Review: The Body In Its Seasons by Maz Hedgehog
“This is about when fire-hearted girls become women who know themselves to be heroes and damsels, saints and sinners. Women who reach across the space between their translations and love like their names are incantations, because they are. Women who love like joy is a ritual acted into each other’s mouths, because it is.”
(The Body In Its Seasons, p.20)
The Body In Its Seasons is a triumph. This slim volume, which meanders from poetry to prose to stage-play and back again, is a lush exploration of what it means to fully embody oneself. Maz Hedgehog plays with form, function, rhythm and structure to craft work as technically impressive as it is emotionally evocative. From the very first page, the unconventional employment of superscript and footnotes draws the reader into a realm where the quotidian is transformed and reconsidered. We are introduced not just to the Body, but to the Body[tactile], the Body[abundant], and the Body[offal and cream]. These visceral descriptors open up a new dimension to the emotions we’re reading about; they communicate the very intimate internal states that are usually our most personal experiences.
Akin to shining a light through a prism, Maz Hedgehog uses their body as a metaphor, a stage, and a stepping stone into some of the most honest, raw and uncomfortable writing this reviewer has personally read. We are invited to sit with the discomfort of racist microaggressions from an academic supervisor; to consider how it feels to be utterly misunderstood by one’s parents; to explore our own gender identity and what we have been taught to take for granted about our bodies. Consider that dialogue which is uncomfortable to read must have been excruciating to hear in person. This writing is confessional, perhaps, but it is also a challenge: to look unflinchingly and really see the truth of what is being communicated.
The Body In Its Seasons amongst orange roses in full bloom.
Thematically, The Body In Its Seasons can be interpreted as a hero’s journey, a documentation of the process of leaving all that is safe and familiar in order to discover the truth about oneself. It’s about religion, in a way, certainly about Catholicism and embodied divinity. It’s about family and education and work and what we owe to each other - and what we do not owe to anyone. It is an unashamed reclamation of the body, the self, the personhood of the author. A rejection of false claims and restrictions upon them. Maz Hedgehog explores interpretations of the body as our anchor to corporeality, as the baggage we bring with us into the future, as an avatar which prompts strangers to make myriad assumptions about our truest selves.
This book is a joy to read and a catalyst for deeper understanding of the world - I would recommend it to anybody who enjoys poetry, experimental fiction, and powerful narratives. The Body In Its Seasons is available to buy now from Burning Eye Books.
