I came to Lohrey’s novel, The Labyrinth (2020) with a little trepidation. I hadn’t read her fiction before but knew her from book reviews in (I think) The Monthly. I don’t remember much about them as there was very little information about the books or writers, which is why I found her reviews extremely annoying: heavy writerly syntax and nothing much else.
A visiting friend had left The Labyrinth with me. It sat on my coffee table for a few days when I finally picked it up. I put a lot of faith in page 1 and this page 1 did not disappoint, in fact it galvanised me to continue.
It’s a familiar narrative trope epitomised by the 1949 novel, Shane by Jack Shaefer which was filmed in 1953 and its success launched the plot as an iconic narrative; it was originally published in 1946 in three parts in Argosy magazine, and originally titled Rider from Nowhere: a stranger arrives in an isolated place and changes the local’s lives forever. Such a well-used storyline has morphed into more sophisticated versions over the decades – including, it’s the stranger who changes – but the bones of it are just that. John Boyne’s latest novella Water (2024), the first of a quartet, has a similar spine. Boyne’s protagonist is escaping her past; Lohrey’s, Erica, has followed hers: her son is imprisoned in a local gaol and she’s bought a dilapidated cottage to be near him even though he’s quite antagonistic towards her. As a mother she feels she has no choice; she’s all he has, she says… in fact, he’s all she has.
The first-person narrative allows Lohrey to tantalisingly release little bits of information from Erica’s back story which keeps the reader’s attention and interest. It also doesn’t allow any close writing of any other characters leaving them as intriguing observations and keeping the focus solely on the protagonist, her thoughts and fears; that’s the beauty of the first person.
While she waits for her fortnightly visits to her son, Daniel, Erica embarks on a project inspired by her late father, and plans to build a labyrinth in a flat piece of land between her cottage and the sand dunes. A labyrinth is a single continuous path but of an intricate and mathematical design that promises you will achieve the goal of getting to the centre if only you keep moving forward. A maze, on the other hand, has many turns and dead-ends so reaching the centre may never happen. A labyrinth is inspirational; a maze is a game.
An itinerant Albanian, Junka, possibly an illegal immigrant, is a wonderful novelistic creation. He is camping near the beach and happens to be a stone mason and seeks to keep Erica on track to build her labyrinth. Make what you will of the symbolism, if you think it’s relevant, but the narrative is engaging and the characters interesting even though the plot is soft and the ending a little undercooked.
Here, listen to Lohrey talk about the book and what inspired her to write it.
You can purchase the book and other Lohrey writing here.
.
Michael K Freundt 