A novel about race, femininity, and the ways we are blind to ourselves. My Nemesis concerns the relationship between two women: the narrator, Tessa, a white woman and memoirist, and her counterpart, the Asian-American writer Wah.

Tessa is living an apparently content but also boring existence with her second husband, Milton; she has a daughter from her first marriage named Eleonore, who is now in college and from whom Tessa is virtually estranged. Tessa’s life is reinvigorated when she comes into contact online with a philosopher, Charlie, who quickly involves himself in the life of her and her husband: he’s so charismatic, and both of them like him so much, that he seems to revitalize their relationship. Meanwhile, the nature of the relationship between Tessa and Charlie is taut to the point of snapping and becoming some kind of extramarital affair. This is perhaps exacerbated when Tessa and Milton begin to spend more and more time with not just Charlie but also his wife, Wah, and their adopted daughter, Htet. Htet is a fifteen-year-old girl from Burma who had been sold into slavery in Malaysia by her family before being adopted by Wah; she is also the subject of Wah’s only published book.

The small cast of characters allows for a novel that uses parallels and contrasts to create a house of mirrors, refracting and bending depending on the juxtaposition of the characters: we’re interested not only in the parallels between Tessa and Wah, but also those between Tessa and Charlie, and the differences in their situations, especially due to gender. Tessa is highly invested in a certain ideal of feminism, and as such has strong opinions about what the life of a woman should be. Tessa perceives her relationship with Wah to be competitive and antagonistic: in Tessa’s mind, Wah is a portrait of the kind of femininity that Tessa finds abhorrent, namely her avoidance of conflict but also, importantly, her appearance and presentation.

The novel uses two large-scale devices I am fond of: the book itself is structured as a letter or series of letters, though to whom is not clear until near the end, and the narrator is wildly unreliable. Sometimes I worry that the public associates an author so closely with the voice she writes in that the unreliable narrator, especially the prejudiced narrator, is in danger of disappearing; unfortunately, I can all-too-easily see someone picking up this book and decrying it as racist without thinking too hard about it, just because the voice on the page is sometimes explicitly a racist voice. But the beauty of Charmaine Craig’s book is the subtext, all of the things left unsaid by the woman who doesn’t get to tell the story, and all of the things the reader learns from the narrator that the narrator doesn’t intend for the reader to learn. To write circuitously, to use language to outline the shape of something without filling it in, is a tremendously finicky and difficult task, and one that I think Craig accomplishes.

A fascinating novel that lives between its own lines, or perhaps under its own skin.

A captivating novel, with an ending that didn't sate me. Despite finding the protagonist unsympathetic and astonishingly self focused I wanted her relationships to be better. She gave us enough of their characters to wish she would be more honest with her husband, her daughter, her for want of a better word crush and his family. I felt like I'd been immersed in a world unfamiliar to me - where women compete actively, vying for affection. The story almost meanders along, but well worth reading.

I picked this book because the cover is beautiful.

This book explores around the role of feminism in womanhood. I found it hard to read especially at first. Maybe I wasn’t used to the writer’s style of writing so it took me a lot of time to focus on lots of parts.

This book literally filled by a lot of Camus and Nietzsche and it was philosophically written that I wished I could understand better. I enjoyed this one but this is not a kind of book for a casual read. This is for serious literature readers.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the opportunity to read the advanced reader copy and give my honest review.

I’m not going to lie I requested the ARC of this from NetGalley because that cover has me in an utter choke hold. Stunning.

I do plan to buy this book in a physical copy, and read it after I have read some of Camus litterateur. I also hope that at a later date in a mind set more keen on this microscope observation, I may have a better time with it.

My Nemesis is a very intellectual portrayal of Tessa and her relationships with the people surrounding her, somewhat warped, morally grey and challenging to read at times. The betrayal runs deep and had myself feeling many emotions most prominently a combination of frustration and empathy.

Tessa’s exploration into these connections, with Wah in particular forces her to open her own eyes. The discussions are interesting, I however did not feel any connection to any of the characters, I also found the language highly elevated throwing me out of my depths. Like I said I do plan to give this another go, but only read this if you enjoy a slow conversation between highly intelligent individuals.


