There is a limited, but great, lineage of novels of cancellation...and they are deeply discomfiting ones. Here, there is not even an incident to discomfort us. The novel promises a dangerous critique of contemporary sexual and cultural politics, and a narrator who sympathizes with the collective enemy; instead, it retreats into metaphor and meteorology ... Rather than analyze with any honesty the way humans tally up presumed evils on an inscrutable social abacus — or even depict it — The Vivisectors merely pre-empts all criticism, stepping back to vivisect its own pretense of sophistication.
The Vivisectors tells two stories at once about one person. The suspenseful tension between them pulses at the heart of the novel’s poignance, humor, and winning personality ... The real story could also regarded as the gradual evolution from that person into someone in touch with themselves and others — a movement which is, despite the book’s stated resistance of such feelings, romantic. The narrative voice is so convincingly grouchy and dismissive that one might be tempted not to believe those moments in which the tone shifts — and yet those swerves are believable as well ... Sturdily structured, the novel ties things together at its end in a way that might strike some as blunt but could also be taken as gratifying, a surprisingly open expression of freedom.
The reader is never given a direct account of the scene; like everything in the book, it comes to us second hand through Agathe’s crisp edicts on her generation ... In the end there is very little conclusion to the thorny problems of the novel, as it drifts into an unlikely romance. Even a ponderous read like this is enjoyable when it’s written by someone as sharply intelligent as Williams — but I wish she had retained some of the fearlessness we saw in The Doloriad.
Williams writes with a singular brand of Ballardian ferocity – she revels in the wretched and the craven ... It is initially a little disappointing, given the wealth of imagination on show, that when the climactic revolution takes place, it leaves things looking so familiar. But perhaps that is the final sting in the tail, a deception disguised as sweetness – a last test, then, of cynicism, this time the reader’s own.
Williams writes with a distinct and artful style, but the meandering plot and all-out weirdness of the story can be difficult. However, the patient reader will be rewarded with something wholly unique.
Sharp, surreal, and grimly funny ... This intelligent and self-aware novel trusts readers with its intricacies and rewards engagement. Fans of Ottessa Moshfegh and Agustina Bazterrica will relish Williams’s fascinating, disturbing, and shockingly tender writing.
That Williams’ novel reads like an allegory plays up the moral and philosophical dimension, but it’s never clear what the story is allegorizing. Is this a savage takedown of academia? A portrait of the late Anthropocene’s climate woes and social disconnect? A grim meditation on cancel culture? Xenophobia? A psychological parable of falling in love? A flinty, withholding novel, though full of dark intelligence.
Hypnotic ... Though the plot takes a backseat to the prose, Williams is an accomplished stylist, and her writing accrues a magnetic rhythm ... Singular and arresting.
