For this installment, four wonderful female authors and their latest works are reviewed. From noir fiction, to ‘time travel’, crime, and the metaphysical; these women write courageously and should be applauded.
Creation Lake by Rachel Kushner
This latest from Kushner is shortlisted for this year’s Booker. And Kushner has won the Prix Medicis, and twice a National Book Award winner. Her protagonist is a cunning American woman in her early 30’s, passing off as Sadie Smith; and we join her as she infiltrates an anarchist/eco-warrior collective in rural France. This she’s achieving via a lover Lucien, who was a childhood friend of Pascal, who leads the subversive group. There’s also a grizzled activist named Bruno Lacombe, who’s something of a mentor, guiding light, to the group. His emails to the group, his anti-civilization stance, and his obsession with Neanderthal Man, frame several of the chapters. And while Lucien believes he picked up Sadie and she loves him, it’s actually a ‘cold bump’ - an encounter she set up.
Set in the Guyenne region of France, the novel is one of identity, ideas, and subtle confrontation. Sadie is out to entrap the activist group, so that the French police can swoop down, arrest them, and break up the commune. As the novel develops, Sadie is in turn entranced by the musings of Bruno. It’s a cat-and-mouse game, and roles keep changing as to who is the cat. Kushner exhibits a ton of sly humor, as she has her characters digress and pour commentary on what’s transpiring on the pages. It’s a novel where high art meets high comedy, in an espionage environment. Hard to believe at first that Kushner would pull this off, but she manages to juggle all these balls in the air, and proves adept at keeping us invested in Sadie’s ‘mission’, and its outcome.
The Watermark by Sam Mills
Here’s one super-playful novel, described by another critic as an ‘Inception for book lovers’. Is it a love story across fictional worlds, an absurdist quest, or an existential mystery, or all of the above plus more? Whatever your final answer, you can’t deny how this is one of the more exciting, imaginative novels of the year. We first meet Jamie, who is about to interview famous author Augustus Fate about his novel, which is in progress. We learn of a relationship Jamie harbors for Rachel, an artist. But it seems Fate has other things in store for the two, as he imprisons them in his novel, and transports them to a series of fictional worlds. In these worlds, degrees of cognition exist such that while the two are the same Jamie and Rachel in essence, they’re also fictional characters that inhabit these novels.
The first jump from the present day finds the two in a Victorian Oxford, where Jamie is a young boy of 13, and Rachel is the governess of Jamie’s playmate, Eleanor. There’s a shift to a utopian Manchester, then to the Russian steppes during a harsh winter, and even a 2047 that’s dominated by AI, where Rachel offers art therapy to depressed robots. Mills succeeds in creating vivid narratives for each world, such that one of the couple is more aware of what’s transpiring and the manipulation created by Fate, while the other is oblivious, content in the new fictional world. It’s a balancing act that teeters at times; but somehow Mills pulls it off, so that we do care about the two and continue to hope for the best for them, curious to see what Fate has in store for them. A love story, existential mystery, and a quest of absurdist proportions, there is much to like in this novel.
Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent
By doing precisely what her late father told her to do when he was still alive, and ‘put him out with the rubbish’, Sally runs afoul of the law. This Crime Novel of the Year in the 2023 Irish Book Awards finally gets a paperback version, and in terms of character development and world-building, Liz Nugent is hard to beat. My favorite previous title of hers would be Lying In Wait. In this novel, Nugent examines the life of Sally, a 42-year-old person on the spectrum - and how her life hurtles into misunderstanding and disaster when her father passes away, and she’s left alone to navigate through life. Her mother had passed away earlier, and it’s only through the intercession of her parents’ friends, does some vestige of hope lies.
Media and police detectives make her the center of attention, plus there’s a sinister voice from the past that suddenly appears. Horrors of her childhood are confronted, and now, Sally has to contend with new friends and big decisions. From letters left by her ‘father’, she discovers she was adopted, and there’s a dark secret to her real paternity. Trust issues are continuously challenged, and there are complex and somber implications for the parties concerned. What’s always admirable about Nugent’s writing is how she humanizes real social issues and doesn’t flinch from facing these issues head-on. Sally is the character that leaves a mark and we really become curious about what will happen to her, even if she is a fictional character. Well-deserved award, and I’m curious to see what she’ll have up her sleeve next, as her crime novels are far from typical.
Concerning the Future of Souls: 99 Stories of Azrael by Joy Williams
From the always enigmatic Joy Williams comes this slight short story collection that comes in the form of 99 bite-sized illuminations coming from Azrael. For those wondering about Azrael, he’s an angel known for transporting souls - bringing them to Heaven or to Hell. So these are his musings on his "occupation," his tragi-comic interactions with humanity, and of course, with the Devil. In fact, God’s presence or being alluded to comes solely in the form of Azrael gossiping with the Devil. It’s the Devil who creates as strong a presence in Azrael in these pages, and we form a strong opinion of the fallen Deity. What’s impressive is how despite the brevity of the 99 stories, there’s so much density and food for thought.
There are chapters devoted to Kafka, to Nietzsche, to Bach and Rilke; and then there are those that speak of horses, of dogs, of certain birds. What is consistent is the subversive humor and gentle mocking tone of Williams. She evokes both quiet laughter and serious contemplating, often saying so much more but writing less. It’s a special gift she possesses and it’s very evident in this book. Williams has won the Kirkus Prize for Fiction, the Hadada Award of The Paris Review, and has been nominated twice for the National Book Award. But if you expected some serious, stuffy writer, be pleasantly surprised by her gift for very subtle, intellectual comedy. It’s never in-your-face Ha-Ha-Ha, but more like executing a double take as you read her lines, and realize what it is she’s saying. Precious collection!