{"id":697,"date":"2013-04-27T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-09T21:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/?p=697"},"modified":"2025-01-01T13:05:59","modified_gmt":"2025-01-01T00:05:59","slug":"all-the-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/2013\/04\/27\/all-the-way\/","title":{"rendered":"All The Way"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><strong>Marie Darriuessecq, translated by Peggy Heuston<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-large-font-size\"><em>Text<\/em> <em>Publishing<\/em><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-medium-font-size\">Otago Daily Times, April 27th 2013<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Although we are ready to accept the idea that teenage boys are completely preoccupied with sex, there is a reluctance to admit that the same holds true for girls. Yet the intensity of my physical and emotional feelings are the only aspects of my teenage years that I have been unable to purge from memory. I\u2019m not sure which impressed me more about Marie Darrieussecq\u2019s latest novel, <em>All The Way: <\/em> the accuracy with which she captures the reality of female adolescence, or her bravery in presenting what is at times a confronting depiction of a young woman\u2019s awakening sexuality. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">The story opens with 10 year old Solange watching with horrified confusion as her drunken father runs naked from the Carnival, the sight of his penis a shock in a world where her knowledge of sex comes from whispered conversations with her friends and furtive study of the Larousse dictionary: <em>\u201cn. (lat. <\/em>sexus<em>, from <\/em>secare<em>, to cut).\u00a0 Each of the two complementary adult divisions of a species, the union of which guarantees reproduction\u201d.<\/em>\u00a0 The same night she gets her first period, the combination of events marking the end of her childhood and the start of a journey of discovery that sees her trying everything she can think of to in order to satisfy both her physical desires and her desperate need for the love that her family, particularly her father, are unable to provide.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Darriuessecq is not afraid to break social taboos (Solange\u2019s relationship with her middle-aged neighbour and long-time babysitter Monsieur Bihotz are disturbingly inappropriate, yet his feelings for her are heartbreakingly genuine). Nor does she flinch from the utter selfishness that accompanies adolescence. This only serves to lend Solange\u2019s character an honesty that make her all the more sympathetic and believable as a narrator. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size wp-block-paragraph\">Sad, funny and challenging, <em>All The Way<\/em> will not be to every reader\u2019s taste, but it is a story well worth reading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size wp-block-paragraph\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/no-flinching-story-girls-growing\">https:\/\/www.odt.co.nz\/entertainment\/books\/no-flinching-story-girls-growing<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marie Darriuessecq, translated by Peggy Heuston<br \/>\n<br \/>\nOtago Daily Times review April 27th 2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[180,370,293,18],"class_list":["post-697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","tag-180","tag-fiction","tag-marie-darrieussecq","tag-odt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=697"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1682,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/697\/revisions\/1682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cushla.spooky-possum.org\/wordpress\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}