Atmospheric, beautifully written
Everything Under Author: Daisy Johnson Publisher: Jonathan Cape
BRITISH author Daisy Johnson is, at 27, the youngest author to have ever been shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.
Everything Under is a reimagining in a contemporary setting of the ancient Greek tragedy, Oedipus. (Such retellings seem to be having quite a moment – last year, Kamila Shamsie’s Home Fire, based on the story of Antigone, was also shortlisted.)
The novel examines a very difficult mother-daughter relationship. Gretel grows up on a houseboat moored on a remote stretch of river with her eccentric mother, Sarah, who fosters the child’s love of words by sharing an invented language with her. But at 16, Gretel is suddenly abandoned. Now a further 16 years on, she is working as a lexicographer, writing dictionary entries.
Gretel sets out to track her mother down, and the novel shifts between time frames and narrative threads, which are woven together at the end as Gretel uncovers terrible family secrets. Each strand is clearly labelled, so that for all its complexity, the plot is easy to follow.
The “Hunt” follows Gretel’s search, not just for her mother but also for a boy named Marcus who she remembers staying with them during the final days on the river and who may hold the key to her mother’s disappearance.
In “The Cottage”, Gretel has been reunited with her mother and brought her to live with her. Sarah has dementia, though, and communication is limited. The “River” sections are written in the third person, and tell the story of Marcus.
The novel is atmospheric and beautifully written, and contains elements of dark fairytales, especially in the form of a water monster called the Bonak who takes the shape of each person’s fears.