Nov 19

Nov 19 Study for Obedience

Author: Sarah Bernstein
Publisher: Knopf
Goodreads | The StoryGraph

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Note: Content and trigger warnings are provided for those who need them at the bottom of this page. If you don’t need them and don’t want to risk spoilers, don’t scroll past the full review.

Cover Description

A young woman moves from the place of her birth to the remote northern country of her forebears to be housekeeper to her brother, whose wife has recently left him.

Soon after her arrival, a series of inexplicable events occurs - collective bovine hysteria; the demise of a ewe and her nearly born lamb; a local dog's phantom pregnancy; a potato blight. She notices that the local suspicion about incomers in general seems to be directed with some intensity at her and she senses a mounting threat that lies 'just beyond the garden gate.' And as she feels the hostility growing, pressing at the edges of her brother's property, she fears that, should the rumblings in the town gather themselves into a more defined shape, who knows what might happen, what one might be capable of doing.

With a sharp, lyrical voice, Sarah Bernstein powerfully explores questions of complicity and power, displacement and inheritance. Study for Obedience is a finely tuned, unsettling novel that confirms Bernstein as one of the most exciting voices of her generation.

TL;DR Review

Study for Obedience is an unsettling and challenging read that also feels like witnessing literary witchcraft. It won’t be for everyone, but I enjoyed it even more than I expected to.

For you if: You’re comfortable feeling a bit unmoored in a book.

Full Review

Study for Obedience was shortlisted for the 2023 Booker Prize and winner of the 2023 Giller Prize, and while it’s definitely not going to be for everyone, it was very much for me. I actually enjoyed it even more than I expected to.

This is one of those (fortunately short) books that begs to be read at least twice. The prose is atypical and more akin to a stream of consciousness (although not quite) than traditional storytelling. There’s also no dialogue. But trust Sarah Bernstein, because she’s going to spin you up into a state where suddenly you’re exploring power dynamics and how someone subjected to abuse can twist it into its own form of controlling power.

Honestly, reading this book was unsettling, and I never quite felt like I fully understood it at any given moment, but also felt like witnessing literary witchcraft. If you’re comfortable being uncomfortable, I recommend it.