In Memory House, a posthumous novel by Elaine Kraf (1936-2013), a novelist enters a commune for failed artists. Magical realism and metafiction coalesce in another of this unsung genius's typically weird explorations of memory, creativity, and sexuality.
Marlane Frack is apprehensive as she sets out for Memory House, a retreat with a no-creation policy and an entry prerequisite of faking one's death. When Marlane asks chauffeur Solomon Ito, a film director (and Memory House resident), what state their destination is in, he jokingly replies, "A state of perpetual lethargy." "Expect confusion," he additionally instructs--which turns out to be good advice.
A ritualized welcome involves communal chanting of "These are not our best years!" Marlane soon recognizes poet Nadia Lagoon, a friend from her 20s in Provincetown; and composer Garreth Styne. She's troubled by recurring hallucinations that her mentally ill husband, Lenny, is there. Doctor Amazing promises to restore her creativity via "rejuvenation of memory," which unearths recollections of childhood molestation. Adding to the supporting cast are Dr. Mervin Fisher, a "crackpot" dentist; and Ivan Birch, a retired judge who wears women's lingerie. "Sexual obsessions flourish in a place like this," Garreth warns Marlane. Sol and Dr. Fisher proposition her before she and Garreth begin a romance. Oddest of all, though, is the arrival of Marlane's father--whom she believed dead of prostate cancer.
"This place is stranger than my weirdest novel," Marlane remarks. "If I don't leave soon, I'll have a breakdown." Kraf (Find Him!; The Princess of 72nd Street) often features mental institutions and, in her introduction, Lauren Oyler theorizes that Memory House is "an artist residency inside a mental hospital." ("If this isn't a lunatic asylum... ?" Garreth exclaims at one point.) Flashbacks and fantasies are delivered in italics; former lovers and artistic endeavors (including ballet) drift through. It all appears to add up to a metaphorical journey, with a symbolic death and rebirth for those departing to reenter Society.
Readers familiar with Kraf get the fun of looking out for Easter eggs from her previous work (e.g., Ferdinand the circus performer from I Am Clarence). It's both meta and tongue-in-cheek when Marlane sees a sign for "The Clown's Dominion" and observes, "It reads like something I could have written in a novel."
Kraf left behind several rejected manuscripts; Marlane, her autobiographical stand-in, feels she is passé due to changing literary tastes. Happily, Kraf's work is now being rediscovered. --Rebecca Foster, freelance reviewer, proofreader, and blogger at Bookish Beck
Shelf Talker: In this posthumous novel by an unsung genius, a novelist who fears her creativity has dried up moves into a retreat where the subconscious seems to take over and produce many a strange occurrence.