A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride

 

This is the story of an Irish family and their relationships.  The narrator is a woman who has just grown up and moved out of the family home.  She talks about how the household was focused on her younger brother who was diagnosed as a boy with a brain tumor.  He was expected to die but had a miraculous recovery.  Yet the mother could not believe he is still there and dedicates her life and the family focus and resources on him. 

Left on her own, the narrator falls prey to her uncle who arouses her first sexual feelings and then seduces her at fifteen.  She knows this is wrong but it sets up a life where she goes out and has random sex with strangers from bars.  When her brother's cancer returns and it becomes clear that this time he will pass away, she returns home and resumes the relationship with her uncle, the only kind of release and attention she can be sure of obtaining.

Eimear McBride is an Irish author and one of my favorites.   This is her debut novel and it won The Goldsmiths Prize in 2013.  The novel is written in a stream of consciousness fashion from the point of view of the young woman and it is chaotic, uncertain, groping forward, and full of rage.  The narrator is never sure exactly what she owes her family but knows she loves her brother who she is going to lose.   McBride's writing is fierce and amazing and the reader is sure to remember her stories long after the last page is read.  This book is recommended for literary fiction readers.