Psyche In A Dress

Block, Francesca Lia. 2006. Psyche in A Dress.

Psyche In A Dress is a verse novel told in first person narrative that can be at times confusing, yet if the reader is persistent he/she will be rewarded for their effort. Why the confusion? There are two possible reasons the reader might find himself/herself confused: 1) being plunged into characters and story lines from Greek mythology with no explanation or context from the author and 2) having the narrator transform herself from one heroine to another metaphorically speaking. The good news? If the reader keeps reading, by the end of the book it will make a lot more sense. The bad news? If the reader gives up after the first confusing chapter or two or gets tired of metaphors and symbolism...then they'll be missing the big picture that Block was trying to paint.

The narrator who sometimes refers to herself as Psyche or Soul has various lovers throughout her life who take on the personas of gods and other characters (mortal or immortal) from Greek mythology). With each new lover--love, heartache, pain, etc, her persona or personality is transformed or changed to take on the characteristics of female goddesses or characters (mortal or immortal) from Greek mythology. Therefore she switches from representing one goddess to another to another in rapid succession which can be more than a little confusing to the reader with only a mediocre frame of reference to these myths. Who are some of these lovers? Love, Narcissus, Orpheus, and Hades. And the female personas she wears like a dress? Psyche, Echo, Eurydice, Maenad, Persephone, and Demeter.

It's a good book, perhaps one that will improve upon second reading. And if the reader is well-versed in Greek mythology and knows the stories backwards and forwards and can recall the small details that make each story unique, perhaps Psyche in a Dress will be an easy, enjoyable read. But the book remains a clever examination of what it means to be a woman by examining the roles women play, the lies they tell themselves, and the things they'll do to feel loved and accepted.

http://www.francescaliablock.com/