Richly emotive and darkly captivating, with elements of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and the imaginative depth of Margaret Atwood, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear.
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?
Provocative and hypnotic, Alexis Schaitkin’s Elsewhere is at once a spellbinding revelation and a rumination on the mysterious task of motherhood and all the ways in which a woman can lose herself to it; the self-monitoring and judgment, the doubts and unknowns, and the legacy she leaves behind.
The Review
There is here and there is ELSEWHERE. Nowhere else matters.
This is my first Alexis Schaitkin book so at first, I had trouble teasing out her level of depth. This one is layered and has a duality to it. One word can mean two things. And this book can be read two ways.
In the first way, it is similar to folklore.
There is an affliction that plagues a village. And as we discover more about the affliction and the village and its inhabitants it creates anxiety and wariness for anything that is different or unknown and comes within its barriers.
The affliction is ever present, and assuredly coming, yet there is still hope.
For some.
This book is partly about missing mothers and what that absence might feel like if you were amongst many missing their mothers.
What are the total effects of motherless mothers?
In another way, if I dive deeper, this book can be dissected and can mean a lot more. Which makes for a great reading experience.
There are a few themes going on here. One that resonated with me was the discussion of things existing on two planes simultaneously. And of people or situations, settings even, being both good and bad in the same breath. Everything being a shade of gray.
I think this would make an excellent buddy read or book club pick. Everyone will get something different and there will be plenty to talk about.
ELSEWHERE…⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio and Celadon Books for every single one of my copies!
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