The Chain
The Relationships That Break Us, the Women Who Rebuild Us
Ratings1
Average rating5
'Jaw-dropping . . . Read then pass it on' STYLIST, Book of the Month 'I was utterly floored by The Chain. It has the pace of a thriller and the weight of poetry' EVIE WYLD 'Urgent, unflinching and yet so full of love and nurture for women and womanhood' JOSIE LONG 'The Chain took my breath away from the first page and did not let go of me till the very last' NIKITA GILL In January 2017, Chimene Suleyman was on her way to an abortion clinic in Queens, New York with her boyfriend, the father of her nascent child. It was the last day they would spend together. In an extraordinary sequence of events, Chimene was to discover the truth of her boyfriend's life: that she and many other women had been subtly, patiently and painfully betrayed. In this spellbinding memoir, she exposes one man's control over many women and the trauma he left behind, and celebrates the sisterhood that formed in his wake despite - and in spite of - him. Exploring how women are duped every day by individuals, she interrogates how society itself continually allows this to happen. She demonstrates that, no matter how intelligent, educated or self-aware they might be, over time a woman can be played into performing the age-old role of giver and nurturer: self-sacrificing and subordinate. Both a devastating personal testimony and a searing indictment of persistent misogyny, The Chain is a book for any woman who has questioned her relationship and buried her doubts, for any woman who can't quite identify the source of her unease and for any woman who has been sheltered by the fierce protection of her female friends.
Tags
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
I received a Netgalley ARC of The Chain. These are my honest thoughts.
If you're a fan of women finding solidarity in the shared stories of misogyny, this is your book. The primary villain is an ex of the author, who did her, and every other woman he ever met, extremely wrong in ways it's hard to understand if you have empathy and a conscience.
But the story isn't only about this unnamed man, although the thread of the harm he did is woven through the story. It's also a story of other men, of a system and a society that will not hold these men accountable, and of how women navigate this world alone and together.
Chimene Suleyman is open, and vulnerable, and raw about her experience and the aftermath. Thje damage this man left in his wake. She speaks of loss due to her abortion. She speaks of almost all-encompassing depression, and she speaks of the chain created by women who share their stories coming together.
This was almost a perfect book for me other than timelines got a little muddled on occasion.