IF you are a woman who has given birth, and you have the body to show it...
IF you are a man who sleeps with a woman who has given birth and has the body to show it...
IF you are a woman who intends to give birth, and you have some hilarious notion that your body will come out of it unscathed...
IF you are a man who will be lucky enough to sleep with a woman who has given birth and has the body to show it...
Then this one's for you.
The excerpt below is from "April," (Ariadne and Other Stories). "April" is the masterpiece of the collection, and I've already written on its view of Guyana. This bit is evidence of Johnson's touching sensibility in creating a female character, and in depicting a loving male/female relationship. His handling of Johno in "April" makes me forgive him for other less woman-friendly moments in the collection. Enjoy!
"...his mouth is on her breast and his hands are rubbing the mad skein of scarred skin on her stomach and she feels so small and tiny and angry with him that she starts crying quietly and it is only when he feels the sobs wracking through her body that he raises his head and looks up at her and she bites into her lower lip and stares up at the ceiling that blurs through her tears and he comes up his face above her and his face swims in front of her and she is angry to see that he understands and is pitying her and oh if he could just say that I still beautiful that he like my breast after Renny done nurse all the shape and the spounce out of them and he think my tear-up stomach sexy with all them scars pun it like I's some bad woman or some skunt like that I ask the doctor if the cut gon still show and he seh no no girl everything gon be a'right don't worry bout it de lying bitch and she shuts her eyes again and stiffens her stomach to control her sobs as his lips trail against the scars his fingers too lips fingers touching scar skin scar skin scar and that part is not all dead not everything dead I could still feel through these scars I could still feel good yes I could still feel
You ashamed of it? That's why I couldn't touch you there before?
Not really. Is just that I can't wear short top when I goin out or two-piece bikini and suh when we goin to the creek
Trust me he smiles I see worse than duh at Splashmin's and Red Water. Some girl with some high high belly skin and some itsy bitsy teenie weenie bikini and paradin
Stop! You sick she laughs
What!? I just sayin you know...Renny, something special, come from this tha's part o' you and the rest ain't bad at all I sure you know that at least."
And here's more from Lynn (womanishwords[dot]blogspot[dot]com) on paying tribute to the female body.
[Coming Saturday: an analysis of "The Blacka" (Ariadne and Other Stories)]
