A First Look at How To Make A Woman

Photo by Daniela Denyer Malo

Marie Darrieussecq has just published the translated version of her novel How To Make A Woman (translated to English by Penny Hueston). The story follows Rose and Solange, childhood friends, as they grow up, move through the world, find and lose love, and figure out their role in society. From their teens to adulthood, they learn about ‘love, sex, work, and motherhood’, dealing with hardships and obstacles of every kind. 

This book is a coming of age novel of the very best kind, filled with the sorrows and joys, the ups and downs of life. Divided in three parts, we get to read these characters’ life story as narrated by Rose and Solange themselves, and it all comes together in the end, from both of their points of view. 

The beauty of their characters, however, lies in how easy it is to dislike them while relating occasionally to their thoughts. Rose is selfish, impressionable, and slightly naive. She leaves Solange alone in what’s possibly the hardest period of her life, disgusted by a complication she doesn’t try to understand. She is disloyal to her friends and partners, yet she is also quick to believe and fall for what others will tell her. 

But more than anything, her deep envy of Solange is present in every thought. When her life would seem more stable, organized, and altogether more desirable, she surprises the readers with how much she still envies her friend’s beauty, appeal, and magnetism. 

And the other way around too…

Solange: the wild girl with the messy life, the complicated circumstances and lack of much needed support. And with all the beauty, talent, and attention she could desire, the one thing she wants is the peace of mind, stability and love she sees in Rose’s life. 

At the heart of it, this book is about two very lonely girls, who can’t seem to see how much they need each other. 

The entire book is, perhaps, the most accurate, if somewhat sad, depiction of the fluctuation of life, love, and friendship. It illustrates the underlying love of a friendship between characters who have had to grow apart. It is the most precise imagination of what needing support and not knowing how to ask for it feels like. But mostly, reading about these characters’ friendship is the best call to action for us readers not to wait around on pain, catastrophe and suffering, to reach out.

Rose and Solange are not the loneliest girls in the universe. No, in fact, they’re much like any other woman on earth, if only captured as the saddest version of themselves. They are fighting for their place, learning the way, and trying to stay safe. They are loving, envious, wild, raging, selfish, and more than anything, scared. 

Well, is growing up anything but scary? 

As we read about them feeling anxious about the present, impatient for the future, wanting to run away from the unpleasantness of life, it feels like our minds themselves are spinning out of control, but really, it is Rose and Solange who are spinning out of control.

But if you too relate to those Sunday-evening feelings, don’t take my advice, take future Solange’s:

I can’t change anything in the past, my dear Solange, but I’m here to tell you that the future is waiting for you.

Until the next page.

---

Edited by Ainhoa Aron, Literature Editor