The husband stitch by carmen maria machado
Hang on to your head!
(If you read this story out loud, please use the following voices:
Me: as a child, high-pitched, forgettable; as a woman, the same.
The boy who will grow into a man, and be my spouse: robust with his own good fortune.
My father: Like your father, or the man you wish was your father.
My son: as a small child, gentle, rounded with the faintest of lisps; as a man, like my husband.
All other women: interchangeable with my own.)
Machado, Carmen Maria. “The Husband Stitch.” Granta Magazine, 28 Oct. 2014, granta.com/the-husband-stitch/.
Joey’s Song Pick:
Jennifer’s Song Pick:
Why we loved it
Please tell us you got the reference. Go read the orange line again and then listen to the song, we’ll wait . . . There you go! I know we’re hilarious.But buckle up, because Machado’s story? Deadly. Serious. Not a single laugh to be had—unless you count the hysterical, gut-punch kind that sounds suspiciously like screaming.
Carmen Maria Machado could write a grocery list and we’d frame it, but this? This is her at her most brutal and brilliant. A story so layered, we could’ve dissected it for hours—the way it interrogates bodily autonomy like a scalpel probing a wound, the suffocating horror of choices stolen at your most vulnerable. We’re right there with the protagonist as her husband and doctor decide for her, as her body becomes a bargaining chip, a battleground, a thing to be altered without consent. It’s visceral. It’s vicious. It’s perfect.
And that ending? Oh, you’ll see it coming—right up until you don’t. (But hey, if you catch Machado’s sly nod to that other iconic story, do us a favor and scream about it in the comments. We need allies in this emotional trench.)