The Argonauts

Book, 2015

Premise - The memoir of Maggie Nelson, a female writer married to a biologically female, non-binary, masculine-passing artist named Harry. Maggie gives her reflections on the openness and fluidity of gender, sexuality, and identity for anyone who does not benefit from patriarchy.

Review - My impressions of this book may seem extraordinarily low, but I have to say, my experience was ruined by the audiobook. The audiobook was narrated by Maggie Nelson herself and, while perhaps her words may have been interesting alone, her monotone delivery was cringe-worthy and deal-breaking. I would not say that speaking is one of her talents.

The other main deal-breaker for me was the lack of content organization. There may have been intent behind the order in which ideas were presented, but I had a hard time catching on. On the other hand, perhaps there was no intent, and ideas were free-flowing. That's an admirable idea, apart from the fact that the content was somewhat boring to begin with, so free-flowing boring thoughts were even less likely to capture me.

Maybe I shouldn't say the content was boring. The delivery was boring, but the content was complex. It was full of allusions and references of which I was entirely unfamiliar. What audience would be? She quotes so many people in a way that comes off as 1) a little pretentious and 2) as if she could not come up with the words to express her ideas herself, so she just used someone else's. The title "Argonauts", for example, is taken from Greek mythology as a group of heroes who sail on the boat the "Argo." The question is - if you remove all the individual pieces of the boat and build a new boat from new pieces, is it still the same boat? Can we apply the same philosophy to people?

Despite the proportion of allusions, it was a very personal memoir. I will attest to the intrigue of her life experiences. She talks about her experiences with gender while being married to someone non-binary, sexuality (particularly experiences with anal penetration...?), pregnancy, and motherhood. Her relationship with Harry was particularly unique and opportune for introspection, as they passed as a heteronormative couple but biologically had all sorts of things going on that would baffle small-minded people. All in all, I personally felt as though the most valuable piece of her memoir were her lived experiences with gender identity. Everything else I could kind of do without. (37/100).

Quote - “I’m not on my way anywhere, Harry sometimes tells inquirers. How to explain, in a culture frantic for resolution, that sometimes the shit stays messy?”

What to read for - I think her relationship with Harry is interesting. I think Harry is an artist (not sure if he is a writer?), but if they were a writer I would imagine they could write an interesting memoir themselves.

If you liked this book, I'd recommend How to be a Woman!

Written by Maggie Nelson
Published by Graywolf Press