'Motherf*r'

'Motherf*r' in many ways reminded me of 'Sarah Cole'. Here we have a man probably in his late 20's, early 30's, who is quite literally a motherf*r. The nameless main character, which I took the liberty of naming "Bob" (short and sweet) is described as a man that has "met women of every size and shape in different cities" (p. 75), in other words, "Bob" has been around. He takes pleasure in wooing these women, who have children and sleeps with them. These women fall for "Bob", but wind up a bit heartbroken when he never calls them back. Until he meets the starlet; unlike all the other women he's encountered, he finds something rather interesting about her. Relating to 'Sarah Cole', Ron was not physically attracted to Sarah at all, but was engaged in conversation with her, which he did in fact find very interesting. Instead of getting straight to the point with the no-name starlet, "Bob" took it slow. He wanted to get to know her, and when she finally insinuated her sexual attractiveness to him, he told her that he wanted "to make love to her in bed" (p. 83). In the end, just like in 'Sarah Cole', 'Motherf*r' ends with the male character disappearing and leaving the women alone.

Approaching 'Motherf*r' as a feminist critic would, the dominant/patriarchal reading of such a work would see how "Bob" simply used all the women that have entered and quickly exited his life as toys; he would provide them with some tender love and care, which as seperated or divorced single mothers they would be very vulnerable to, and sleep with them, and never call or see them again. On the other hand, the subversive would be represented by the vulnerability depicted in all of the women "Bob" has slept with, but most clearly in the starlet; in a life surrounded by fame and recognition, she longs to feel as normal as anybody else, and she also longs to be loved or cared for, and she mistakenly finds this in "Bob". I think that a feminist literary critic would be drawn to the description of desire that "Bob" explains to the starlet; in a way, the starlet learned to control this desire, but "Bob's" downfall was a result of him not taking his own advice. His desire was too great for him to tame.