Fractured feelings

A reader friend said of Angélique Lalonde’s debut, Glorious Frazzled Beings “I don’t know what this is, but I like it.” When the short-story collection was a Giller Prize finalist, the jury called it “beguiling.”

That word again describes Lalonde’s eagerly anticipated follow-up work of fiction, Variations on a Dream. It’s a novel-length immersion into the slowly disintegrating marriage of Sarah and Trevor, who have two young daughters, a perfect online life and — here’s the especially modern twist — a secret and separate preoccupation with the same arthouse porn video.

The enchantment comes with the way their story is told through different perspectives, including but not limited to the couple in question as well as the integration of fairy tale and myth as part of their marriage lore.

Swans — in particular black swans, who may or may not mate for life — and Greek mythology (in this case Ariadne and Dionysus, the labyrinth and the string) feature thematically in playful and serious ways throughout the novel, casting sharp insights into the relationship between Sarah and Trevor and the increasing fragility of their connection.

Trevor’s road to masculinity harkens back to the discovery of his father’s hidden VHS porn collection in childhood; his 20s bromance with charismatic friend Sean; a professorial career in literature focusing on Charles Bukowski and David Foster Wallace; role play with his wife posing as his university student during office hours; and crossing ethical lines with his most attractive students.

Sarah’s journey includes formative memories of her father’s volatility; a loving, magnetic friendship with university roommate Ariadne (with whom Trevor was also enamoured); cosplay with her husband; a changing set of desires when she becomes “an unslept mom on the verge of living death;” and growing disillusionment with a husband who is as quick to send her into the throes of shame and self-blame as her father was years ago.

Critics have noted that the language of academia and therapy seeps into Lalonde’s short fiction, the former of which is no surprise given that the B.C. author holds a PhD in anthropology.

This trend continues in Variations on a Dream, as when Trevor and Sarah’s movements leading up to a kiss are described in terms of “mimetic gestures to affirm shared meaning.”

These dips into academese, much like the topic of porn itself, will by turns attract or deter readers. This reviewer tends to trust that the artist is taking her where the narrative needs to go.

That said, a novel is a long time to spend with a tenuous marriage. Some lightness comes from the blending of myth and art, and wherever porn fits into that mix. Exclamation marks abound, shaking things up for the reader.

And Sarah’s parenting blog sounds really quite lovely, motivated as it is by the belief that “contemporary care work could be both beautiful and radical.” The children are still young enough to be considered “daughters, not women” by Trevor (a bit ick), and they are Sarah’s motivation to make a healthy change.

Fun is had with images scattered throughout the text, including delicate line drawings, a tarot spread and a photo of a stack of books to illustrate the reading list tacked on at the end. Notice, from the spines, which are library books and returnable (Trevor’s taste, Foster Wallace’s Infinite Jest) and which have no barcodes and are for keeps (Sarah’s taste, Maggie Nelson’s On Freedom.)

Marriage continues to be a key ingredient in contemporary storytelling, as it is in our lives. Daring and inventive, Variations on a Dream forays into the pressing concerns for domestic rupture in the present day.

Sara Harms is a Winnipeg editor.