I read all of Mating by Norman Rush because I was trying to be part of the zeitgeist. This was an overcommitment to being trendy. It’s a very long book. My favorite thing about it was how the protagonist has urticaria, a condition which I think should be better known. Otherwise, I generally prefer to read very short, very earnest books with clear, unadorned writing so Mating was not an obvious fit for me. I generally disliked it. For all that it is claustrophobically inside its narrator’s head, it felt lacking in interiority to me.
I will be transparent and say that my reaction to the book was certainly influenced by the fact that Norman Rush is a man. Natalia Ginzburg writes that, “Women think a lot about themselves and they do so in a painful and feverish way that is unknown to men." It’s not that I think men can’t write women protagonists — some men do so very well like Alejandro Zambra or Julian Barnes. But this book isn’t just about a woman, it’s about *being* a woman and more na…