17 Nov / Mouth to Mouth by Antoine Wilson [in Shelf Awareness]
An unexpected airport encounter – with an inevitable flight delay – reunites two university classmates in Antoine Wilson’s disturbing yet intriguing Mouth to Mouth. Reminiscent of the cult classic film My Dinner with Andre, Wilson’s tête-à-tête exchange takes place in the plush chairs of a first-class lounge, with many drinks (one of them imbibing non-alcoholic beers), and a lavish buffet fueling hours of tautly controlled, one-sided conversation.
Sitting at a JFK gate, the narrator – a novelist on his way to Germany for hopeful meetings with a publisher – hears the name “Jeff Cook” over the PA system. Almost 20 years have passed since he’d “known a Jeff Cook … at UCLA.” Back then, they “hadn’t been friends, exactly, barely acquaintances, but Jeff was one of those minor players from the past who claimed for himself an outsize role in my memories.” Jeff – a “thrift-store Adonis” – was, the narrator believed for vague unsubstantiated reasons, his “guardian angel keeping tabs on [him].” Jeff, too, recognizes the narrator: “You look exactly the same. Plus twenty years or so,” he insists with a handshake. Accepting Jeff’s offer of “an extra pass” to temporary luxury in the airline lounge, the narrator follows Jeff through the terminal, giving him the opportunity to observe how “everything about [Jeff] conveyed neatness and taste”: Jeff’s college wardrobe of ripped jeans and old T-shirts has been replaced with an elegant suit, stylish glasses, expensive loafers, fancy roll-aboard luggage. Once the men are ensconced, revelations unfurl.
Calling their meeting “serendipitous,” and insisting the narrator was “there at the beginning,” Jeff launches into a story he claims he’s never told anyone else. Shortly after graduation, Jeff pulled a drowning man from the sea. Not being thanked leads Jeff to stalk the man, and learns that his intervention allowed Francis Arsenault new life. “Francis Arsenault had an eye. It came up in every interview, profile, and article.” That eye made Francis a revered, wealthy art dealer with global galleries. Rather effortlessly, Jeff inserts himself into Francis’s world – both private and professional – never revealing their connection.
The narrator, whose livelihood, ironically, depends on fabricating narratives, becomes a captive audience to what’s presented as Jeff’s never-shared history. Wilson (Panorama City) provides readers with both Jeff’s meticulously constructed recounting and the narrator’s ciphered reactions. In between bottomless drinks and gourmet tidbits, Wilson manipulates Jeff’s confessional with interrupting variations of “I’ll get to that,” a clever distraction to keep the narrator – and readers – engaged. Stopping isn’t an option: that final sentence rewards readers with a didn’t-see-that-coming gut punch.
Shelf Talker: Antoine Wilson’s slyly disturbing and shrewd novel presents two college acquaintances who unexpectedly cross paths at an airport almost 20 years later.
Review: Shelf Awareness Pro, November 12, 2021
Readers: Adult
Published: 2022