Anatomy. Monotony.
- Lou…
- Yeah?
- What are you thinking about?
- I am not thinking Vår, I am reading. What about you?
- I was thinking about our game
- Umhm…
- Do you really want me to fall in love with a new man, like I once did with the Lover?
- Yes, but it will be different this time, I will be stronger. I promise you, Vår.
Anatomy. Monotony. is the story of Vår and Lou and what you expose yourself to when you seal a pact of mutual unfaithfulness. It is a novel, which reveals a naive attraction toward the unpleasant and transgressive, with the triangle as the engine of desire.
Video: Edy Poppy Talks Sex, Love and Boredom with Siri Hustvedt
Interview: Autobiographical Fiction, Avant-Garde Sexuality & Eccentric Family Life
PRAISE
"Poised, bold and intelligent, 'Anatomy. Monotony.' is an enthralling story og wildly experimental lives, in which both the pains and the gains of casting aside sexual norms are unsparingly examined."
Rob Doyle, author of Here are the young men
"A female, sexually free ‘Catcher in the Rye’." - Mike S. Ryan, film producer (The Turin Horse, Choke and Junebug)
"The first person narrator Vår, has a desperation and an aggression which beautifully highlight the existential seriousness underlying her quest and exploration. As well as which, her consistent use of the present tense brings immediacy and weight. When we add to this its quite audacious play with evidently autobiographical elements, it is clear Anatomy. Monotony. is a debut in a class of its own." Aftenposten
"What is fidelity? In Anatomy. Monotony., Edy Poppy examines this question with an intimacy and ruthlessness worthy of Marguerite Duras. Vår, a young woman from a small Norwegian town, and Lou, a Frenchman from Nîmes, maintain an open marriage. But their polyamorous experiment is freighted with jealousies. Their life in London is broken into by one fascinating stranger after another, until eventually they decide to move away, back to Vår’s rural hometown—a decision that will change the nature of their relationship forever. Anatomy. Monotony. is a novel about sex, love, and the creation of literature in no uncertain terms." Dalkey Archive Press
"Edy Poppy’s Anatomy, Monotony. is a devilish hybrid. Part autofiction, part literary, cinematic, and musical dance of allusions, and part chronicle of the mute body’s aches and pains and lusts and needs, the novel deftly hits its notes, high and low, to create a symphonic work of tragicomedy." - The American novelist: Siri Hustvedt (The Blindfold, What I loved, The Shaking Woman)
"I read Edy Poppy’s debut novel Anatomy. Monotony. and thought it was fantastic!" - Chris Kraus, author of the cult novel I love Dick
"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." - Ron Hogan, editor og the literary magazine Beatrice.com
"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." - M. Bartley Seigel, The Watchlist
"I enjoyed reading Edy Poppy’s debut novel Anatomy. Monotony. It shows a great deal of talent, intelligence and passion. Rare.! - Darius James, writer of the cult novel Negrophobia
"This is a novel whose story and characters captivate us and bring us into a new world." - May-Brit Akerholt, translator of Anatomy. Monotony.
Please download sample translation:
VG 23.10.2005:
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.
SUANNE HEDEMANN HIORTH