Books

3 books to read this month: Can the Monster Speak, Wicked, Owlish

by Sruti Islam

The books we read over the holidays were provocative, inspiring — wicked, even.

More about books you should read, and the authors who wrote them, that were recently featured on the Weird Era podcast, by co-hosts Sruti Islam and Alex Nierenhausen.

NOTE: Weird Era Season 9 launches in March 2025! This article is a special overview of what the team read over the holidays.

Wicked by Gregory Maguire

With Wicked being one of last year’s biggest blockbusters, I felt a revisit of the 1995 novel, Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, would be appropriate over the holidays. I first read the novel in my early teens and enjoy a re-read every few years… if only to escape to an intellectual property I adore in Oz. But Maguire’s Wicked is not the poppy, pink and green, whimsical romp you might recognize. His Oz is gritty and deeply political: corruption, assassinations, religious fervour and political intrigue occur on any given page. Elphaba, the titular Witch of the West, and Glinda’s friendship (central to the musical version) exists, yes, but it affects their lives in different, more nuanced ways, with complexities that delve far deeper than the musical showcases. A perfect read for anyone who wants to dive into the lore a little deeper before Wicked part 2 (Wicked: For Good) releases later this year. (AN)

Gregory Maguire, author of Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Owlish by Dorothy Tse

This is a 2023 House of Anansi release that somehow slipped under my radar. A Chinese translation — this book is undeniably bizarre, intellectually charged, provocatively sensual and utterly propulsive. The narrative follows a morally ambiguous professor whose years of tepid devotion to his career and quiet subservience to his wife take a strange turn when he becomes captivated by a ballerina figurine. But is she merely a doll, or, through the cryptic guidance of his potentially deviously deceiving companion Owlish, a tangible catalyst for Professor Q to rediscover a sense of vitality? Set in a fantastical, post-colonial state, this novel explores the delicate spaces between despair and yearning, where Tse masterfully illuminates glimpses of unexpected hope. It was fun. (SI)

Owlish, by Dorothy Tse (translated by Natascha Bruce)

Can the Monster Speak by Paul B. Preciado

In November 2019, Paul Preciado spoke at the École de la Cause freudienne’s annual conference in Paris, addressing 3,500 psychoanalysts who had long considered him “mentally ill” due to his transgender identity. Drawing on Kafka’s “Report to an Academy,” in which a monkey argues that human subjectivity is like a cage, Preciado critiqued the outdated frameworks within psychoanalysis. He highlighted how psychological norms, shaped by context, have often been dictated by patriarchal and western-centric views. Preciado contends that the colonial-era concept of sexual difference no longer holds relevance, as technological advances now allow us to alter our bodies and reproduce in new ways. He calls for a necessary update to the field, challenging its traditional foundations. (SI)

Paul B. Preciado’s Can the Monster Speak

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Posted in Books

by Sruti Islam

Contributor
Sruti Islam reads. She runs a literary newsletter: Weird Era, partnered by Librairie Saint-Henri Books, while also freelancing in literary and cultural coverage. She is a Libra.