Interview and article by Katherine Frazer.
The Furies: Women, Vengeance, and Justice tells the story of three women across the globe, all united in their search for justice against their abuser. For journalist Elizabeth Flock, the book is a study on women fighting back against systematic oppressors that plague women everywhere and a capstone after decades of reporting on social issues.
Named after the three Greek goddesses of vengeance, the book tells the story of three women defined by systematic failures and violence in their life and their journey towards seeking justice on their own. These stories do not have happy endings, a reflection of the reality for so many women who do fight back.
“This book is the product of that continued search for women who took matters into their own hands: a study of three real-life women who, like alchemists, took their stories of pain and transmuted them into power,” Flock writes. “It is also a study of how women sometimes cross the line.”
For Flock, the subject is personal. In the prologue, she details her own journey towards finding and confronting her own abuser, a process that spanned over a decade.
When Flock was 21, she joined a group of friends on a trip to Rome. After celebrating their trip to Rome by throwing pennies over their backs into the Trevi fountain alongside their tour guide, Flock’s memory fades. Her next memory is waking up in a dim room being raped by the tour guide.
“I was looking for these stories because I wanted to. I was obsessed with stories of female vigilantism, pop culture. I want to find the real-life versions,” Flock said. “I went looking. I followed a lot of criminal justice websites, because I knew if women are fighting back in the US, it's mostly against their abusers.”
Flock, an Emmy-winning journalist, hails from Chicago, and moved back shortly before publishing this book. Her career started in Mumbai, India, where she was hired as a news reporter. While there, her passion for reporting on social justice and women’s issues grew.
Her first book “The Heart is a Shifting Sea” follows three different marriages in India, reporting intimately on relationships withstanding and adapting to cultural changes over a decade. Flock said her reporting for this story was almost obsessive, a quality she said one must have in order to sustain this type of long-term project.
“When it came time to do this project, I realized like the other subject that I'm really obsessed with, besides like marriage and divorce, is sexual violence and the way that patriarchal systems enact themselves against women,” Flock said. “Just because that's something I personally have dealt with, as well as seeing a lot of people I love in my life deal with. And just understanding my place in the world as a woman.”
The stories told in this book have resonated deeply with an audience. In her writing, Flock does not propose any theories or explanations for the behavior of these women. Instead, Flock paints intimate portraits of women with nowhere left to turn, forced to take matters into their own hands.
After publishing the book, Flock has heard stories of women becoming the Furies themselves. Flock recalls one message she received on Instagram shortly after her book was published. In the message, a woman shared her own story of seeking a version of justice.
“To keep this story short and sweet, I was date raped and as revenge I poured as much sugar, soda water, more sugar, more soda into his gas tank,” the woman said. “I really effed up his car's engine. It felt so good.”
For Flock, the women in this book are just a microscopic look into the injustices inflicted on women worldwide. Flock said she has heard so many stories of women finding justice through roundabout ways after failure from their community, but it is something not talked about enough.
“Three women—three furies—fed up with a world of injustice, fought for something difficult,” Flock writes in her book. “If only we could all fight so hard.”
Originally from south Louisiana, Katherine Frazer is a young journalist with a passion for storytelling. As she finishes her studies and embarks on her career, she is dedicated to bettering her community and preserving its culture through her work. She is on Instagram and Twitter.
Did you enjoy this post and our coverage of Chicago’s arts scene? Please consider supporting Third Coast Review’s arts and culture coverage by making a donation by PayPal. Choose the amount that works best for you, and know how much we appreciate your support!