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Wetlands by Charlotte Roche NYTIMES
The damning review I’ve been waiting for.
Perhaps Helen is meant to seem pathetic, her story a study in loneliness — not exactly a manifesto of sexual empowerment. (The symbolism is not subtle; Helen describes her relationship with her parents as a “gaping abyss.”) Her character, such as it is, seems simply disturbed: so full of sex panic she can’t stop having sex, so busy avoiding painful memories she can’t think, driven by compulsive and ritualized behaviors. Self-confident Helen is just a lost little girl at heart.
“Wetlands” is such a strange translation.
