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| Title/Topic: The Witness Reviews "The Elephant in the Room" |
| Posted On: 10/16/2009 |
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Oct 16 2009, South Africa (The Witness) - Eating disorders hit the headlines from time to time when new research is published or some celebrity admits to a problem. A new South African book on the topic has arrived on the shelves, but it’s not an academic study. Unlikely as it may sound, it’s a novel.
The first question that struck me about this book was “Why write a novel about eating disorders?” closely followed by “Who on Earth would want to read it?” (See the accompanying piece for the author’s answers.)
The story of Lily Fields and her family is set in the Cape, particularly Kalk Bay, the Overberg and Plumstead. It explores the relationships in a family dominated by women, particularly a domineering grandmother. As a picture of the complex web of female relationships centred on the matriarch, it will strike chords with many. It’s also a sympathetic and sometimes poignant coming-of-age story.
I have immense sympathy for people trapped by addictions of any kind and compassion for the psychological and emtional pain that often causes them. However, and forgive me for the awful pun, I found singularly distasteful the detailed descriptions of the activities of an anorexia-bulimia sufferer. It’s as detailed as you’d expect from an academic study or an autobiography. The unfortunate victims of bulimia are those who “binge and purge” — repeatedly gorging themselves and then vomiting, while anorexia nervosa patients starve themselves.
However, there is more to the story of Lily and her family than eating disorders. There are also dark family secrets and a striking depiction of the conspiracy of silence that operates in many families. The book is well written and there are moments of humour, including almost slapstick comedy, but not enough to lighten the overall reading experience for me.
I seem to be in a minority — perhaps of one — who did not enjoy this book, so I put some questions to the author and will let her speak for it.
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Q&A with Maya Fowler
Q: Are you a recovering eating disorder patient yourself? If not, how do you know so much about it?
A: I’ve been interested in various kinds of mental disorders and abnormal psychology since I can remember. I’m an avid reader and have learnt a lot through reading. For the book, I had to do a lot of in-depth research. I researched everything from alcoholism to heroin addiction along the way, because eating disorders, in my opinion, are a classic addiction, and the aim was to get into the mind of an addict.
I wanted to write something where I could represent the mind of an addict and the crazy, mixed- up things they get up to. I realised there was a lot of fiction out there on drug and alcohol addiction, but little fiction on eating disorders. So I felt I’d found relatively uncharted territory.
The book I found most useful was Marya Hornbacher’s memoir Wasted. It’s a very honest account of her battle with eating disorders. Lily is very different from Marya, but Wasted gives very good insight into the mind of the eating disorder sufferer.
Q: Who do you think your audience will be?
A: I assume most of my readers will be women, but then again, women read far more fiction than men anyway. But by no means do I wish to market this as a women’s-only book.
I certainly wouldn’t want to put men off. And I must say, I was delighted when my male cover designer told me he hadn’t been able to put the manuscript down and that it made him view food differently for some time afterwards. In other words, this is a book men can find gripping.
Further, relating to audience, I think this book could have extremely broad appeal. While it’s a serious book and, naturally, given the subject matter, it has some very dark moments, it’s also hilarious in parts.
Also, the fact that it’s a coming-of- age novel, as we track Lily from a little girl through the teenage years, makes for a potentially wide audience. It’s an adult book, but teens would certainly relate to it as well.
Q: Do you have experience of family dysfunction and the conspiracy of silence about family secrets?
A: I’d say my own family is pretty boring, as this kind of thing goes. As a writer you have to really let your imagination go. And when you get started, boy, does it go.
Q: I found the ending ambiguous — is this deliberate?
A: I wanted it to be ambiguous because I like to leave some things open to interpretation and I admire other writers who do the same. I’d like the reader to make up his or her own mind.
Q: Should we expect to read more about Lily in future?
A: If a sequel ever emerges, it would be very far from now. Maybe about Lily at 40, but it’s not something I have on my agenda. The novel I’m planning at the moment deals with a completely different set of characters, with different concerns. I hope to hang on to a similar style, though, as well as the balance of drama and humour.
The Elephant in the Room by Maya Fowler is published by Kwela Books.
WHO IS MAYA FOWLER?
BORN in Cape Town in 1980, Fowler started her schooling in Stellenbosch, but went on to spend most of her childhood in the Karoo town of Graaff-Reinet. The drought and harsh landscape there “taught her to appreciate that beauty comes in many forms and resides in the tiniest things”.
She has a BA and an MA (linguistics) from the University of Stellenbosch, and she works as deputy editor of Edgars Club Magazine. T he Elephant in the Room is her first novel.
By Julia Denny-Dimitriou |
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