I first heard of this book while reading Slate online. The article was framed as a newly discovered interview with C.M. Lucca from 2005, and so I clicked because I do love reading author interviews – not to mention, I wondered by such an interview from 2005 would be relevant today. Do I need to say that I was taken by the premise of the article – that the subject herself existed, that she was indeed an accidental biographer of her late wife, known as the conceptual artist X? It wasn’t until the first mention of the Southern Territory that I started googling, and, well, discovered, to my chagrin, that the article acts a bit like the book itself – here we have a story within a story. This is an alternate history of the United States that is far more concerned with intimate relationships than the political context, despite the deep linkages between the two.
The narrator of this biography is C.M. Lucca, and she is chronicling the life of her recently deceased wife. In the universe of the novel, the United States fractured into three territories in 1945 – the Southern Territory becomes a theocracy governed by folks like Mike Pence who enforce their religious rules with strict, deadly force. The Northern Territory becomes a liberal bastion, achieving feats such as Universal Basic Income, paid maternity leave, and marriage equality, as early as the 1960s and 70s. The Western Territory is reserved for the libertarians’, who wish to be bothered neither by the South and their draconian rules, nor the North and their ballooning government. In 1996, an infamous artist known as X dies in her home, and her widow, our narrator, slowly becomes aware of little she knew of her lovers life. She delves back into her journalistic roots to uncover whatever truths might be available about the life of the extraordinary woman she was married to.
Through interviews with various people, and enough asides to explain and understand the political situation, we accompany C.M. on her journey into X’s past. She was incited to take on the project after an unauthorized biography was released. This biography incensed C.M. – she completely eviscerates it, and then vows to correct the record with her own work. As you might imagine, her expectations and understanding of why she is pursuing this information shifts over time. This is a novel that feels like nonfiction. While the expounding and political tirades sometimes feel a bit overwrought, the feelings at the core are compelling enough to keep you turning the pages.
This is one of those novels where an obscure, larger than life female is the subject but not narrator. We are never inside X’s head, we only learn about her through others and their interactions with her. And yet, she is the focus of the novel, her pretentiousness is baked into the plot. Four stars because it did drag at times, but overall this was an audacious novel that built a fascinating world.