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A review by saphirice
The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman by Angela Carter
3.0
There’s a lot to say about this book, and I certainly think it’s one of those where each person who reads it will take something different out of it. I understand both the 1-star and 5-star reviews.
From what I’ve read on here, most of the poorest reviews come from a place of abject disgust. To be honest, there were a lot of times I also wanted to put it down out of abject horror (not the fun kind!). There is so. Much. Rape (occasionally involving children). And racism! The rape scenes, while abhorrent, I can at least seek out some sort of larger intent out of, as while this is the first Carter book I’ve read I understand her to be a feminist author and the rape falls in line with other themes of the novel. But the racism is so atrocious and center-stage and deeply-entangled in the writing—even for the 70s—that I struggle to find greater meaning to most of it and am pretty sure Carter is just racist.
On a more technical level, I had issues with the general writing and structure. The style is largely beautiful but at times it’s so excessively wordy it’s a drag to read. You know how it’s bad writing advice to look up a synonym for a word and just choose the biggest, most obscure one because you think it makes you sound smart? That’s the vibe I get sometimes from the writing. As for structure, the first couple chapters and the last one are fine, but the chapters in-between read as mostly anthological rather than plot-driven. They follow the same formula to where they become predictable and have only a thin through-line. This bogged down the reading experience for me.
Now, onto what I do like about the novel, and why I gave it 3 rather than 2 stars. It is deeply creative and imaginative. It astounds me often and inspires my own writing. The magic system (if you could call it that) is impressively unique and rides the boundary between sensible and utter nonsense, in a way that’s fun rather than irritating. There are several paragraphs where the physics of the world are being described that I had to re-read multiple times, as at first skim they seem unintelligible, but then ultimately do make just enough sense.
Bouncing off of that, it’s also a very intellectually stimulating novel. There’s a lot of themes at play here and I think I’d have to do more research into Carter and the surrounding time this was written in to really understand all of them. We are told the sex in this book is passionate and represents perfect desire but it’s often only ever described in very empty, shallow ways, or is rape outright; I could write an entire essay connecting this to the way sex is shown to us in the media. Media itself is another theme as I believe it’s represented in the illusions and mirages altering this world. Knowing Carter is a feminist author, the way every single female character that I can remember is victimized in some way is something worth discussing. The main character is an abhorrent person and I saw a lot of satire regarding male ego and sexuality in him.
Overall, while I wouldn’t say the book is always enjoyable between the insufferable main character, rape, and racism, it’s still a creative marvel and offers a lot to dissect.
From what I’ve read on here, most of the poorest reviews come from a place of abject disgust. To be honest, there were a lot of times I also wanted to put it down out of abject horror (not the fun kind!). There is so. Much. Rape (occasionally involving children). And racism! The rape scenes, while abhorrent, I can at least seek out some sort of larger intent out of, as while this is the first Carter book I’ve read I understand her to be a feminist author and the rape falls in line with other themes of the novel. But the racism is so atrocious and center-stage and deeply-entangled in the writing—even for the 70s—that I struggle to find greater meaning to most of it and am pretty sure Carter is just racist.
On a more technical level, I had issues with the general writing and structure. The style is largely beautiful but at times it’s so excessively wordy it’s a drag to read. You know how it’s bad writing advice to look up a synonym for a word and just choose the biggest, most obscure one because you think it makes you sound smart? That’s the vibe I get sometimes from the writing. As for structure, the first couple chapters and the last one are fine, but the chapters in-between read as mostly anthological rather than plot-driven. They follow the same formula to where they become predictable and have only a thin through-line. This bogged down the reading experience for me.
Now, onto what I do like about the novel, and why I gave it 3 rather than 2 stars. It is deeply creative and imaginative. It astounds me often and inspires my own writing. The magic system (if you could call it that) is impressively unique and rides the boundary between sensible and utter nonsense, in a way that’s fun rather than irritating. There are several paragraphs where the physics of the world are being described that I had to re-read multiple times, as at first skim they seem unintelligible, but then ultimately do make just enough sense.
Bouncing off of that, it’s also a very intellectually stimulating novel. There’s a lot of themes at play here and I think I’d have to do more research into Carter and the surrounding time this was written in to really understand all of them. We are told the sex in this book is passionate and represents perfect desire but it’s often only ever described in very empty, shallow ways, or is rape outright; I could write an entire essay connecting this to the way sex is shown to us in the media. Media itself is another theme as I believe it’s represented in the illusions and mirages altering this world. Knowing Carter is a feminist author, the way every single female character that I can remember is victimized in some way is something worth discussing. The main character is an abhorrent person and I saw a lot of satire regarding male ego and sexuality in him.
Overall, while I wouldn’t say the book is always enjoyable between the insufferable main character, rape, and racism, it’s still a creative marvel and offers a lot to dissect.