Anatomy. Monotony.

I read Edy Poppy’s debut novel Anatomy. Monotony. and thought it was fantastic!

As a story, Anatomy. Monotony. reminds me of films like Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt or Lars von Trier’s Breaking the Waves, stories about couples who poke at their marriage with a sharp stick with devastating consequences.

Anatomy. Monotony. throws its characters and us where we belong, not in front of, but behind the facade of fantasy, and into the sticky reality of lives more normatively complicated than we may care to admit.

I enjoyed reading Edy Poppy’s debut novel Anatomy. Monotony. It shows a great deal of talent, intelligence and passion. Rare.!

This is a novel whose story and characters captivate us and bring us into a new world.

A fearless novel taking the form of a young writer’s “diary”. The sheer guts of this debutant novelist, Edy Poppy, as she enters the public arena with an artist’s pseudonym, a theatrically naked picture on the book’s front cover and a hot title, are set to draw attention. These embellishments however, clothe a playful and daring first novel, written with deadly seriousness. “Anatomy. Monotony” is the story of Norwegian Vår and Frenchman Lou who having married young, live in London. They have opted for an open relationship, in every way, both taking lovers. But infidelity proves a troubled balancing act; a spectacle of love with many nuances. The novel is also about a novel that Vår is in the process of writing, and about her alter-ego Ragnhild, which, to give an added twist, is Edy Poppy’s real name. Intertwined and at play with the rest of this text, are passages about growing up in Bø, a fire, France and eroticism. We follow Vår on a day-by-day journey, divided into concise sections of prose, which lend an excellent rhythm to the piece. This novel is not without fault, but succeeds in capturing a way of life tolerant of the odd cliché. We might have found this Nietzsche-quoting, artistic couple irritating but for the erotic game in this Bohemian universe functioning so well. This is a novel that displays both teeth and humour, as in the sketch of the cello composition “The Sexual Life of Plants.” Most striking of all, is Vår’s voice, who wants to be “a fearless little player.” Someone who makes no apology for taking the position of both subject and object, sexually, artistically and in other ways – described with a liberating dexterity of voice. It will be interesting to know what more Edy Poppy might have on her mind.