'The Burning Girl' Is More Than Just A Pretty Victim
Edgar Allan Poe once wrote that the death of a beautiful woman is "unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." In her new book, The Burning Girl, Claire Messud responds: Not to us women.
The last ten years have seen a parade of sexually damaged Girls in fiction — and by girls, of course, I mean women in their 20s and 30s. After Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and all the other creatively abused women, you could be forgiven for thinking Claire Messud's The Burning Girl is another would-be bestseller about gendered violence and retribution.
But is instead a subversive commentary on the stories we tell about women, and the ways those stories circumscribe our lives. Edgar Allan Poe wrote that the death of a beautiful woman is "unquestionably, the most poetical topic in the world." In her new book, Messud says: Not to us.
