5/5 knives
Every now and again you come across book that absolutely stuns you. A book that guts you, and yet still leaves you hungering for more. A book that submerges you in the darkness, and when you turn that final page and return back to the light, all you can do is sit there and stare at the wall.
Any Man by Amber Tamblyn, is one such book.
This is Tamblyn's debut novel, having only published a book of poetry in the past, and most people who hear her name will immediately recognize her from the film adaptation of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. However you hear about her, I cannot implore you enough to pick up a copy of this book. Tamblyn's emergence into the world of fiction is an absolutely heart-wrenching, complex, and brutal tour de force. It breaks open the gritty, violent, and often shameful reality of how human beings treat each other, rape culture, and the vicious but casual cruelty of living in the internet age.
This book did not merely crush me, it made me want to crawl out of my skin. And I'd like to warn anyone with a SA trigger to please be cautious of this novel.
Any Man follows the stories of six men, all with one thing in common, they were victims of rape at the hands of an unidentified, and violent female perpetrator known only as Maude. It chronicles their stories over the course of several years, how they cope in a society that mocks male SA victims and uses them as a hashtag, and how they heal (or don't heal) from their traumas. We follow them through their pain, their struggle, their loss, and their hope.
Despite the novel's heavy subject matter, it is a gripping and all-engrossing read. Without any intention of doing so, I sat down and read it cover to cover in about 2 hours. It expertly tackles the experiences of SA victims, whether they're male or female, and how our society uses, abuses, and then discards them. It's also not afraid to take risks, and doesn't cut any corners to make its reader feel more comfortable.
Rape and SA are horrific, life-altering crimes that need to be discussed, because if we don't, we are doomed to see the vicious cycle continue. And we are bound to perpetuate it. Reading this book will not make you feel better about the current state of the world, but it will show you the incredible strength these victims and survivors possess, the beautiful bonds one can find in times of despair, and it will make you confront our unsettling reality.
At the very least, this book gets the conversation started, and you will not be the same when you're done.
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