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Your Body Was Made For This
Eating too much, eating not enough, having sex, not having sex, aging parents, grief, drugs, childhood trauma, and the last call of ovaries--a woman's body at mid-life can get messy. Debbie Bateman's stories take a clear-eyed look at the largely unexplored private world of a pivotal stage in virtually every woman's life. These stories are linked not only by the characters, but also by the visceral themes of food, sex, exercise, beauty, and aging. The secret clenching of a fist, the unwinding of a silk scarf, the proud refusal to have breast reconstruction, the women in these stories want full authority over their bodies and their lives. "The kind of writer who can make you laugh out loud, grit your teeth in anger and struggle not to shed tears, all in the same story."--Caroline Woodward, BC BookWorld "A wonderful, fierce, and above all intelligent collection that grows in power with each succeeding story."--Sharon Butala, author of Season of Fury and Wonder "A hopeful and empathetic read, you'll find yourself cheering for each woman you meet."--Stella Harvey, author of Finding Callidora "Debbie Bateman offers sharp sparks of dark humour, casually sinister moments in something as innocuous as a yoga class, and endings that veer from the expected in startling but utterly satisfying ways. Whether exploring menopause, anorexia, addiction, or a relationship to an increasingly senile mother, these stories are so deeply rooted in the body that they can't help but get under your skin. A formidable debut."--Barbara Joan Scott, author of The Taste of Hunger "YOUR BODY WAS MADE FOR THIS shines a light on an under-seen women navigating middle age. Bateman's stories honour these women with honesty, compassion, and hope, through characters who challenge the status quo, follow their desires, make mistakes, get back on their feet, and carry on."--Julie Paul, author of Meteorites Fiction. Women's Studies.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
210 pages, Paperback
Published October 13, 2023
About the author
Debbie Bateman
3 books43 followersDebbie Bateman is a graduate of The Writer's Studio at Simon Fraser University. Her short story collection, "Your Body Was Made for This," was published by Ronsdale Press in October of 2023. Now post-menopausal, Debbie is still too young to be told what she cannot do. She is a quiet rebel, a known hugger of trees, and a practitioner of Buddhism. A proud mother of three sons, she lives in Quw'utsun (Cowichan) on Vancouver Island with her husband. https://bcbooklook.com/temple-of-the-...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
September 14, 2023
This pristine collection of short stories amplifies epiphanic moments in a woman’s life. Utilizing the skilled and breezy pen of an accomplished wordsmith, Bateman reveals intimate scenes with glimpses of deeply held secrets and desires. In Secret Workings, the first story in the book, we meet Pauline, an adult survivor of child abuse. While the details of this trauma are only hinted at, we discover that Pauline has allowed herself to be subsumed into the role of dutiful wife. In a moment of clarity and rare courage, she begins to pack her belongings in order to escape:
Technically, the private, dirty little revolt started a month earlier, not that Pauline knew anything of the kind when she’d signed up for the noon-hour yoga challenge. At The Greater Foothills College where she tends angry students every day, fitness classes are free to staff… “Listen to your body,” says their instructor. Yu Yan has sleek hair dyed maroon and a petite doll of a body. But her voice is soothing…
Pauline’s newfound willingness to listen to her body becomes the catalyst that frees her from “being bent against her will.” It’s a moving and powerful narrative, subtly drawn but profound in the way that it narrates the quiet life experience of a woman who finally finds the confidence to evoke change. Each of Bateman’s women experiences a brief moment of knowing what it is they must do in order to become more fully themselves.
In the title story, Your Body Was Made for This, the adolescent Brianna is struggling to find her own way. Unlike her female contemporaries who wish to be nurses and teachers, Brianne works on a farm and “fights her way into a carpenter apprenticeship program.” Her first sexual encounter is a traumatic rape by a boyfriend she had previously trusted and Brianne develops a “force field” around herself as a form of protection. Later in life, she navigates cancer and survives a double-mastectomy and chemo treatments.
People say cancer is a teacher. Brianne thinks only a person who hasn’t gone to school would say a thing like that, but she did deepen a conviction she’s held close since she was an innocent young woman in the cargo area of a rusted-out brown station wagon. Don’t grieve too hard over what you’ve lost or you risk missing what you have.
Filled with the wisdom of a life well lived, Bateman wrings new truths and small epiphanies from her characters’ experiences. As the women in these stories deal with aging parents, infertility, body dysphoria, new lovers, gender fluidity, and marriages that are ending, each of them summonses the strength to pursue new directions.
Resentment is one of many themes that Bateman probes with the skill of a surgeon, cutting deeply to expose festering wounds. In the story Intimacy, we are introduced to David and Lynn. Lynn is preparing and elaborate meal for David and he, in turn, is hoping that the meal presages love-making. As their evening unfolds and each of them struggles to connect with the other, it becomes clear that something injurious has taken place that has destroyed any possibility for the kind of closeness they seek. Although they attempt to go through the normative motions of reconciliation, something venomous has irrevocably compromised their relationship, and is still at work.
Armed with fork and knife, he furtively studies the woman he calls wife. He does not want to upset her, and there’s still a chance this might work. But in recent weeks, he’s gained some distance from their problems, enough at least to question her intentions. He’s begun to notice that thing she does where she quashes any small helping of joy they might’ve shared.
