Boy Parts (2020) -Eliza Clark
This was a great debut, but Eliza Clark has since come out with better work
Content Warnings: Violence, murder, rape, sexual violence, drug abuse, pedophilia, self-harm
Favorite Quote: “My mam always used to tell me that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And Eddie from Tesco is a fly, but he's got a taste for vinegar. It's like vinegar is all he's ever had from people, and now he doesn't even know what honey tastes like.”
Representation: bisexual, wlw, South Asian
Boy Parts is a dark novel that nearly succeeds in its attempt to be shocking and gritty but lacks some of the effortlessness that Eliza Clark exercises in her later work. The novel follows a fetish photographer named Irina who nearly exclusively photographs interesting looking men in submissive and compromising positions. So far in her career, she does not make enough money to quit her day job but is offered a place in a prominent gallery just as she is put on a sabbatical.
In the time Irina has off of work she takes an interest in a cute new cashier at her local Tesco who her badly treated best friend directs her attention to. What ensues is a spiral of abuse and desire and a lot of drugs in her attempt to elevate her career and get what she wants from this Tesco boy. What she wants, however, remains ambiguous to the reader throughout the novel as it becomes increasingly clear that Irina does not know herself what she wants and can’t quite distinguish between reality and trauma to begin with.
Boy Parts’ chapters divide the novel primarily by the men she photographs and people who become the objects of her desire. This puts into perspective the influence of others in Irina’s life at a point where she lacks control and feels compelled to play with power dynamics to starve off her boredom. The intention of Irina as a character is seemingly one of shock-value but when established early on that the character is largely without empathy or consideration for others, the shock doesn’t quite hit, even as the novel escalates.
Early on in reading Boy Parts, I found myself a bit underwhelmed, not because it isn’t a solid read but because I had set my expectations for Eliza Clark so high from reading Penance and She’s Always Hungry to which I had to remind myself that Boy Parts was her debut novel. In a way, now having read all her published works up to this point and seeing growth—despite my own non-chronological reading journey—I am excited to see how she continues to grow as a writer. In short, I enjoyed Boy Parts but am confident I will enjoy what she will produce in the future more.