weekend book review | the girls by emma cline
Since Wednesday, I've driven over 1,000 miles. While that doesn't seem like a lot in the big scheme of things, it's a lot for me in such a short period of time. By the time I turn around and head home on Sunday, it will be close to 1,400.
As the late, great Bernie Mac said, "I'm tired. My body weary." (however, he is most definitely not referring to road trips...the context is something else entirely)
I wish I could say that these trips have been for something fun, but that wouldn't be truthful. They have been for family medical appointments and moving my dad & stepmom into a new house. But there is always a silver lining. Not only do I get a chance to spend some time with my extended family, I finally opened up to the option of audiobooks [insert angels singing, sparkling light, and "hallelujahs" everywhere].
Audiobooks have always something I remember my grandmother listening to when I was a child. My friend Stephanie also swears by them. Then again, she's got a 2+ hour commute to work each day. Mine is only 20 minutes max. I have always wanted to actually hold a book in my hands. If I'm reading, I'm less likely to get distracted. I am a much more visual and textural than audio person.
However, a few months ago, Amazon offered a special on Audible memberships. Three months free = three free audiobooks. I rarely turn down anything for free, so I opted in. The actual membership I signed up for is $14.99/month, which entails you to one free audiobook a month and 30% off any additional books you purchase. I wasn't planning on keeping it, but after these days of endless road trips and bad Top 20 music, I think I might.
the girls by emma cline
Do you remember reading about Helter Skelter and the Manson Family, the hippie commune turned murderers? Intrigue and endless plunges into psychological and sociological reasons behind their actions abound to this day, even almost 50 years later. There's still so much mystery behind it. The Girls takes a lot from what is known about the events leading up to the Manson Family's demise, turning the novel into an interesting mesh of fact and fiction.
The narrator, Evie Boyd, is 14 years old the summer she meets the eponymous girls (loosely based on Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel, and Leslie Van Houten). The book moves back and forth between Evie's life-changing summer as a teen to a middle-aged adult looking back. Evie is struggling in a way that all young teenaged girls struggle...trying to find a place where she belongs, looking desperately for someone to love and love her back, feeling of the world but not in it.
Emma Cline is able to effortlessly fictionalize the story by turning it inward. It wasn't about the girls necessarily, or even about Russell, the magnetic figure meant to represent Charles Manson. It's about Evie holding up the mirror and recognizing a darkness in herself. How easily would she have agreed to commit the same crimes as her friends, simply in order to fit in? How little would it have taken to push her over that edge? How much did that summer damage her, even though she was never implicated?
I think I would have preferred to read this book as opposed to listening to it. The narrator on the audiobook was okay...not my favorite. The inflections in her voice didn't always work and, until my friend Steph told me that the Audible app is capable of speaking faster, I thought it was going way too slowly.
I just downloaded The Witching Hour by Anne Rice. I started it in the car yesterday and it's amazing so far (thanks for the recommendation, Steph & Sara!).
However, don't expect a review on it for a few months. It's over 50 hours long. And I have no intention of being in the car that long for a while.