“So what does that make us, Camus and me and someone like Charlie? Fantasists like Don Juan? Or only people who need, now and again, to seek refuge from the reality of their lives, the truth of themselves?”

Deceptively simple and straightforward, this intricate story of female rivalry is actually a startlingly deep and nuanced examination of how women perceive themselves and each other. Most interesting for me is the depiction of a self-described feminist who abandons all female camaraderie when it comes to women she views as rivals. Is she no feminist or are the ideals of feminism as false and confining as those of misogyny? Interesting and heady read overall.

I really thought I would enjoy "My Nemesis" - I generally gravitate toward literary fiction and typically appreciate novels slanted more toward character-development and relationships than an action-driven plot. Unfortunately, this one could not keep my attention - I tried to pick it up a few times but had a hard time engaging in the narrative and ultimately gave up about halfway through. Many thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for my readership and honest review.

ARC GIVEN BY NETGALLEY

It seems as if I’m in the minority here. I didn’t find it very entertaining. I probably would’ve enjoyed it more if I was in the right head frame but I would read a little bit, then put it down and not want to pick it up again. It was a cycle, in the end I finished it because it wasn’t a long book.

This novel is written in a messy way, and Im not sure if that is something I like or not. What I mean is that the protagonist starts talking about something and ends up telling you 5 random things without connection to the first one. I don't think that's necessarily bad cause it's like talking with a friend, very casual and natural (but with heavy topics like motherhood), the thing is I prefer a trope that it's clear and easy to follow. Putting that aside, I also enjoy some discussions that the characters share around philosophy or morality.

Interesting, relatable, contemporary; Craig's "My Nemesis" not only is thought-provoking, but also has a distinctive main character voice.

A coming of age story for an aging academic feminist. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I enjoyed it. I was very interested in this book from the blurb and it did not let me down. I occasionally felt like I wasn't quite academic enough to read it and spent a lot of time look up words, people, and theories. However, I feel like that was emblematic of the narrator. She is not relatable and nor does she try to make herself be.

It's a book that is meant to make you think and question your suppositions. I think the author was very clever in her presentation of her topic. I think she brings up some very valid points that need to be discussed and are usually swept under the rug.

How do I say that I liked this book without sounding completely pompous myself? It was good and I liked it, despite not knowing much of Camus or Nietzsche. I knew just enough to get by, but Craig does a good job of interweaving their concepts into her novel so you can pick up on it without decidedly knowing it.

The story is a bit rambling, but once again I believe this to be intentional and it didn't affect my reading. I liked the plain face boldness of this book. It's not idyllic, or idealized, it's simple plainness make this book very effective. It's not preachy and it's not apologetic and I loved both of those things about the book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Press for the ebook. Tessa, a successful writer, comes to Los Angeles to visit another writer, Charlie. Sparks fly intellectually as they battle through thoughts of Camus and Nietzsche. And a psychical attraction blooms inside Tessa. The problem is that both of them are married and their spouses are together with them. An exciting book where the power of books is explored as much as relationships, motherhood and feminism.

My Nemesis by Charmaine Craig. Wow. A cerebral read from start to finish.

Tessa, our main character, and the sole person whose perspective we read from, is a wildly uncompassionate, pretentious, egocentric writer who holds her own ways of thinking in a higher regard than she does other people and their experiences. She is self-important while also seeking intellectual validation from Charlie, a philosopher and scholar from Los Angeles. Tessa is all at once infuriating and fascinating.

Their relationship is so familiar yet so bizarre to read from the outside. It's an intellectual affair where these two people connect deeply with each other's minds (buckle in for frequent Camus/Sisyphus and Nietzsche references), but Tessa is in constant competition with Charlie's wife, Wah. Wah represents the exact opposite of the values that Tessa holds as a self-proclaimed feminist, writer, mother, and scholar. Tessa is independent, career-focused, and detached from her adult daughter. She holds herself to the standards that society usually reserved for men, and she shuns any labels that societal patriarchy has placed on her. Meanwhile, Wah embraces her role as a subservient wife and mother.

