Two men are their gaolers a woman is later introduced as a ‘nurse’. The women are treated brutally they are forced to wear strange, ‘Amish’ uniforms, their heads are shaved and they are talked to as if they are the lowest beings on earth. The Natural Way of Things centres on a group of women who find themselves imprisoned in a rundown, remote property surrounded by an electric fence. Her friends said it was an “important book to be written.” It’s also an important book to be read. Once I started, I had to finish, much in the same way Woods said she had to write the book, despite many times feeling as though she couldn’t do it. You might wonder why I read it, since it affected me so much. It really did feel like I’d been hit with a sledgehammer. Reading Wood’s book was a visceral experience, creating tension in my body as I experienced emotions one after the other: anger, frustration, helplessness, horror, and deep sadness. I can’t think of a better way to describe this novel. “I like things that are subtle and elegant, but I’ve written a sledgehammer.” (The Saturday Paper, October 24, 2015) In The Saturday Paper, author Charlotte Wood describes her latest novel, The Natural Way of Things, as a “ sledgehammer”.
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