Audrey Niffenegger's (BFA 1985) 'Her Fearful Symmetry'
Friday, October 16, 2009
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Posted by: Intern Admin
'Her Fearful Symmetry' Explores a Ghostly Love Triangle
 By Janet Potter
“Plenty of fiction writers have
reality pretty much covered,” Chicago writer Audrey Niffenegger
explained recently at a reading for her new novel. A member of the
crowd had asked her why her two novels – the first about time travel,
the second about ghosts – always veered into the supernatural.
Anybody can write about a boy riding a bike down the street, she answered, “fiction has the potential to do so much more.”
Niffenegger’s newest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry
(Scribner, $26.99), is a modern ghost story set in and around Highgate
Cemetery in London. Elspeth Noblin, a volunteer guide at Highgate,
lives in a building that shares its back garden wall with the cemetery.
When she dies of cancer, she leaves the flat to her twin
nieces – the daughters of her own estranged twin – on the condition
that they move to London from America and live in the flat for at least
a year.
When
they arrive and begin to know their neighbors – a man upstairs who
never leaves his flat because of crippling Obsessive Compulsive
Disorder, and the man downstairs who had been Elspeth’s longtime lover
– they soon come to realize that Elspeth herself still haunts their
flat as a ghost. Things get complicated.
Niffenegger is a master
of intricate, complicated storytelling. Her background is in the visual
arts, having studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and
Northwestern’s Department of Art Theory and Practice.
A
lifelong resident of Evanston, she has worked in drawing, painting,
prints, and artist’s books for more than 20 years, in connection with
Printworks Gallery in Chicago, and has published two graphic novels
besides her more well-known novels.
Although an extremely gifted
prose stylist, her mark as a writer draws heavily from her visual arts
background, and her novels seem to be as much about the look, feel,
smell, and movement of her characters and setting as the plot itself.
Her first novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife
(MacAdam/Cage, 2003), came to her as an idea for another graphic book,
which she would write, illustrate, and produce herself. Because she
didn’t know of a way to signify time shifts in illustrated form, she
decided to write it as a straight novel. She was 40 years old when it
was published.
The Time Traveler’s Wife was a
phenomenal success, and was recently adapted into a big-budget movie
starring Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams (a movie Niffenegger herself
hasn’t seen). This success is especially notable for someone who had
never dreamed of being a novelist.
She still works and teaches
in the visual arts in Chicago, not giving herself over to fiction
completely, and when asked how the success of her novel had changed
her, she said, “I have no credit card debt. That’s about it.”
Regardless, Her Fearful Symmetry
was one of the most highly anticipated titles published this fall, and
has again put her on the bestseller list. Although as lyrical and
intriguing as her first book, it is in many ways a departure.
Part of The Time Traveler’s Wife's
success can be attributed to the fact that it was a sweeping, epic love
story, one that had readers despairing and swooning at turns until the
last page. With her second book, Niffenegger explained, she wanted to
take more time to examine the frailties of human love, obsession, and
need.
Rather than a beautiful young couple to root for, Her Fearful Symmetry centers around a love triangle. And one third of that triangle is no longer living.
When
the twins move into their Aunt Elspeth’s London flat, Julie – the
bossy, adventurous twin – soon befriends the recluse upstairs, while
Valentina – the meek, delicate twin – falls for their downstairs
neighbor Robert, who had been involved with Elspeth for several years.
Robert
is metaphorically haunted by Elpeth’s memory. At night he sneaks into
Highgate Cemetery, where he works by day, to sit and talk to her grave.
And Valentina is literally haunted by Elspeth’s ghost, who spends her
time doing conventional ghostly things like rattling teacups and
opening drawers.
Even as the twins’ relationship deteriorates,
Robert and Valentina’s relationship progresses, and soon they all
become aware of Elspeth’s presence among them. As they all become more
and more singly focused on their own desires, they will in turn go to
catastrophic lengths to assert themselves.
Niffenegger says that Her Fearful Symmetry is her attempt to write a 19th century Victorian ghost novel in the way of Woman in White or Portrait of a Lady. She succeeds in that it certainly does not feel like a modern novel.
The
characters sulk and worry. The cemetery lends its austere, eerie
presence. London appears as the Dickensian city that takes in young
ingenues and taints them. And from almost the first page, one has the
feeling that something has gone or is going terribly wrong.
Readers
looking for another heartwarming love story will not find it, but those
eager to see Niffenegger broaden her craft as a novelist while keeping
the same enchanting prose and spark for storytelling will welcome her
second work.
http://theurbancoaster.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=511:her-fearful-symmetry-explores-a-ghostly-love-triangle&catid=72:books&Itemid=93
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