Customer Reviews

Woman's World: A Novel

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The `woman' of the title exists through the cuttings that make up her story: so that in effect, the narrator is created by the text itself. This sounds a bit too clever by half: and it is: but that doesn't stop it being an un - put - down - able read.
Graham Rawle's expert manipulation of cuttings from 1960s womens' magazines presents a deeply compelling psychological portrait. A fascinating insight into the mindset of a `lady' prescribed by the media of the time - promoting obsession with home furnishings, elegant waistlines and a naive notion of romantic love - is juxtaposed with the ever more complex reality of a troubled and restless mind unable to lay ghosts from the past to rest. You're reeled in by a need to determine the `real' voice through the dizzying proliferation of media jargon and retro fashion imagery. As the plot seeps through the cracks between cuttings, the depiction of lonely characters going about their suburban routine existences masterfully undercuts the superficial glossy ideal. Our heroine's clumsy foot tries to boot the gritty banality of her world into a relentlessly romantic vision of glamorous cosmopolitanism. The fit is as ungainly as the dresses she dons. The result is by turns painfully sad, eery and hysterically funny. Latent hysteria sets the pace of this unlikely thriller, where reality and fantasy head for a full - on collision.
Each page is a work of art: incorporating the whimsical phraseology of the time, lacing kitsch inanities with instances of poetic poignancy, punctuating moments of insight with visual cues, the text literally sliding off the page in moments of panic. The modern - day Frankenstein's monster wears `raucous red Boulevard Court shoes'.

As an English teacher in an urban setting, I am always searching for literature that is 'outside the box,' that breaks the rules of stuffy, formulaic writing by writers who have no artistic vision. With "Woman's World" I have ignited young adults struggling with literacy; they are creating their own literary visions from music and art magazines. Is not the purppose of literature to implore the reader to think, to create, to act? Is this not the a similar purpose of an artist? Not only are my students engaging in this artistic journey, but two other teachers are now using it. "Woman's World" is a complelling read, to say the least. Each line, each phrase, each word, draws the reader to think of the process, thus, one is drawn not only into the characters' lives, but one is drawn into the writer's life as well. What a refreshing read!

This story is well written, fun, creative & clever. The text/picture cutouts sprinkle 1960s language & images into a modern-day tale. An intriguing story that kept me delighted turning pages to see what the author's creativity would reveal. An absolute masterpiece of writing and art combined. Get it - you've not seen anything like it before.

When I was a child I loved to climb into the window seat behind my grandmother's sofa, draw the curtains so I was hidden from anyone who came into the room, and spend hours poring over the stack of 1960s Home Beautiful and Women's Weekly magazines that resided there. The brittle, yellowing pages held such a visual fascination, with their improbable promises of domestic perfection, and this book transported me right back there.
I worried that the cut-and-paste style would prove distracting or that the narrative and the rhythm of the words would suffer from the limitations that Rawle imposed on himself, but I was delighted to find that, despite my reservations, the opposite occurred.
The appearance of the text -- gigantic drop capitals, strange fonts, pictures -- adds to the reading experience, as does the quirky injection of bathos or humour when Rawle quotes directly from ads for soap powder, advice columns, or romance stories.
My advice to you? As Kate Samperi would say, take your time to really taste and savour the exquisite word play and artistic presentation of this graphic novel.

I found this book when I heard about Graham Rawle's re-illustrated Wizard of Oz. I couldn't get the technical concept of Woman's World out of my head. How long did it take to clip all those magazines? How did Rawle choose the character names?

Then I read the book and forgot all these questions. Roy and his delusional sister are believable and sympathetic. Eve, Roy's love interest, is kind without having a flat personality.

The detective noir themes could have been pushed a little harder, however. There are plenty of dark twists within the story, but little mystery until the ambiguous ending. It's a fun ride, anyway, with a narrator easily distracted by stains, soaps, modeling, and "women's work."

Perhaps the narrative's biggest triumph is its journey through the facade of popular 1960's femininity. The vibrant and flawed "Norma Fontaine" is the image of womanhood that Roy has found in women's magazines. Like this narrative, Norma is made with scraps and pieces of a commercial, frilly world that doesn't exist. The character is convincing and intriguing, though, just like this story.

