Billed as an experimental fiction, Sara Peters’ I Become a Delight to My Enemies is one of two inaugural publications from Penguin Random House Canada’s new imprint, Strange Light, which aims to bring innovative work that defies categorization to its readers. This is a risky, uncharacteristic gambit for a large publisher, and a welcome one. The narrative presents the female body as an open invitation to male sexual violence, undeserving of the protection or respect of the complacent and judgmental Townspeople. Peters’ women often exhibit a desire to shed their physical form, sloughing off or cutting away parts of themselves in order to survive. The horror of much of the book’s imagery is tempered by humour, both brilliant and absurd, and a refusal to truck in easy sentiment or pat solutions.

Source: thestar May 23, 2019 15:00 UTC