagne, only to be brought out for special occasions. One big feminist
secret.
P.S This was written in July, I just had no internet for the rest of summer but I will be making a post about going home to Ireland and seeing Wales this year.
Habitual Disclaimer: No, I don't own the photo used on this post, it has nothing to do with me, and I will be remaining broke for not creating anything successful, or anything picked up by anyone in 'the biz'.