THE CHANGELING
by Joy Williams
Published in 1978, The Changeling has been on my radar for a while. Recently, I saw it mentioned as “the classic” dystopian novel about women. So, I figured I should read it. Maybe the reason it’s a classic is that it’s one of the first? Because I found it anything but remarkable. Let me share something from the foreword to the novel, written by Karen Russell: “[The Changeling] is refreshingly transgressively uninterested in reflecting the familiar dramas of human life, or reproducing the conventional grammar of human thinking. Instead, its language opens a portal into the ‘cold, inaccessible depths.’ Its project is annihilating transformation.” Excuse me, what? Maybe that was my problem with The Changeling—in a (very wordy) nutshell.
The Changeling follows the protagonist, Pearl, as she is acted upon throughout the novel. To say she doesn’t seem to possess any free will is an understatement. She doesn’t exhibit any will of any kind. She marries and has a baby. The family goes down in a plane crash and she survives—with someone else’s baby to raise. She’s whisked away to a remote island where she lives in a cult-like community and basically drinks all day, every day. I’m sure all kinds of hidden messages proliferate in this book. I just couldn’t be bothered to look for them. The Changeling was most definitely not my cup of tea. (Liz)
