Review: 'In the Dream House' by Carmen Maria Machado

When I first read Machado's Her Body & Other Parties I was blown away by how free, sharp and insightful her storytelling was. I read it again with my book club at work, where it was mostly well-received as well. And then I spent months, legitimate months, waiting for In the Dream House to fall into my hands. When it finally did, I held off on reading it. I had built up very high expectations of anything that came from Machado's pen and was worried I would be underwhelmed. No such fears were necessary. Thanks to Serpent's Tail and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Pub. Date: 1/2/2020
Publisher: Serpent's Tail; Profile Books

'A dark jewel reflecting something startling - familiar and strange' Suzanne Moore, Guardian 'Ravishingly beautiful' Observer 'Excruciatingly honest and yet vibrantly creative' Irish Times 'Provocative and rich' Economist 'Daring, chilling, and unlike anything else you've ever read' Esquire 'An absolute must-read for 2020' Stylist In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Each chapter views the relationship through a different lens, as Machado holds events up to the light and examines them from distinct angles. She casts a critical eye over legal proceedings, fairy tales, Star Trek and Disney villains, as well as iconic works of film and fiction, infusing all with her characteristic wit, playfulness and openness to enquiry. The result is a powerful book that explodes our ideas about what a memoir can do and be.

Memoirs are a difficult thing, because they ask a reader to be intensely interested in the personal life of the author, rather than in their craft per se. It is the reason why most autobiographies or memoirs don't work for me, hence why I waited so long before actually starting In the Dream House. The memoir is non-traditional, that much we all would have expected, but I absolutely loved how Machado broke down her own story and reconstructed it. It is what gives it the power with which it knocks you over. Divided into little sections, each named after a different literary device like 'Dream House as Folk Tale', Machado tells the story of her experience of an abusive relationship with another woman in short bursts that always surprise you. By telling her story in this non-chronological way it shows the reader how difficult it can be to make sense of or understand how a relationship turns violent and abusive. There is no simple answer, but there is true heartbreak when your dream house is no longer safe.

The relationship starts like a dream, Machado young and open for love, 'the woman' (never named) worldy, wild and everything she could have wanted. What starts as a satisfying open relationship becomes a controlling nightmare as Machado has to protect herself against accusations of adultery, physical intimidation, and the crushing weight of not knowing where to go.

In the Dream House is full of references, both to existing literature and to the gaps that exist within it. Machado plainly shows the lack of information on abuse and violence within lesbian or queer relationships and how this played a role in her getting stuck in the relationship. The "dream house" is a construct, both physically since she was trapped in a house with her abuser, and mentally, as the silence around her experience traps her within it. It is this silence into which Machado brings her own story, re-framing it in different ways, trying to make sense of it and finding a frame of reference for it. In the end,  Machado does make her escape, supported by friends who grow concerned for her. It is not an easy escape and the difficulty of writing the book shows her that some scars perhaps never quite heal. And yet with In the Dream House she shows that while perfect happy endings may not exist, happy endings are possible.

In In the Dream House Machado shatters what you expect from a memoir. Her writing is haunting, but also enrapturing. Once I started reading I couldn't put it back down, sucked in by how exact and yet ephemeral Machado's story is. Because of how she splits up the story into different categories, it becomes clear how widely abuse affects a life, but also how  mythologized it is. As Machado writes herself: 'Most types of domestic abuse are completely legal'. Obsessive behavior, controlling behavior, the tinge of danger that coats everything, it all has a dangerously glamorous sheen to it as it is so recognizable. Something I found fascinating was the frequent references in footnotes to the Motif-Index of Folk-Literature, whether it is omens, rewards, mutilations, the power instilled by knowing someone's true name. It all shows how we have built a literature around love and abuse, in which there is yet a deafening silence into which Machado had to write herself a space.

I give this book

5 Universes!

In the Dream House is a brilliant memoir, the only book you could apply the title of 'one of its kind' to. It's heartbreaking, beautiful, tragic and triumphant. As Machado says at the beginning:

'If you need this book, it is for you.'