This book was so intriguing to read. I loved the discussion of masculinity, womanhood, motherhood, and feminism. I loved the tension that was created between Tessa and Wah, and then Tessa and pretty much everyone else in her life that she drives away or holds at arms' length with her constant need to impress others with her intellect. It was relatable and captivating. My Nemesis won't be a book for everyone, but I really enjoyed this, and I look forward to purchasing it when it releases!

I've gotten this e-ARC from Netgalley in return for my honest review. The cover captured my attention and I half expected it to be a thriller but it turned out differently. I honestly was surprised with the outcome of this novel.

This novel is written in the view of Tessa, a writer who has a very intense mindset that I do find her to be self-absorbent. She view others negatively and even thought highly of herself. She's intellectually above others literally, I would give her that, but she has that tendency to ensure everything goes her way or the highway. That's my impression of her lah LOL!

After reading through, I began to realize that the characters in this novel are so relatable! I would say this is like a story of my neighbours or friends, with similar experiences hence it felt so close to home! It truly captures the essence or diva of some women literally! After all those drama, even though from 1 person's point of view, can be quite daunting but the true reveal at the end sort of summed it up best LOL!

I'm surprised that I managed to finish it as I did find it hard to read at the start, so dry that I wanted to DNF it. Maybe I wasn't used to this author's way of writing so it took me awhile to get used to and when I finally grasps it, I've reached the end.

Overall, it is an interesting read that I wished I understand more philosophically LOL! Literally filled with Camus and Nietzsche and Sisyphean..... here's a snippet:
You see, much as Sisyphus stood for Camus as the figurehead for his early phase, Nemesis represented what he hoped to achieve ultimately with this work. In ancient Greek religion, she was the goddess of retribution, ruthlessly punishing those who exceeded limits; and for Camus - because she represented the moderation that accounted for the variety of human experience and perspectives - she was also the goddess of love.

Came for the mind bending cover, stayed for the toxic yet intriguing voice of the main character, Tessa.

I was afraid this would be a story about pitting woman against woman, and the men comes out unscathed. The latter is debatable but you reach a point where you no longer care as the relationship between the two women, Tessa and Wah was enough to carry the story.

Told in a voice often times confrontational and often times dismissive, Tessa’s bias is made clear to the reader long before becoming clear to her. I rarely enjoy reading through the viewpoint of someone I dislike, but I embraced her perspective since it felt flawed and raw.

I have an advanced kindle version, so I am not sure about the length but it could have been longer. Perhaps another flashback about Tessa and her daughter Nora. Something to further display the clash between Wah and Htet’s relationship. I could have used more or less of Milton. More insight in his outside friendship with Charlie, or just let him fade to the background as comic relief. I enjoyed the side characters and would not have minded to read more about them.

Overall, I found this one thought provoking and satisfying. Looking forward to reading more from the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Told from the viewpoint of Tessa, who meets and strikes a friendship (maybe even a little crush) with a philosophy scholar Charlie and a kind of rivalry with his wife Wah.

This book explores, in a way, feminism, different ways to read into it and what role feminism has in womanhood, motherhood, marriage and artistic work. Even though we're led to believe that Tessa sees Wah as her nemesis due to their different perception of the aforementioned roles and parts that feminism plays in them, I don't think that either women is the nemesis to the other.

This book is the one to make you think to explore your own views, which makes it superb, yes. But it still, to me, read like a sketch of a longer, deeper book. I needed more to get into it and to truly enjoy it. I needed more of the background, more of the relationships and more exploration. It just scratched the surface and I'd be so happy to see this one more elaborated, more explored.

How is this psychological thriller about female rivalry and Albert Camus so much fun?! Our unsympathetic and utterly fascinating protagonist is Tessa, a white, successful writer who is married for the scond time and has a strained relationship with her college-age daughter from her first marriage. She strikes a friendship with philosophy scholar Charlie, much to the dismay of his wife Wah, a mixed-race Asian author and university lecturer, and their adopted daughter of Burmese descent, Htet. Told from the intentionally one-sided perspective of Tessa, who has written this cacount to an at first undisclosed addressee, we learn about the complex rivalry that ensues between the women, centering on roles like wife, mother, and artist, and how to properly play them.

