Fiction, 2022
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is a messy novel. Upon finishing it, I immediately fell into the deepest nap I’ve had all year, in a room filled with sunlight that gave my dreams an overexposed quality. In this white scene, I dreamt that I met Cleopatra, and true to the story, I couldn’t understand her at all.
We follow a cast of characters in New York that cluster around two people who have fallen in love with each other; Cleo, or Cleopatra, and Frank, or Frankenstein. I was confused as to what the direction of the book was—what it was trying to say—until I realised that it is painting addiction and subsequent abuse with the cyclicality and segregation of moving through a colour wheel. A smattering of the addictions represented include: romance, drugs, sex, alcohol, and dissociation.
I was initially incredibly hesitant about the novel. Mostly because the beginning felt like yet another story about a relationship that is a non-relation where two people continuously misunderstand each other while spewing a consistent stream of violent emotions. The Sally Rooney canon, if you will. But the novel shifts perspectives constantly, and I hit one that felt like cold water slapped across my face. If you end up reading it, you should know it was Eleanor’s.
Since I still don’t know how to talk about this novel (even a week after finishing it), here are two quotes. The first one is a quote that opens the story. The second is the mood of the tale.
“Let’s be hungry a little while longer.
Let’s not hurt each other if we can”
“This is a place of exquisite beauty and extreme danger”
For lack of a better word, yummy.
Song - Give You My Lovin - Mazzy Star
Film - Not a film, but Modern Love (Season 1).
wow why is this making my heart hurt