Poor Things: A Book Review

Howdy friends! I've recently gotten back into reading, leading to finish four books in a weekend. The best one I read, however, was Poor Things by Alasdair Gray.

Now, if you recall one of my first posts was a doll I made of Bella Baxter from the film of the same name. It's my absolute favorite film of all time, so when I learned that it was based on a novel, I had to pick it up and read it.

The novel has a few stark changes from the film: Max McCandles is actually Archibald McCandless (no, the spelling difference isn't an error on my part) in the novel, and Godwin is not a medical professor.

There has been some discourse around the film, and subsequently the book, because it does depict a baby-brained Bella having sex with multiple men. Some people viewed this as child pornography, since the brain inside the adult body was that of a child, despite it rapidly growing in size to catch up with the body.

I disagree with this take wholeheartedly. What I took from both pieces of media is the forced infantilization of women. Bella is regarded as fun and amusing to Duncan Wedderburn until she starts learning philosophy and exercising her brain. He takes issue with her having her own ideas and exploring her own body and sexuality, while Max, or Archibald, respects her regardless and wishes to marry her. When Duncan finds out that she's been prostituting herself, he has a complete meltdown and accuses her of being the devil in disguise, and that Godwin Baxter is Satan himself.

Anyway, back to the book. The novel is written from the point of view of Archibald (Max) and told in flashback through telegrams received from Bella by Godwin. Another change I neglected to mention is that in the film, Bella goes with General Alfred Blessington, her husband prior to Victoria (Bella's original name prior to the brain switch) throwing herself off of a bridge, and ends with his brain being traded with that of a goat, while in the novel he is accompanied by police and private investigators and never leaves Godwin's home.

The ending of the novel, while a bit anticlimactic, was precious to me as it showed Bella becoming first a nurse, then a doctor and running a clinic with Archibald and Godwin. The ending of the film shows Bella, Max, and Toinette (a fellow worker at the brothel) living blissfully with Alfred Blessington's brain being switched with a goat.

This story is incredibly important to me in so many ways. Bella, being someone of immense wealth and privilege throughout the story, learning about those less fortunate in such a jarring way really cemented the theme of the story to me. If only everyone in such positions of privilege was able to experience hardship and seeing blind, poor children, then maybe the world would be a little less cruel.