This book is totally unique. Written in the style of a ransom note using words and phrases snipped from 1950s women's magazines, every page is a beautiful work of art. It's also a wonderful story: a clever, funny, sad and very moving tale about a 'woman' whose entire life is shaped by the magazine articles she dotes on. The text is surprisingly easy to read and the reading experience offers the added bonus of a visual treat. My favorite book in ages. Buy it!

This is an amazing book, both because of its unexpectedly moving story and because of the unique way it has been physically put together. The author has taken words and phrases from women's magazines and pasted them together to form the text. This in itself is an amazing feat, but on top of that he has told a story which at first intrigues, then surprises and finally has one holding one's breath. Fabulous! I loved it.

Woman's World is a marvelous novel constructed completely out of women's magazines from the 1960s. Each page is a collage of words and paragraphs put together in great detail by Graham Rawle. In itself, this is quite impressive. Add in a wonderful plot that flows easily despite the cut-up method of construction, and what's left is a brilliant novel that is just as much art as literary genius.

The story is full of mystery and intrigue, but done in an intelligent manner. Rawle does not half-heartedly conceal various twists in his story. Instead, they are revealed so bluntly that there is a moment of being astounded, then the "Ah ha" and ability to piece previous clues together. However, the novel is not merely mystery, but also social critique of the language used to describe a "woman's world" and gender roles in general. Rawle's ability to work a variety of genre's into one book is what makes it fabulous.

Rawle's Woman's World is simply an incredible piece of visual art and writing that is inspirational in its' creativity and intellectual depth.

I don't want to spoil the "surprise," but it isn't very hard to figure out. The collage format is impressive and interesting to read, but the story is just average. Certainly not much to discuss if you choose this title as a book club read. I wanted it to be better...other reviews tagged this book as "brilliant" and "genius" writing. I must respectfully disagree. I think the artistic value far outweighs the literary value. Certainly the effort and creativity spent organizing the text deserves kudos.

In Graham Rawle's Oulipean fantasy, set in suburban England circa 1960. Stirling Moss, Cliff Richard, Diana Dors, and Sylvia Sims are the presiding spirits of the women's magazines ("Woman," "Woman's Own," "Woman's World") devoured by Rawle's narrator. Rawle, a well known collagist based in the UK, has cut and pasted every word of his novel from old issues of these journals, and their mawkish sentimentality, banal patriotics, and twee grooming tips have been purposely allowed to soak through into the plot, like Chanel #5 used as Drano.

"Norma Fontaine," lives in a dream of "the latest fashions, beauty tips, and handy hints for the home." Eve, an attractive, good-humored girl whom Norma's alter ego Roy meets in a cafe, kindles his romantic interests; he begins to imagine a future together with her, but "Norma" keeps rearing her unruly head especially when Roy is brought face to face with lovely ladies' clothing.

A photographer, Mr. Hands, photographs Norma. "He strutted, with rather apart legs, like a robin in a shrunk red cardigan." (104) When she calls at Hands' seedy flat, he attempts an indecent act that dismays Norma, who attacks him with her red shoe and leaves him for dead. As in every James Cain or Cornell Woolrich novel, her crime haunts her and ruins all her human relations.

Rawle is clever, and knows he's working over hackneyed ground, like a British version of Charles Busch, sending up the late 50s melodramas of multiple personality (Psycho, The Search for Bridey Murphy, The Three Faces of Eve). The basic plot of the bloke tormented by his own need to cross-dress was trite when producer William Castle used it as the basis for his Psycho rip-off Homicidal (1961). Yet Rawle can write, and has a knack for the unexpected metaphor that illuminates the central situation. Roy "nodded encouragingly, though his concentration had drifted out to sea in a small dinghy." Sometimes his metaphors come too fast and furious, like Mary's mind, "like a rapier in the hands of a frenzied swashbuckler."

Author's note says that it took two years to cut out and assemble, with scissors and glue, the 40,000 fragments he used to create the novel. While this is a staggering figure, the book doesn't give you the gasps of amazement it might, for it looks like the sort of thing that, literary quality aside, a talented middle schooler could do with Photo Shop nowadays. Its length wears you out before you're a quarter of the way done.