Book Review : Charlene Elsby - Bedlam (2023)
Maybe loneliness is as close as we get to divinity (p.51)
If I told you to that you absolutely need to read this hyperrational, solipsistic monologue written by an angry, angry woman, you'd probably think I was being forced to sell you the idea at gunpoint. That’s because you don't know Charlene Elsby and you definitely don't know her anger. She would've probably gotten into a fistfight with Sylvia Plath had she ever met her. She’s a PhD in philosophy (I think) and a true rock n’ roll firestarter. Her first short story collection Bedlam is coming out tomorrow and it's fire.
Bedlam has fourteen short story that read like the fevered dreams of anonymous women. I might’ve forgotten a handful of instances, but I don’t believe there's a single line of dialogue in it. It shouldn't surprise you if you're into Elsby already. It's kind of her thing. The opener Bad for the Baby is an absolute scorcher of uncomfortable vulnerability, where a woman getting her hair cut is trying to find ways to feel less exposed to the woman who’s job is to make her pretty. It explores the tiny nuances of unspoken societal rules.
Counterexample (The Jogger) is a quick affair that explores the thin, blurred lines between the inertia of normalcy and life-altering behaviour. Also the relationship between the brain and the body. It’s a ferocious wink at all that say-what-you-really-think humour online. On the more serious end, Dieu Seul: The Death Sentence is a heartbreaking meditation on the powerlessness of the living among the dead and the futility of the human condition. I rarely get moved close to tears by books, but one worked me.
You can’t burn the dead back to life
The heat won’t penetrate their kind of cold (p.54)
The further I got into this short story collection, the more Charlene Elsby started drifting from the hyperrational (sometimes psychopathic) solipsism that made her reputation. It’s not like she sharp turned into a corn field all of a sudden, but a sort of frailty started to gradually emerge in her writing like a viral infection. A vulnerability that felt very pure and brittle. That’s kind of new? Most of her short novels ended up in somewhat of a vulnerable place, but it’s first time I read Charlene Elsby owning it like that.
Fuck Stick and Rape Lines are two heart crushing stories about sexual encounters going wrong. The latter is particularly confronting as it recalls the experience in lengthy details from an interior perspective, highlighting one difficult decision a rape victim has to take after the other. Everyone who never experienced it had this ready-made idea of what sexual assault, but the way Elsby illustrates it as this excruciating ordeal of difficult decisions shined a new light on an experience I still need to learn about.
Ridiculous is another exploration mortality and survivor’s guilt. The narrator of this short is receiving a call that announces the death of somebody and reflects on how to treat the news socially. You know how when unspeakable things happen we all revert to platitudes in order to bond? Well, Ridiculous is about the difficult, unspoken in-betweens. The things almost said, almost felt. Almost screamed. If you’ve ever been too deep inside your own head that you lost control, these stories will appeal to you.
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I wanted to treat the last two stories separate because they deal with suicide. Full disclosure, I’ve been volunteering at a suicide hotline for almost six months now and On Whether Suicide Is a Reasonable Option for Me, At This Time and Time To Go are really good depiction of what it feels like to struggle with depression. I would say suicide is a larger picture than what Charlene Elsby shows, but she really goes deep into the mind of a person suffering from depression. Up to a point where I actually asked myself if she was.
The inexorable rationality. The breaking down of one’s life and emotional experiences as a series of facts detached from their psychological context. The weight. The tiredness. If you've ever struggled with depression, these two stories might awaken some demons. They’re vivid and brutal in the best possible way, but not everyone is equipped to handle such a no-bullshit outlook into desperate situations. If you’ve struggled with suicidal thoughts before, make sure you're in a good place before reading these.
I am very much a fan of whatever Charlene Elsby writes, but I believe Bedlam was my favorite book from her so far. It is a more multifaceted and relatable series of short portraits than anything she’s ever written before. It felt cohesive and powerful, like traveling into the minds of anonymous women walking through a shopping center. Bedlam is coming out tomorrow. If you’re into Charlene Elsby, read it. If you're not into Elsby, start here. It’s a perfect introduction to her violent, idiosyncratic world.
