Mrs Caliban
Author: Rachel Ingalls
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 128
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★
Published by: Faber & Faber
Pages: 128
Format: Paperback
My Rating ★★★★
Dorothy is a grieving housewife in the Californian suburbs; her husband is unfaithful, but they are too unhappy to get a divorce.
One day, she is doing chores when she hears strange voices on the radio announcing that a green-skinned sea monster has escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research - but little does she expect him to arrive in her kitchen.
Muscular, vegetarian, sexually magnetic, Larry the frogman is a revelation - and their passionate affair takes them on a journey beyond their wildest dreams...
One day, she is doing chores when she hears strange voices on the radio announcing that a green-skinned sea monster has escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research - but little does she expect him to arrive in her kitchen.
Muscular, vegetarian, sexually magnetic, Larry the frogman is a revelation - and their passionate affair takes them on a journey beyond their wildest dreams...
My thoughts:
It all starts with the radio. Dorothy’s husband, Fred, has left for work, and she is at the kitchen sink washing the dishes, listening to classical music. Suddenly, the music fades out and a soft, close, dreamy voice says, “Don’t worry, Dorothy.”
A couple weeks later, there is a special interruption in regular programming. The announcer warns all listeners of an escaped sea monster. Giant, spotted, and froglike, the beast—who was captured six months earlier by a team of scientists—is said to possess incredible strength and to be considered extremely dangerous.
That afternoon, the seven-foot-tall lizard man walks through Dorothy’s kitchen door. She is frightened at first, but there is something attractive about the monster. Larry reinvigorates her mundane life. The two begin a tender, clandestine affair, and no one, not even Dorothy’s husband or her best friend, seems to notice.
I enjoyed the matter-of-fact way that the relationship between Larry and Dorothy plays out. It’s oddly charming. She accepts him into her life immediately, allowing Larry to fill the void left by her unhappy marriage and the recent death of her child.
In many ways Mrs. Caliban is an exploration of love and marriage, shown through Dorothy's eyes as she explains the ways of the world to Larry, telling him about life, the universe, and everything. Larry's ignorance about most things leads her to questioning a lot of those things herself.
On a surface level this tells the story of a lonely housewife's relationship with a tall frogman who has escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research. Psychologically, Dorothy is showing signs of extreme stress – she hears strange, personal messages in radio broadcasts: ‘the first time was during a commercial for cake-mix and the woman’s voice had said in a perfectly ordinary tone, ‘don’t worry Dorothy, you’ll have another baby all right. All you need to do is relax and stop worrying about it’.
But does the frogman really exist or is he a figment of her imagination to escape her claustrophobic life? Although it is never made explicit, there is the possibility that Larry exists solely in Dorothy’s head, serving as a kind of mental wish-fulfilment. Regardless, he appears at a time when she is feeling vulnerable and alone. Larry's situation also mirrors Dorothy’s sense of alienation.
I found Mrs Caliban to be well-paced, unputdownable, and timeless. Whist the book shares some key similarities with Shape of Water, the stories are not the same.
It's a slim book, probably more novella than novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed this quirky, weird, sweet tale. I found the ending appropriate but also surprisingly sad. Small but perfectly formed. What a deliciously odd and surprising little book!
Overall reaction:
It all starts with the radio. Dorothy’s husband, Fred, has left for work, and she is at the kitchen sink washing the dishes, listening to classical music. Suddenly, the music fades out and a soft, close, dreamy voice says, “Don’t worry, Dorothy.”
A couple weeks later, there is a special interruption in regular programming. The announcer warns all listeners of an escaped sea monster. Giant, spotted, and froglike, the beast—who was captured six months earlier by a team of scientists—is said to possess incredible strength and to be considered extremely dangerous.
That afternoon, the seven-foot-tall lizard man walks through Dorothy’s kitchen door. She is frightened at first, but there is something attractive about the monster. Larry reinvigorates her mundane life. The two begin a tender, clandestine affair, and no one, not even Dorothy’s husband or her best friend, seems to notice.
I enjoyed the matter-of-fact way that the relationship between Larry and Dorothy plays out. It’s oddly charming. She accepts him into her life immediately, allowing Larry to fill the void left by her unhappy marriage and the recent death of her child.
In many ways Mrs. Caliban is an exploration of love and marriage, shown through Dorothy's eyes as she explains the ways of the world to Larry, telling him about life, the universe, and everything. Larry's ignorance about most things leads her to questioning a lot of those things herself.
On a surface level this tells the story of a lonely housewife's relationship with a tall frogman who has escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research. Psychologically, Dorothy is showing signs of extreme stress – she hears strange, personal messages in radio broadcasts: ‘the first time was during a commercial for cake-mix and the woman’s voice had said in a perfectly ordinary tone, ‘don’t worry Dorothy, you’ll have another baby all right. All you need to do is relax and stop worrying about it’.
But does the frogman really exist or is he a figment of her imagination to escape her claustrophobic life? Although it is never made explicit, there is the possibility that Larry exists solely in Dorothy’s head, serving as a kind of mental wish-fulfilment. Regardless, he appears at a time when she is feeling vulnerable and alone. Larry's situation also mirrors Dorothy’s sense of alienation.
I found Mrs Caliban to be well-paced, unputdownable, and timeless. Whist the book shares some key similarities with Shape of Water, the stories are not the same.
It's a slim book, probably more novella than novel, but I thoroughly enjoyed this quirky, weird, sweet tale. I found the ending appropriate but also surprisingly sad. Small but perfectly formed. What a deliciously odd and surprising little book!
Overall reaction: