This week's #FictionFriday is brought to you by Chiara van Ommeren
‘Acceptance is a fascination of mine. I ask at every parent’s evening. Is Lanny accepted? Well-liked? Settling in? And his teacher says, Lanny? You make him sound like an illegal alien. Lanny’s wonderful, absolutely at ease and well-liked, as if he’s been here forever.’
While scrolling through my social media feeds - something I started doing less since the pandemic because I got a bit overwhelmed with everything that’s going on - I realised the longer this pandemic has been going on, the more articles I’ve seen about the importance of staying connected. Many articles reference why it is important to stay connected with your friends and family (and it is!), but not many articles mention what it means for individuals to suddenly not have a place to belong. And many of us find their place to belong also through work.
Josh Cohen, a professor of modern literary theory at Goldsmiths and a psychoanalyst in private practice, writes in The Guardian: ‘work shapes our sense of self. The thought of being without it induces existential terror. It’s a fear many will share. With the lockdown, it seems we’ve lost the routines that give substance to our lives. Need this mean losing ourselves?’
Max Porter’s latest novel, Lanny, is about a family who move from London to a small village in the country. Lanny is a quirky kid, at home in the woods, and his parents are afraid he won’t fit in easily. However, Lanny doesn’t find it important to be normal or to fit in, and therefore he fits in better than his parents do. ‘Mad Pete’, a controversial artist once famous for his explicit erotic work, starts giving Lanny art lessons and they also become friends. Everything seems to be going well.
‘WEIRDO coughed one of them, spluttering into giggles. We walked on. I was a little struck with what to say and then Lanny asked, Do you think they were talking about me or you? And I shrieked with laughter then, because for some reason I found it stupendously funny and Lanny was saying, What? What’s so funny?’
...until Lanny disappears.
Like us, but of course in a very different way, the family’s life is uprooted, the routine that gave their life substance and belonging disappears.
‘We are but pitiful narrative creatures... obsessing over the agony of not knowing. Sisyphus, Atlas, Echo, all those poor souls, now us. It is the oldest story of them all; never-ending pain.’
Beautifully written, with a genuine raw emotional edge, Porter is able to capture everyday life and give it a twist. If you are familiar with Porter’s earlier, and first, novel, Grief is the Thing with Feathers, you will know what I mean (if you have not read it yet, i cannot recommend it enough). In his first novel, he adds a giant crow. This time he adds a figure from old folk lore, Dead Papa Toothwort, a sort of voyeur who roams below the earth and eavesdrops on the village. Dead Papa Toothwort is expressed in a visual effect on the page as well. Weird snippets of text flowing between the main narrative. Is he a metaphor? Is he real or not real?
At some point, whilst getting ready for bed, Lanny asks his dad a good question and I'm just going to leave it here for everyone to mull over.
‘Which do you think is more patient, an idea or hope?’
Intrigued? Click here to listen to Max Porter himself talk about his new book.
In a bit of a rut when it comes to reading? I found a good article by Penguin on how to get back to reading while social distancing. Click here to see some of their tips.