121
Days of Urban Sodom is a disturbing and compelling book which examines sexual
abuse and domestic violence. The unknown
narrator tells the story of her abuse through the examination of the Marquis de Sade, her nemesis and a metaphor for the ultimate perpetrator of abuse. This experimental and distressing work is set over a 121 days or chapters in parallel with the Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom. Each chapter is split into two, plain type where the narrator journey's with de Sade and Italics where the narrator flashes back to a love affair turned dark, eventually the two stories merge. Conveyed in first
person is the wrath, agony, contamination, guilt, all the emotions felt by a survivor of multiple
child abuse. In
second person the narrator addresses de Sade, who merely represents abusers asking for an explanation, also in second person the
reader is directly addressed and held accountable for the child abuse occurring in society which is swept under the carpet. Written in third person the narrator discusses the politics of and motives for abuse, utilising current events such as the Iraq war, Operation Avalanche, and Operation Ore.
This is a sharply worded work, clever in style, humour, thought proving, sad, yet sometimes funny. The narrator goes off on many tangents, and can make the mundane gripping. It defies genre and boundary, being a fictionalised account of a life, a deconstruction of de Sade and a political commentary. 121 Days of Urban Sodom is setting a president for literature and what to expect from books this century. It is a refreshing turn away from the formulaic tired plots. An extremely insightful novel, and an interesting read. It will challenge and stimulate, but, not be enjoyed in the classic sense, in fact it is more likely to leave the reader with an uncomfortable feeling.
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