Honestly, my productivity lately has been just pure trash. This time, however, I think I got myself hung up on this particular book review. I’d start it, delete, and then close my page. I couldn’t quite figure out how to put into words what I wanted to say. Truthfully, this book’s brilliance is something a reader has to experience for themselves in order to understand it. It’s a character study of one of the most perfectly imperfect people, and the perfection is in the finest little details.

Synopsis

Enid, an eccentric 26-year old woman with a passion for true crime and a plethora of knowledge about space, mostly spends her time either working or going through a series of romantic flings with women she’s met online. Her life is complicated by her odd relationship with her equally eccentric mother, her even stranger relationship with her recently introduced half sisters, and her crippling fear of bald men, origin unknown. Add to her awkwardness of personality the fact that she’s partially deaf and often misses when people speak to her, she feels very much like an outsider detested by the mass majority of people considered “normal.” Things begin to spiral out of control when Enid is confronted by the jilted spouse of one of her lovers, an event that draws her into the kind of romantic entanglement she had previously avoided. Oh, and there’s the fact that she is certain someone is following her, and it’s probably the bald guy who lives in her apartment building and keeps knocking on her door at odd hours. With all this adding up, things are about to get more interesting than all those facts she knows about space.

Review

As I said before, this book’s brilliance is something you have to experience. It is this perfect culmination of all these little details that make Enid so unique and special. And it’s not just the details of her character and personality but those of her relationships. Her relationship with her mother is something truly beautiful. I positively adore her mother. While they don’t really communicate in a traditional way, as their communications often consists of Enid calling to tell her mother something interesting about space, the way her mother clings to her every word and accepts and adores Enid is such a touching aspect of this book. She intuitively knows that Enid is feeling vulnerable and reciprocates. Instead of saying, “I’m here for you,” she says “that’s so interesting. Tell me more about that.” The result is the same. Enid knows she’s being heard. She knows there’s at least one person who understands her and is willing to listen even if she doesn’t quite know what she needs to say.

Conversely, Enid can gauge her mother’s mental state based on her lipstick usage. This is such an authentic portrait of life. For the people we know and love the most, it’s often the most mundane of things that give us insight into their psyche. It comes natural to search for these small quirks to make sure they are ok. When Enid tells her mother, “you aren’t wearing lipstick today,” she’s really saying, I see you and I’m here for you too.” It’s a language someone on the outside couldn’t translate. Austin’s writing has more emotional intelligence than any person I’ve ever known. Something else authentic about this book? People make stupid choices for so many different reasons, and sometimes the reason is love.

This is a very quick read but it contains more depth and meaning than most books twice its length. There’s nothing superfluous and there’s no pretentious fluff, but it’s still immensely beautiful. And that’s all a result of Austin’s ability to add nuance to a story that’s very simple on the surface. Add to all this the subtle humor and charm, and it’s a wonderful experience. Seeing some of the negative reviews on goodreads I can tell some readers simply don’t get it. That’s a real shame, because this is one you need to get.

Published January 30, 2024 by Atria Books. ISBN 9781668014233. 320 pages. Hardcover.