Peach - Emma Glass

© Nylon

Emma Glass’s debut novel is simultaneously unsettling and arresting. The book is extraordinarily visceral, and the absurd word-play takes the reader on a tumultuous journey of female suffering and pain. A Welsh writer, Glass started writing Peach eight or nine years ago whilst studying. Despite moving on with her life (she is now a registered nurse), Glass maintained a sense of attachment to her work.

The plot of the novel is centred around one young woman, Peach, who has been sexually attacked by an older man. As a result, the protagonist carries around the experience as she interacts with her overtly sex-obsessed parents and loving boyfriend, Green. Her mental turmoil is expressed through lyrical prose. The lack of context adds to the sense of disorientation, for example the book opens in media res just after the attack, ‘Thick stick sticky sticking wet ragged wool winding round the wounds, sticking, stitching the sliced skin together as I walk’. After Peach is attacked, she goes home where her parents do not notice her bruises or distress, ‘I open my kitchen door and peer in. They grin manically at me’. Glass explicitly depicts Peach’s parents overtly sexual relationship, symbolising society’s blindness to the assault against women.

The slimness of the story is combated with the richness of the language. Peach is rife with symbolism, Glass has aptly named each character after food: there is Spud, who “shaved a little for accompanying friend potatoes” at a barbecue. The ominous and sausage-fingered Lindon, and Peach’s boyfriend Green, who is described as being a source of nourishment.

Peach is well thought out and the narrative is controlled; every event that occurs leads to the next, the atmosphere of the words seethe with menace. Flesh is a constant source of imagery throughout the book, from the protagonist’s name, to her description of her attacker. Glass writes with such care, and each word is vibrant with the ability to come off the page. Despite being only 98 pages, upon finishing it I felt I’d undergone one of the most intense physical reading experiences. Glass has offered the reader a glimpse into a women’s world, one where she attempts to piece herself back together and examine her life. The novel feels both timely and timeless, examining violence against women, carefully articulating the painful and delicate language of trauma.