One Girl Collecting: Things I like about Audrey Niffenegger

Since I too am a printmaker/paper maker/book artist, you can only imagine how excited I was when The Time Traveler's Wife came out and one of the main characters was a paper maker. Paper makers just don't make it into mainstream culture. I mean, seriously, what was the last book, tv show, or movie that depicted a paper maker? Because of this, I was destined to love the book. When it turned out to be an extraordinarily good story, well, I was in love.

So, imagine my disappointment when I found myself struggling with Niffenegger's latest book Her Fearful Symmetry. The book is slow to start, as she establishes a set of really interesting characters. There's Elspeth, the woman who dies of cancer then becomes a ghost stuck forever in her London flat overlooking Highgate cemetery. Her neighbors: Living above her is Martin, the OCD agoraphobe whose wife has left him (definitely the most interesting character), and Robert her lover who lives below and might as well be a ghost for as much as he despairs over her death. Elspeth's twin nieces from Chicago who've inherited her flat, so long as they live in it for one year. Elspeth's twin sister Edie who, along with her husband Jack, are prohibited from entering Elspeth's (now the twins') flat. And Highgate cemetery. This too becomes a character. So even with a slow start, I was still hopeful and powered through.

At almost the exact middle point of the book, the story takes off. The interaction between the characters becomes so interesting that you won't want to put the book down. Huzzah! I thought, here is the story's redemption, but it was short lived. The characters quickly turn desperate in their circumstances and the underlying dark tones come to the surface, creating a bleak and uncomfortable ending. As an artist critiquing another artist's work, it is a huge success because it made me feel the discomfort, sadness, bleakness, and overall sense of being unfulfilled that the characters themselves were feeling. As a reader, it just made me want to go out and soak up as much sun as I possibly could in order to rid myself of the darkness.

I've seen these themes play out in Niffenegger's visual books (akin to graphic novels), The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress, both of which I would highly recommend to anyone who is keen on graphic novels. The aesthetic is not that of comic books, but of children's story books (but with adult themes). So, I don't know why I was caught off guard, but I was. I got caught up in the idea and feel of Niffenegger's first book and forgot to take the second book as its own entity. It's hardly fair to compare the second child to the first, but that's what I did.

If you're looking for a happy, feel good story, this is probably not your book. If you're looking for good character development and interaction with a ghost story thrown in, read Her Fearful Symmetry. Just be warned, although there is a life-goes-on sense of redemption for most of the characters, the ending leaves you a bit empty (or, it did me).

Niffenegger is publishing her third visual book, The Night Bookmobile Sept. 1, 2010. You can read the serialization of the novel from the London Guardian Web site. More information on other books, stories, etc can be found at her Web site, AudreyNiffenegger.com.