Bateman’s protagonists seek freedom from the confines and conventions of their circumstances, and in this there are resonances of Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades. Like Munro’s cast of characters, the women in this collection are expertly drawn, and feel like neighbours and friends. They are familiar women taken from our everyday lives. Bateman routinely elevates the ordinary to shine a light on key moments, even as she celebrates the importance of stifled desires and dreams. Moreover, she does so by balancing the bitter-sweet with a sense of impending joy. An impressive debut collection.
Technically, the private, dirty little revolt started a month earlier, not that Pauline knew anything of the kind when she’d signed up for the noon-hour yoga challenge. At The Greater Foothills College where she tends angry students every day, fitness classes are free to staff… “Listen to your body,” says their instructor. Yu Yan has sleek hair dyed maroon and a petite doll of a body. But her voice is soothing…
Pauline’s newfound willingness to listen to her body becomes the catalyst that frees her from “being bent against her will.” It’s a moving and powerful narrative, subtly drawn but profound in the way that it narrates the quiet life experience of a woman who finally finds the confidence to evoke change. Each of Bateman’s women experiences a brief moment of knowing what it is they must do in order to become more fully themselves.
In the title story, Your Body Was Made for This, the adolescent Brianna is struggling to find her own way. Unlike her female contemporaries who wish to be nurses and teachers, Brianne works on a farm and “fights her way into a carpenter apprenticeship program.” Her first sexual encounter is a traumatic rape by a boyfriend she had previously trusted and Brianne develops a “force field” around herself as a form of protection. Later in life, she navigates cancer and survives a double-mastectomy and chemo treatments.
People say cancer is a teacher. Brianne thinks only a person who hasn’t gone to school would say a thing like that, but she did deepen a conviction she’s held close since she was an innocent young woman in the cargo area of a rusted-out brown station wagon. Don’t grieve too hard over what you’ve lost or you risk missing what you have.
Filled with the wisdom of a life well lived, Bateman wrings new truths and small epiphanies from her characters’ experiences. As the women in these stories deal with aging parents, infertility, body dysphoria, new lovers, gender fluidity, and marriages that are ending, each of them summonses the strength to pursue new directions.
Resentment is one of many themes that Bateman probes with the skill of a surgeon, cutting deeply to expose festering wounds. In the story Intimacy, we are introduced to David and Lynn. Lynn is preparing and elaborate meal for David and he, in turn, is hoping that the meal presages love-making. As their evening unfolds and each of them struggles to connect with the other, it becomes clear that something injurious has taken place that has destroyed any possibility for the kind of closeness they seek. Although they attempt to go through the normative motions of reconciliation, something venomous has irrevocably compromised their relationship, and is still at work.
Armed with fork and knife, he furtively studies the woman he calls wife. He does not want to upset her, and there’s still a chance this might work. But in recent weeks, he’s gained some distance from their problems, enough at least to question her intentions. He’s begun to notice that thing she does where she quashes any small helping of joy they might’ve shared.
Bateman’s protagonists seek freedom from the confines and conventions of their circumstances, and in this there are resonances of Alice Munro’s Dance of the Happy Shades. Like Munro’s cast of characters, the women in this collection are expertly drawn, and feel like neighbours and friends. They are familiar women taken from our everyday lives. Bateman routinely elevates the ordinary to shine a light on key moments, even as she celebrates the importance of stifled desires and dreams. Moreover, she does so by balancing the bitter-sweet with a sense of impending joy. An impressive debut collection.
February 2, 2024
Debbie Bateman has written a collection of powerful short stories. The characters in each of these stories are real and honest. They all deal with the physical and emotional changes women experience as they reach menopause. As the reader I could empathize with their feelings and frustrations, the determination to achieve goals and to move on after losses. The themes of aging, aging parents, obsession with food, weight, exercise and sex link the characters in each of these stories.
Congratulations! This is a valuable collection written about the topics that have rarely been written about.
Congratulations! This is a valuable collection written about the topics that have rarely been written about.
October 24, 2023
I read aloud the first short story to my wife, and was pleased with the cadence, appreciating how the protagonist metamorphizes from awkward and unbalanced to whole and feet apart steady. Some books read well with a deft emotional intelligence. How do you take a character out of an abyss of pain? In the example provided by the opening story it was a series of small moments spent at a yoga studio. Towards the end of the story you feel her strength building, rising to a dramatic conclusion.
February 21, 2024
A phenomenal collection of short stories. Each one talks about different challenges that women may face. Some of the challenges are infidelity, drug abuse, weight loss, and aging parents. This collection makes you realize that you are not alone. The characters are relatable and loveable. You even see some of the characters come together in other stories. I throughly enjoyed reading this book.
November 3, 2023
This is a book to be savoured slowly. Give yourself time to live with the stories. I know that this is a book I will recommend to friends. It has found a place on my reread multiple times shelf because of its depth and emotional candour.
May 24, 2024
This was a really powerful collection of stories. Many common and shared struggles women encounter in a lifetime, a great representation of the 1970's babies in the books demographic. Men should read this.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews