30 Mar / Scary Monsters by Michelle de Kretser [in Booklist]
*STARRED REVIEW
The monsters here are, of course, people, made terrifying by what Michelle de Kretser labels “three scary monsters – racism, misogyny, and ageism.” Subtitled “A Novel in Two Parts,” the notable Sri Lankan-born Australian de Kretser’s (The Life to Come, 2018) latest is indeed a dual narrative presented in a flippable binding: open it one way to read Lili’s early-1980s adventures as an Asian Australian twentysomething assistant language teacher in Montpellier, France; flip and open it the other way to witness Lyle’s assimilations, adaptations, and compromises to survive as an Asian immigrant in a post-pandemic, on-the-verge-of-another, dystopian Australia of the near future.
The two parts aren’t overtly ordered; both halves open and close with the exact same front and back matter – including epigraphs, acknowledgements, author bio – with the exception of an introductory note which reverses the order of references to Lili and Lyle. Close reading is required to find the four-word sentence linking the two halves.
Time becomes arbitrary in de Kretser’s remarkable presentation of past and future – “Which comes first, the future or the past?”
As contrasting as the details of their lives are, both Lili and Lyle must relentlessly navigate the challenges of being perpetual outsiders who are judged, overlooked, dismissed, targeted, used, and abused. Wrenchingly poignant, brilliantly biting, de Kretser provides an indelible, ageless examination of the migrant experience.
Review: “Fiction,” Booklist, March 15, 2022
Readers: Adult
Published: 2021 (Australia), 2022 (United States)