Craig does a fantastic job reflecting phenomena like self-perception, projection, societal expectations, the weaponization of feminism, wokism and virtue as well as the age-old contest about male attention and affection. This charade becomes so intricate that the reader sometimes wonders whether Tessa is honest (even to herself), whether she observes or projects, and what might be left out or re-framed. Right at the beginning, we learn that the rivalry will lead to a public dispute with severe consequences for everybody involved, and both Tessa and Wah gain complexity with every chapter - as do their daughters. All women struggle with questions of agency and the longing for approval, including the kind of approval they could only grant themselves. The men, on the other hand, are more or less props or, at best, catalysts, which, regarding the focus of the novel, is only stringent (and funny).

What are female qualities, and if something like that exists (if only via societal declaration), does embracing some of them turn a woman into a bad feminist? What is the relation between love and pain, between honesty and ruthlessness, between weakness and service? How much should a mother sacfrice for her children? Defensive Tessa always prioritizes herself and portrays it as a feminist standpoint, she despises Wah for her protective motherliness and displays of fragility - of course without realising the strength that lives in the open display of feeling and empathy, and without acknowldeging the differences in cultural background. Wah, on the other hand, has a strained relationship with her freedom-seeking husband who never wanted children, who is in turn fascinated by Tessa, who herself has a crush on handsome Charlie.

And of course there is a philosphical layer brought in by Friedrich Nietzsche (Charlie's favorite philosopher) and Albert Camus, the latter frequently being invoked by Tessa when she ponders her attitudes and behaviors in an existentialist framework. Both of these guys were of course white men pre-occupied with white men problems. Self-righteous Tessa is also caught up in her belief system, ultimately attacking what challenges her, and to her, the very existence of Wah with her unapologetic beauty and service ideal is a provocation - which does not mean that Wah is a perfect angel in this scenario.

The book states that to Camus, the Greek goddess Nemesis represented what he wanted to achieve with his work: As she represented the moderation that accounted for the variety of human experiences and perspectives, he saw her as the goddess of love. To decide who is whose nemesis in the novel, I recommend to read it - and don't overlook the minor characters like the traumatized elderly neighbor Ernie, Tessa's husband and daughter, and Htet's friends, all of them smartly rendered devices in this tale about the lack of female solidarity. What an intricate chamber play, it's rarely so fascinating to roam inside the head of an insufferable person like Tessa.

Absolutely stunning. This is the kind of novel that demands you take your time reading, and it is so worth the effort. Tessa’s mind is not a pleasant place to be. She is often insufferable, but Charmaine Craig guides us through her thoughts in a way that makes the reader consider their own prejudice. I thought for sure I would hate Tessa by the end, but I felt like I understood her, as as much as I hate to admit it, could relate to her on some levels.

My Nemesis follows Tessa’s recollection of her relationship with a friend and his wife and how she wrestles with versions of femininity and motherhood that are very different than her own.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This is the kind of book that kept me coming back, staying up late, to finish, not because it’s a thriller necessarily, but because the writing is just so well crafted. It made me want to talk about it with friends, with my husband. This is one of those books that feels like a meditation on privilege, and a specific type of privileged feminism. I did not like the main character, but I still wanted to know how things would unfold for all of the characters in the book, which is, again, a testament to the author’s craft here. The characters in My Nemesis annoyed me, angered me and made me sad. Again, it made me want to talk about it with others. And while we can’t really know an author’s intention, Craig’s work here was very effective in evoking conversation and thought. I highly recommend this one and then I need to talk about it.

I wanted to love this book as it was a unique take on relationships and was overall a thought-provoking novel.

Though I enjoyed Tessa’s slightly skewed and biased perspective regarding relationships and women’s roles in marriage, I didn’t particularly like the plot direction. It was smartly written but lacked entertainment value for me and could have benefited from more background on each character.

Overall, well-written and quick read. It could have been longer, though.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.