Safe Return Doubtful

I’m down to my last couple of books from the wonderful Angela Carter, who I would have in my top five favourite authors.

As with much of her work, this is a feminist novel, though, rather than her quirk and humour, her anger is really evident.

The protagonist, Evelyn, is a typical sort of 1970s young man, unconcerned about his often misogynistic attitude towards women, and chasing after a movie star, Tristessa de St Ange. During his search for her in New York, he takes up with a girl called Leilah, who he treats in a particularly disregarding manner. This New York is a sort of dystopian one, with the recent break out of civil war between racial and gendered groups. Evelyn escapes the threat in the city to the seemingly safe desert, where his car breaks down and he is captured and taken prisoner by a religious cult with a predisposition towards plastic surgery. They emasculate him, and he becomes Eve, complete with a vagina. He manages to escape again, but is captured again, this time by Zero, a male leader of a cult with a menage of seven women, by whom he is raped and treated as a sex toy.

It’s all satirical, but much less humorous than Carter’s similarly dark writing. The characters are much less developed, and consequently it’s difficult to find any empathy for any of them. The various strands, brought together don’t convince. The violence seems too graphic, almost vindictive.

One of the greatest things about reading Carter though, is that she was never predictable, entwined with peculiarity. Dated attitudes to gender and identity are a recurring theme in her work, as are authoritative regimes, and sadomasochism, but here the intimation is a more serious one.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5