Sarah O'Connor

“You do not get to keep what is sweetest to you; you only get to remember it from the vantage point of having lost it,” (Schaitkin 205).

Vera lives in a small town surrounded by mountains. The town loves and protects their own and has a particular reverence for mothers, all of whom suffer the same affliction: they vanish, disappearing into the mist and clouds that surrounds the town.  There’s no pattern or reason for it, mother’s vanishing is a fact that people elsewhere wouldn’t understand. Vera’s mother vanished when she was young, and as she grows and comes closer to motherhood herself she wonders what her own fate will be, and whether or not she will disappear like her own mother did.

Elsewhere has been on my reading list for a long while and it’s a strange little book. It definitely holds the vibes of Shirley’s Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale without actually being anything like either book. It’s difficult to explain, and it’s a book better gone into blind and stumbling through to really get the grasp of it.

At it’s heart Elsewhere is an examination at mother-daughter relationships and the complexities of them. Following Vera from childhood to adulthood, reader’s get a glimpse into her town’s understanding of motherhood, the respect they place on women knowing that they may disappear. It’s a frightening and hard to grasp affliction. I won’t go into too much detail, but while there is no pattern or reason for why some mother’s disappear and others don’t, I would have liked a little more information on it considering the direction the novel went. I do think the metaphor will hit mother’s more than other reader’s, but it’s understood nonetheless.

The book is very well-written. I enjoyed the prose and there’s a lot of very quotable passages inside. And at times the book is heartbreaking and horrifying. There’s one passage that isn’t too long but it is shocking and definitely upset me. But despite the vagueness and subtlety, Schaitkin does a wonderful job carrying the metaphor of motherhood and mother-daughter relationships throughout.

Heartfelt and heartbreaking, Elsewhere is a strange novel that will haunt and move readers long after they’ve read it. I can’t wait to see what Schaitkin has in store next!

Publication: June 28 2022
Publisher: Celadon Books
Pages: 263 (Paperback ARC)
Source: OLA
Genre: Fiction, Magical Realism, Science Fiction
My Rating: ⛤⛤⛤.5
Summary:

Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish, disappearing into the clouds. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning.
Vera, a young girl when her own mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in motherhood, waiting for signs: this one devotes herself to her child too much, this one not enough—that must surely draw the affliction’s gaze. When motherhood comes for Vera, she is faced with the question: will she be able to stay and mother her beloved child, or will she disappear?