The last prison term Andrew Sean Greer tackled a booster with a unique relationship to time , we got the magical love fib Confessions of Max Tivoli , the chef-d’oeuvre Benjamin Button only wish it was . But his new book The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells stand in grief for romance , and the answer are achingly deplorable .
Spoilers ahead …
Max Tivoli find like it was part of a special second in literature , along with Audrey Niffenegger ’s The Time Traveler ’s Wife — a moment when we could take a whimsical strange premise and turn it into something personal and literary . Since then , we ’ve had approximately 1,000 literary apocalypses , from The Road to Zone One , but not nigh as many new Max Tivolis . So the word that Greer has another book with a bendy assumption and an radical - personal plot line is incredibly welcome .
Except thatThe Impossible Lives of Greta Wellsis much less sweet and romantic , and much more softened , than Tivoli . To a large extent this is a record , not just about loss but about clinical depression . This is arguably a more ripe take on this kind of story than Tivoli or Time Traveler , but it ’s also a bit less fun — although there are fun surprises aplenty in this book .
In Impossible Lives , Greta has just lost the two most important men in her life . It ’s 1985 , and her sunny twin brother Felix has just die of AIDS . Greta is so shut down emotionally after Felix ’s death , her long - full term lover Nathan first cheats on her and then leave her . The distraught Greta finally agrees to take electro - shock therapy — and finds that it ’s causing her to be unstuck in time . Sort of .
Every time Greta grow an electro - shock treatment , she modify places with a different version of herself . There are two other Gretas , one hold out in 1918 and one go in 1941 , and they , too , are having electro - shock treatments . What ’s odd is that Greta does n’t travel through metre , exactly — these Gretas are basically her , along with her brother Felix and her lover Nathan and her aunt Ruth , endure in the same house in much the same circumstances . Just in different eras .
Both the 1918 and 1941 versions of Greta are marital to Nathan , the man that Greta ’ 85 only domicile up with . But neither man and wife is pure — Nathan in 1918 has been off serve as a doctor in World War I , and meanwhile Greta ’ 18 is in dear with a dashing unseasoned thespian . Meanwhile , Greta ’ 41 ’s Nathan is screw on her , too , and it seems more serious and difficult to contend with than his cheating in 1985 .
As for Greta ’s gay brother Felix , he ’s alive in both 1918 and 1941 , but he ’s trying his best to pretend to be heterosexual and settle down with a nice girl — which turns out to be as heavily as you ’d bear . The 1918 Felix is due to wed a senator ’s girl , but Greta keeps trying to gear up him up with the gentleman he enjoy in 1985 , Alan . The 1941 Felix is already married but sleeping with Alan on the side , until he gets caught in the awry place at the wrong time .
Sending a woman from the mid-1980s ( probably the last time you could have a heroine who does n’t have cellphones or the internet ) wobble into 1918 and 1941 obviously tolerate Greer to comment on social modification and sexuality role and hot - clitoris issues . It ’s sort of enthralling how much more like 2013 the existence of 1985 is than either of those other time flow . Add to that the fact that 1918 is the very end of World War I , and 1941 is the eve of Pearl Harbor , and you have two very different views of two very different wars .
But really , this al-Qur’an is way more personal than that — the configurations inform the character interactions , but the heart of the story is about Greta getting to meet different versions of the the great unwashed she loves , including the people she ’s lost . And realizing that heartache is n’t so easy to get away from .
And in a lot of ways , this book uses the whimsey of becoming “ unstuck in fourth dimension ” as a pretty blatant metaphor for depression — the affair of “ decease through the motions ” that you would find yourself doing if you wake up up in the unseasonable decennium is exactly the same affair that people who are profoundly down do . You pretend that you are supposed to be here , and that you have a handgrip and that you know what you ’re doing . Greer actually makes this metaphor expressed once or doubly , but it ’s always lurking below the surface .
Just the fact that Greta does n’t seem all that startled when she first realizes she ’s unstuck in clock time palpate like a reflection of low — well , of form you ’re lost in time and the multiverse , what else would you be ?
And the process of Greta shuttling between unlike world — changing realities every time she get down another shock , is largely about trying to figure out where you belong , and get over your empty signified of grief . At times , Greer in reality talk about grief as an participating force , almost a fibre in the tarradiddle , as he write things like :
Grief will go — it always does — but not before it forces us to do these absurd things , and hurt ourselves , and lend on suffering , because grief , that parasite , above all else does not want to die , and only in these terrible moment it create can it feel itself thrashing back to life sentence .
There are so many agency a book like this could have turn to confect . It could have been pure wish - fulfilment — a fair sex who ’s lamentable and grieving start to visit humans where she has everything she ’s lose — or even a sort of romance , as Greta figures out how to get back her lost fan in 1985 . But instead , Greer ’s storytelling is both profuse and austere , offer us rafts of beauty but remarkably lilliputian puff . The only response to the kind of “ undone ” feeling that come from loss is to suffer through it and eventually find yourself again .
But yes , the writing in this Word is incredibly lovely , with Greer showing his usual gift for lyrical prose . To learning ability , one passage , on the 24-hour interval when 1918 Felix is due to get married :
What a beautiful day for a wedding . cockcrow had awakened like a girl in a tantrum who will wear nothing but her party dress , and an unseasonal heat spread over things , result darkened stains where ice had coated the sidewalks , scotch honest-to-goodness ladies who handed their mink coat to their maids . Gray - coated bunch filed into the MetropolitanTemple , and one could enjoy the variety of madam ’ chapeau and men ’s top hats , one of which belonged to the famed senator about to lose his daughter . And one young fair sex , all in lilac silk , suffer on the steps , arms traverse , staring up at the church building .
Despite come out in the height of summer , Greta Wells is not a beach read — it ’s an armchair - by - the - pass - flak read . It ’s an adventure account that ’s the opposite of escapism . With immense sweetness and right humor , Greer paints a portrait of bereavement and clinical depression that will be directly recognizable anybody who ’s been catch in the monumental crunch of hopelessness .
Quran reviewBooks
Daily Newsletter
Get the best technical school , skill , and civilization news show in your inbox daily .
word from the future , deliver to your present .
You May Also Like
