Build Your House Around My Body

by Violet Kupersmith

#CasualFridays: one of the books I’ve read throughout the week that aren’t particularly closely related to climate change, but I’d like to highlight anyway. This book was lent to me by @, and was an unexpected favourite. It sunk you right into the hot and dusty Saigon, seeping you in Vietnamese culture. The book follows two missing women—one a teenager fleeing her wealthy family in 1986; the other, Winnie, a young, unhappy Vietnamese-American who disappears in 2011.

It does not hold back: not only in the visceral descriptions of horror that would leave Stephen King proud, but in its robust, frank, and unerring view of cultural imperialism, which acts as a character in and of itself. This examination does not ease with time: the author is just as critical of the modern day Westerners that see Vietnam as either a backpacking thoroughfare, a disposable playground to leech off of; or as a way to prove their superior ‘civilised’ ways. Other themes explored in this book that deserve mentioning, are sexual violence and expectations placed upon women in society. This was deftly and subtly explored, and I loved the gentleness the author treated the characters with. This book is a striking example of magical realism, and I was unsurprised to see that the other published work authored by Violet Kupersmith was a series of short stories—each perspective in Build Your House Around my Body, presented in alternating chapters, was immediately absorbing and fully fleshed out. The author has a beautiful way with metaphors, reminiscent of Ocean Vuong in how complete and original they are, and the language is, simply put: beautiful.

The structure of the book could have been improved upon—I feel like there were some loose threads, and at one point I was so unsure of whether I had missed something that, after reading, I Googled to ensure I hadn’t. However, I would wholeheartedly recommend this book, and will not only look out for similar books hence forth (the Guardian’s review of this book had similar books listed alongside, which have immediately gone on my TBR), but will keep my eyes peeled for Kupersmith’s next ventures. Kupersmith's longlisting for Women's Prize for Fiction is well deserved.

Winnie is a character that will stay with me long after this week. Her story felt familiar; her uncertainty of how she slots into this world is deeply sympathetic, and her journey left me both yearning for more and satisfied.

Read this and enjoyed it?

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