The Swallows

Objectification. The prep school as a petri dish for growing diseased human behavior may be overdone in fiction, but Lisa Lutz uses the setting with skill in her novel titled, The Swallows. After Alexandra Witt reluctantly joins the faculty at Stonebridge Academy, her creative writing assignment becomes a reagent to identify the rot of abhorrent behavior at this coed school. We’re drawn into a toxic environment in which female students are objectivized by males in an organized and systematic way. We see the power dynamics at work in the school and the escalation of the resistance by the female students to the system. There were times I felt guilty for laughing and wondered if Lutz led me successfully into that trap. Some of her phrases made me stop as she caught me by surprise. Provided your appetite for reading about oral sex exists, this novel is a way of seeing MeToo in yet one more dimension. Rating: Three-star (It’s ok) Click here to purchase The Swallows from amazon.com.