Genres: Fiction
Before I got my hands on it, I was eager to read what’s inside the book, Nobody is Ever Missing. The title lured into some kind of a positive trap and it still attracts me. Especially with the cover. There are rare times in the life of a reader like me who gets attracted to the cover and the title more than knowing what’s inside the book. I managed to read it on a lonely, starry night while sitting in a singular position. I remember all this because, reading it, brings back that starry night memory.
The novel shows Elyria as a twenty-eight year soap opera writer from Manhattan, married to a math professor and no children. She abandons her home, job, husband and vanishes without a word to New Zealand. She picks a destination, the farm of Werner, a poet she met at a reading in New York, even though Elyria doesn’t like poetry. Werner, however, gives an unexplainable comfort vibe which attracts Elyria and most of his poems are about loneliness. Once arrived at Werner’s farm, Elyria is content with her new life. Soon Werner, decides, Elyria is sad to bear with and she is deposited at the side of the road, alone with herself, nowhere to go.
And so, Elyria continues to travel over the country, tolerating different other characters but not courting closeness. She is fastened by her thoughts such that she ignores other characters. Most characters are like the part of landscape on a canvas, not easy to spot.
Elyria claims through the story never to have connected with her adopted sister, Ruby, who committed suicide years earlier, but her actions reveal a haunting lack of acceptance of that death. Elyria’s husband was Ruby’s professor and the last person to see her alive. Their marriage, soon after Ruby’s death, delineates the beginning of Elyria’s psychic deterioration.
I have to say Lacey’s writing is impressive and her idea behind the book, too. What I am unable to assimilate is her character, Elyria. She is confused, mostly, throughout the novel. It’s an uncomplicated plot, perfect for a single sitting, but with a troubled-with-self character, Elyria. After reading it, I could understand that she is not a monster, created too humane, either by the author, or the character has developed itself in such a formation that it lacks self-trust and is immersed deeply, spirally in thought of escaping the reality by traveling far away and cut out all the connections she had. But that’s not possible, one cannot escape one’s body, mind, and thoughts.
The theme Catherine Lacey has opt for, I am looking to read more of her works in the future.
3 out of 5!
Loving your review, as always. I like that you added a little something about your experience with the cover and the place where you read it. It gives it a personal touch :).
Thanks, I am glad you like it 🙂
Actually, it would be a good thing for our culture it more soap opera writers went missing.They have those things on TV in the doctor’s office, and it’s hard to believe the writers are rational at all.
If soap opera writers go missing I can imagine people like woody allen making tv shows or there will be no tv at all. Though it would be fun both ways.
Btw, what things do they have?
Based on Woody Allen’s last few movies, it would be just as painful having him write TV scripts.
By “things” I mean the soap operas themselves, shown in every doctor’s waiting room to torment the patients and convince them that being sick is not the worst thing that could happen. These soap operas are remarkable for really bad, skill-less acting and for writing that makes no sense at all, including dialogue that sometimes has nothing whatsoever to do with the action taking place on the screen.
When I wrote that I had his earlier movies in my mind. But yeah that would be horrible. You’re right there is less skill in making soap operas.
True, Allen used to do really funny movies, like “Take the Money and Run” and “Bananas.” But something swelled his head, big-time.
Take The Money and Run is one of my favourites. In the later ones, except Midnight in Paris, rest are disappointing.
[…] was fascinated by Lacey’s writing in Nobody Is Ever Missing and I am looking more or same with her upcoming […]