Review of Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block

Is beauty monstrous?
If so, then my sisters were right
His beauty was so sharp it could have cut
out my heart
He lay naked, sleeping on my bed
How could it be?
Why had he chosen me?
I wanted to run and hide from him

Francesca Lia Block
Psyche in a Dress

TIme for another poetry book! I love Francesca Lia Block, but I realize that she may not be everyone's cup of tea. For my first review of her work I have chosen Psyche in a Dress, what I have often thought of an intro to her work: It is short, poetical, and talks about the Tough Issues, but not in a way that reminds of an after school special. 

I have never seen one of her books in a bookstore. My introduction to her work came when I was in seventh grade, when I came across I Was a Teenage Fairy at my local library. Her brand of poetic magical realism hit twelve year me harder than a freight train. That was a dumb analogy. The takeaway is that her writing leaves me breathless: "even in darkness, your lips taste like sunshine". Beautiful.

They didn't have this book at my local bookstore, and when I went to pick it up, I was surprised when the cashier recognized the author. I mentioned this and his response was that "She is more of a writer's writer." Touche, cashier man. Touche.

This particular book is about a girl named Psyche. Her movie director father is a tad deranged and her absentee mother leaves only clothes for Psyche to bond with. One night, someone visits Psyche in her room. He calls himself Love and spends many nights with her, asking only that she not look at his face. One night, her doubt ("doubt tastes like sand in the mouth") is too much and she looks at his face. She becomes overwhelmed by his beauty and sends him away. She spends the rest of the book trying to find him. 

Throughout the book, she becomes different goddesses. When she dates Orpheus, she is Eurydice. When she is with Hades, she is Persephone. Each relationship is reflective of the myth. In becoming different goddesses, she is trying on different dresses, different parts of herself. This is reflected in the poetry by descriptions of dresses that her mother left her. The hand me down clothes are one way she is able to broadcast this new self. The relationship is another.

Here comes some problematic stuff.
There are definitely some parts of the book I struggled to make peace with.
There is the notion that she has to make herself better to find love again.

"Whenever I felt pain I imagined that I was one step closer
to finding my lover again
I had completed tasks of patience
self-denial and self-punishment
earned him this way
But what had I really done?
Given up a demigod of poetry
let myself be fucked by hell himself
Were those things enough?" 

This is something that is worked through, but it still put me off a bit. But, it should! There are some seriously flawed relationships depicted here, and the reader is supposed to see that and see that it is inherently problematic. Not to accept it, but to challenge it. 
How is that for textual interaction?