Book-bliss #1: “Cleopatra and Frankenstein” by Coco Mellors

I was waiting for Nara to be for the first time late at one of our meetings. I was exultant, as it is always me being late usually. I always get a scolding from him. As I waited with anticipation to see his face, a girl sitting at the table next to mine at the noodles place noticed the book I was reading,?“Cleopatra and Frankenstein” by Coco Mellors, which seems to be the new hipster sensation. She said she was reading it too and that it was “so cool that she is similar to Sally Rooney”. Considering that at the mention of Sally Rooney, I feel a sense of dread I cannot explain,?why should I read a copy of hers? I was meditating to drop the book.?

Usually, I love connecting with people, but I wanted to say to this girl “Me and you have nothing in common”. I am a snob about not belonging to my generation. These are precisely the kind of books I usually avoid like the plague. But I am trying to come back to my age, to be a woman of my time. And then it is also true that I am a sucker for a good cover and the cover of this one is pure perfection. The title too. You ask yourself how would Frankenstein and Cleopatra like each other. It is improbable and it is cool. It ignites curiosity and imagination. So I gave it a go. I am happy I did, with few reserves.?

Cleo, a British artist in desperate need of money and of a green card marries on a whim Frank, 20 years her senior and professionally successful but with an alcohol problem. The book revolves around the two. A power play ensues, common when two people in a relationship are highly unbalanced in terms of money, age, cultural knowledge and so on. The book has a happy ending despite not ending how you’d expect it to end and that’s what makes it moving. In essence, is a book about turning into an adult, facing that you are always in an inner battle against how you feel your parents fucked you up until you don’t grow up for real. That you are always keeping a balance on a rope, where the options are you either turning into your mother or your father without even noticing.?

What I dislike though is that she seems to have compiled a “diversity & inclusion” checklist. There’s the gay man, the drug addict, the immigrant, the depressed, the sex worker, the spirituality junkie. The emphasis on these characteristics is such that the humanity of these characters is somehow lost. You do not have to make an effort to remember the names of the characters that populate the book, you could just label them around their sexual preferences or addiction. The author herself timidly tries to make fun of such a New York scene but she is afraid to offend so she rests in a limbo where she neither hurts you nor touches you as deeply as she could.?

But you finish the book, and you feel justice was served. And that’s a great feeling.

All in all, a 7 ?/10.?

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