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A review by thelibraryofklee
Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser
4.0
“It was the beginning for me of thinking about why some people had history, and other people had lives.”
Scary Monsters tackles misogyny, ageism and racism in two eerily uncomfortable novellas. One is the story of Lili, set in 1980s France. The other is about Lyle, living in near-future Australia. Both are migrants of Asian descent.
Lili's story is unsettling. As a woman, those cowering feelings for fear of advances and violence from men are something all easy to empathise with. She exists at a time where the Yorkshire Ripper is terrorizing women. Her neighbour downstairs lurks in the shadows and his subtle advances are often of a creepy nature. Alongside these feelings, we are met with the maddeningly casual and sometimes just plain overt racism that Lili has to face. She often has to prove the legality of her visa while she watched North African immigrants herded up in squares for deportation.
Lyle lives in dystopic Australia where bush fires rage all year round, the infamous GBR is now no more than a mausoleum of bleached corral and trash, and there is an over-arching government that can repatriate anyone from the country they like who has at least one grandparent from another country. Islam is banned and ex-Muslims are forced to attend Sunday church services. Pandemics are a part of near memory. But it is dangerous to talk of all these things. To top it off, Lyle must contend with fears for his two children - one living a exotic global lifestyle, the other who has submerged themselves into a mysterious green community. And then there is Ivy. His mother. Left with quite an inheritance from her dead husband (Lyle's step father), Ivy is a quirky old lady who refuses to see the doctor for her ills and is relatively happy in her existence: often throwing left field comments at her son Lyle, who has to work through the complexity of their relationship.
The book is literally flipped, which left me amused and confused to begin with, but the author explained this confusion is meant to symbolise the migrant experience. You can chose to begin with either, so I started with the past. Lili's story comes across seemingly light-hearted but slowly delves into the deeper and darker themes of misogyny and racism. It highlights the power of loneliness, which no doubt, is often a terrifying part of the migrant experience. Then I traveled with Lyle to future Australia. I was mortified with the landscape set but oddly found myself laughing in moments of absurdity. Lyle and his wife of Chanel are consumed with "fitting in" to the Australian lifestyle, which appears to leave Lyle in constant terror. He struggles to assimilate with the the new normals, and with the individualistic dreams of his wife. This novella particularly focuses on racism and horrifically, ageism.
My only criticism, and this comes from the type of reader I am, is that both endings of the novellas are very opaque and open to interpretation. Don't read this book expecting a clear ending (I do like my clear endings). I finished with a complex set of emotions - some I understood and some I will be processing for some time. I imagine this feeling of unsureness and confusion are a drop in the bucket of emotions migrants feel moving to new countries.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the free copy for an honest review.
Scary Monsters tackles misogyny, ageism and racism in two eerily uncomfortable novellas. One is the story of Lili, set in 1980s France. The other is about Lyle, living in near-future Australia. Both are migrants of Asian descent.
Lili's story is unsettling. As a woman, those cowering feelings for fear of advances and violence from men are something all easy to empathise with. She exists at a time where the Yorkshire Ripper is terrorizing women. Her neighbour downstairs lurks in the shadows and his subtle advances are often of a creepy nature. Alongside these feelings, we are met with the maddeningly casual and sometimes just plain overt racism that Lili has to face. She often has to prove the legality of her visa while she watched North African immigrants herded up in squares for deportation.
Lyle lives in dystopic Australia where bush fires rage all year round, the infamous GBR is now no more than a mausoleum of bleached corral and trash, and there is an over-arching government that can repatriate anyone from the country they like who has at least one grandparent from another country. Islam is banned and ex-Muslims are forced to attend Sunday church services. Pandemics are a part of near memory. But it is dangerous to talk of all these things. To top it off, Lyle must contend with fears for his two children - one living a exotic global lifestyle, the other who has submerged themselves into a mysterious green community. And then there is Ivy. His mother. Left with quite an inheritance from her dead husband (Lyle's step father), Ivy is a quirky old lady who refuses to see the doctor for her ills and is relatively happy in her existence: often throwing left field comments at her son Lyle, who has to work through the complexity of their relationship.
The book is literally flipped, which left me amused and confused to begin with, but the author explained this confusion is meant to symbolise the migrant experience. You can chose to begin with either, so I started with the past. Lili's story comes across seemingly light-hearted but slowly delves into the deeper and darker themes of misogyny and racism. It highlights the power of loneliness, which no doubt, is often a terrifying part of the migrant experience. Then I traveled with Lyle to future Australia. I was mortified with the landscape set but oddly found myself laughing in moments of absurdity. Lyle and his wife of Chanel are consumed with "fitting in" to the Australian lifestyle, which appears to leave Lyle in constant terror. He struggles to assimilate with the the new normals, and with the individualistic dreams of his wife. This novella particularly focuses on racism and horrifically, ageism.
My only criticism, and this comes from the type of reader I am, is that both endings of the novellas are very opaque and open to interpretation. Don't read this book expecting a clear ending (I do like my clear endings). I finished with a complex set of emotions - some I understood and some I will be processing for some time. I imagine this feeling of unsureness and confusion are a drop in the bucket of emotions migrants feel moving to new countries.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for the free copy for an honest review.