Series: Standalone
Release Date: March 3, 2020
As freshmen at Cooper Union, Tess and Tazio were the ambitious, talented future of the art world—but by thirty-six, Tess is married to David, the mother of two young boys, and working as an understudy on Broadway. Kind and steady, David is everything Tess lacked in her own childhood—but a recent freak accident has left him with befuddling symptoms, and she’s still adjusting to her new role as caretaker.
Meanwhile, Tazio—who once had a knack for earning the kind of attention that Cooper Union students long for—has left the art world for a career in creative branding and politics. But in December 2016, fresh off the astonishing loss of his candidate, Tazio is adrift, and not even his gorgeous and accomplished fiancée, Angelica, seems able to get through to him. With tensions rising on the national stage, the four friends are forced to face the reality of their shared histories, especially a long-ago betrayal that has shaped every aspect of their friendship.
Elegant and perceptive, The Body Politic explores the meaning of commitment, the nature of forgiveness, the way that buried secrets will always find their way to the surface, and how all of it can shift—and eventually erupt—over the course of a life.
• Latino biracial supporting character
• Latina side character
• Trans woman side character
• Challenges ableism: the MC is working through living with chronic dizziness
• Depression
• Parental abandonment
• Physical abuse
• Rape
• Alcoholism
• Death of parent
• Does have OM drama
— OM is David and Tess’s best friend, Tazio, who is a main supporting character
— Tess also recently cheated on David with a co-star
• Does have OW drama
— Tess brings up feel like David’s business partner wants to get with him… but decides to trust David (it’s left unresolved)
• Does have the Hero and Herojne pushing each other away
• Does have a separation between the Hero and Heroine
• See Ending for HEA status.
• See Possible Triggers for Abuse and OTT sad parts.
Format: Hardcover
Rating: 4/5 stars
The Body Politic is a character-driven novel–which, lately, is one of my favourite types of books to read. The story follows Tess and David as they navigate David’s chronic dizziness after a traumatic fall, which happened a few months previously. Of course, the fall happens to be tightly interwoven with Tess’s admission of her infidelity. Therefore, the resulting novel unpacks not only the tribulations of an undetectable illness but also the facets of Tess and David’s personalities and histories, which contributed to Tess cheating.
Once I started The Body Politic, I immediately read half the book and only put it down for dinner. The story was consuming as I realized that part of the narrative is the slow reveal of unreliable narration. The meaning of truth and perspective are touched upon frequently in The Body Politic. The author, Platzer, takes the unreliable narrative further by having some of the book’s characters be self-aware in their distortion of the truth. For me, the most compelling part of the novel was that the thoughts of the narrator concerning dialogue were delayed. Therefore, I consistently was jumping to the wrong conclusions when Tess and David or Tess and Angelica were having conversations. I would think oof Tess messed up, and Angelica would think a sentence later, thank God for Tess. It was disconcerting but in a way that made the book more interesting.
Impact of Childhood Trauma
Most of the story is told in large sections of dialogue (with minimal inner commentary from the narrator) or large sections of internal monologue. Therefore, there’s minimal action. The Body Politic plot is mainly about the characters reacting to and living with important life events that have already happened.
Each character, it seems, has to grapple with the impact of their childhood. The novel is an example of how failing to confront and understand childhood trauma (no matter how seemingly benign) can impact your adulthood. For instance, Tazio’s paternal abandonment and his failing to live up to his mother’s expectations have resulted in him searching for external validation, equating fame with credibility. Tess witnessed a horrible encounter between her parents at a young age, which resulted in her mother’s death. David’s mother consistently checked out in his childhood, which taught him unhealthy coping mechanisms. Finally, Angelica is perhaps the only character who ends up finding comfort in her youth: she takes over and expands on her father’s dentist practice. However, she has to live up to familial expectations, which defy country boundaries, having family in Thailand.
Uncertainty of 9/11 and Trump’s Election
The part that I enjoyed the most about The Body Politic was the comparisons between each character finding their new normal after two of the most defining moments in recent American history: 9/11 and Trump’s election. Angelica described post-9/11 excellently: it was marked by uncertainty as if the very ground was shaky, and all she wanted was to feel comfortable, secure and safe. What resulted was most characters playing it safe–Angelica fell into a routine, and Tess, arguably, chose David over Tazio.
None of the characters in The Body Politic thought that Trump would win the election. Tazio worked on Hilary Clinton’s campaign, and the remaining cast is New Yorkers who never thought someone that racist and sexist could be elected into the highest position in America. Tess makes an interesting comparison between David’s inability to fully participate in life again: she compares America’s shock and inability to make sense of Trump’s election to David’s literal inability to regaining his balance.
Selfishness as Human Nature?
While the main narrator was Tess, the only character that I really liked at the end of the book was Angelica. I felt that Tess and David really struggled with being understanding and sympathetic to each other. Tess also was the type of person that compared trauma–as if it’s possible to determine whose suffering is worse. (I’m glad that Tess slowly learns that this type of comparison isn’t healthy.)
Finally, my largest complaint about Tess was her relationship with Tazio. Tazio was her best friend before she met David and Tazio was also David’s best friend since high school. There was a big reveal at the end of the novel which emphasized how Tazio was anything but a friend to Tess:
While dating David, Tess slept with Tazio… therefore, BOTH Tess and Tazio betrayed David: Tess as his girlfriend and Tazio as his best friend.
Tess, at the end of the novel, confesses what happened to David and David responds that he’s always known, that Tazio TOLD HIM right after it happened (like a *good friend*). David was just waiting for Tess to tell him.
What I’m struggling with is the fact that Tazio didn’t tell Tess he was telling David. Tazio by no means needed Tess’s permission BUT it was a mutual mistake, therefore, as Tess’s friend, he should’ve given Tess the opportunity to be honest with her boyfriend!
Also, David’s whole rationale about not confronting her about it just came across as skeevy and low-key controlling.
Tess’s romanticization and border-line hero-worship of Tazio was very weird to me. I honestly struggled throughout the whole book to understand. Whenever Tess talked about Tazio, it was all about her knowing she could make him happy… but there were no ruminations about him making her happy.
In Conclusions
bod•y pol•i•tic /ˈˌbädē ˈpälətik/
(noun)
the people of a nation, state, or society considered collectively as an organized group of citizens.
Definition from Oxford Languages
I really enjoyed the focus on character development and analysis. Understanding each of the character’s childhoods and how they dealt with the instability post-9/11 contributed to how each character dealt with the shock of Trump’s election in the present. The narrative, especially, made The Body Politic such a compelling read as it decisively confronted the shame, selfishness and trauma that has so significantly impacted each character.
The Body Politic is a novel that is character-driven but makes excellent commentary and provides timely insights about how politics–and trauma–can be reflected in how a person (can) lives their life.
Buy The Body Politic
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