Because I Love You

Although Because I Love You is posited as three stories about three women, all navigating harmful heteronormative romantic relationships, it is actually about four women. Joy Watson’s own processing of the loss of her parents and the end of her marriage is present as a strong filter and frame on the stories. She herself asks, ‘How do we write ourselves back to safety in moments of indescribable pain?’ The book is part ethnography, part memoir, part advice, part fiction. And its premise is a sensitive one: the subtler ways in which gendered relationships can be disorienting and diminishing particularly when there are other vulnerabilities (like loss) present. It is a quick and compelling read, undermined somewhat by the repetitive motifs and metaphors: everyone drinks sparkling wine, breakdowns happen in storms, worlds tilt. Nonetheless, this is a worthwhile read on the important topic of emotional violence.