FEEBLEMINDED by Ariana Harwicz

Translated by Annie McDermott and Carolina Orloff

When it comes to toxic mother/daughter relationships, I didn’t think anyone could top “Big” Edie and “Little” Edie Bouvier Beale. Admittedly, that might have more to do with my teen obsession with Drew Barrymore (and possibly, subconsciously, Jessica Lange) than anything else, but still I shudder every time I think of them. Well, after reading Feebleminded the BB’s have well and truly been blown out of the water. Never could I have imagined a more viscerally repugnant, dysfunctional duo than Ariana Harwicz has conjured in these pages.

The story positively drips with bodily fluids, brutal sexual encounters, obsessive masturbation and voyeuristic delight, as these two women descend into their own depraved circle of hell. Like any addiction run wild, they always need something more, something stronger. Soon enough, there’s nothing left to quell the urges but murder. A manic fireball of hyper-sexualised energy, Feebleminded is a singular reading experience.

Feebleminded by Ariana Harwicz (Tr. Annie McDermott and Carolina Orloff)
Charco Press, 2020
117 pages