Book Review: Fault Lines, by Tsveti Nacheva

I have read a lot of novels in my life, but generally not the sort that dig deep into human psychology. Instead, I have been attracted to ones that work with ideas. I've read Tolstoy's War and Peace many times (I've lost track---over six times for sure), lots of science fiction (I just finished reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation Trilogy)---both of these books are mostly philosophy of history. I also like formulaic mysteries---during this pandemic I've read just about all the Kathy Reichs forensic whodunits and Craig Johnson's "magic Western" Walt Longmire books. These books are inspired by current events and meditate on how human beings navigate larger social forces.

This isn't to say that there is no value in novels that delve deep into the human psyche, just that for one reason or another I find learning how other people think somewhat intimidating. I'm a lot more comfortable thinking about ideas than instincts and emotions, so what passes for a "entertaining leisurely activity" gets chosen accordingly. That's probably a good reason why I should read them---but that doesn't mean that I find it any easier to do so. 

I remember reading once that novels of psychological introspection only became popular in the late 19th century and this was part of a significant change in the way human beings looked at society. This makes sense to me. Pretty much the only way any of us can really put ourselves into the skin of someone else is by reading the introspective descriptions put out by that subclass of novelists who do this sort of writing. And with the decline of religion in people's lives and rise of social sciences like sociology and psychology, it only made sense that art would decide to spend less time looking outward towards God and philosophy, and instead direct our gaze inward towards the human psyche. 

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This gets me to Tsveti Nacheva's book Fault Lines. It's a mystery, but it's told from the point-of-view of someone---Laurie---who about as alien to me as a Martian. When the novel begins, she's a good-looking university student who's involved with a young man, Nate. She's at a Halloween party where she has too much to drink and wakes up in bed and notices her boyfriend nowhere around.

She looks around and finds a set of his clothes drenched in blood. He comes back from a five-mile "morning run", and explains the clothes as being a result of a malfunction of an elaborate Halloween installation that involved a fountain of pig's blood. 

Unfortunately, it turns out that the woman Laurie shares an apartment with, Ashley---who was also at the party---has disappeared without a trace. 

This results in a latent distance between herself and Nate. Laurie never asks him directly about whether he killed Ashley, and lets his suspicious behavior the next morning hang over the relationship until it strangles it. Eventually they split up. She leaves the small university town they live in---"Solway", which is obviously based on Guelph---gets involved with a minor television/movie star, and, works as a producer for a schlocky television show titled Fault Lines. 

I'm not going to go into any details, because the book is plot-driven and I understand many people enjoy being surprised with twists and endings, and don't like "spoilers". Suffice it to say, she goes back to Solway to research a potential episode of Fault Lines which brings her back into Nate's world. Revelations present themselves, there may or may not be a Ghost involved, someone is framed for Ashley's murder, and, Laurie ends up back with Nate and lives "happily ever after". 

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I paid a $180 bill to SoundCloud today. That's the service that I use to host the audio part of the interviews I do for this blog. This month I cancelled my subscription to the Toronto Star because at $204/year I felt that I wasn't getting "value for my money". I've been using Scribd instead, which costs a little over half as much, but gives me access to a huge number of information sources. (I also sell three books on Scribd, and receive what I consider very fair royalties per reader.)

I'm sharing this info just to tell you that I do have costs incurred while publishing this blog. That's a significant part of the reason why I suggest to readers that if they can afford it, a subscription would be greatly appreciated. Patreon and Paypal make it easy to do.

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Tsveti Nacheva, supplied by author.

Being who I am, I was struck with the idea that Nacheva's novel wrestles with epistemological issues. That is to say, what is it that we do or do not really know about the world around us?

Laurie suffers from a lack of memory from the night when Ashley disappeared. She ascribes this to the fact that she was very drunk and she simply "blacked out". But she does have the odd strange dream. Moreover, once in a while she hallucinates things like blood dripping from her hands.

Moreover, in her relationships there is also a level of ambiguity. She is conflicted when she meets Nate again, she can't really tell if she wants to reconnect with him, or, if she is happy being involved with her rich, movie star beau who is on the other side of the continent filming a movie. 

When paparazzi catch this guy in the company of a cute young thing from his film shoot---and the photos get spread all over the web---he maintains that he is faithful to her and this is just the media being salacious. 

As a tv producer, Laurie is also not above "fudging the facts" if it creates an entertaining (and profitable) end result. She goes back to Solway to research a pretty lame story about a young child who says he has memories of a previous life as a young woman. This girl died under tragic circumstances in Solway at the time that Nate's grandfather was a town doctor. Through research in pursuit of creating some sort of "fig leaf" to justify a television show that supports the idea of reincarnation, she ends up pulling apart the "official court findings", and, unearths yet another hushed-up scandal. 

By the end of the novel the reader is left wondering what exactly happened anywhere. There are lots of objective facts that happen because the first-person narrative structure puts them in front of the reader. But there are also a lot of "facts" that get dug up on old newspaper microfilm, and, attested by people who are neither objective nor good witnesses. These lead to untested hypotheses, based on slim intuitions. And all the characters also seem to be prey to motivated reasoning: they need a good story to put on tv, to stay out of jail, and, to end up with the person you love.

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As I pointed out in the intro, the introspective novel was a creation of the late 19th century. So was the novel of ideas, which is what I am primarily more attracted to. But I'd say Fault Lines is an example that shows sometimes there isn't a hard and fast difference between the two. Modern psychology has shown our memories are a very weak reed to lean upon. It is far too easy to confuse imagination with remembering because the way the brain our processes them. In addition, it is a fact that the brain will suppress traumatic memories.

Where does that leave Laurie and the reader? This is a novel where there are a lot of stories. Some might be true, but a lot of them are obviously constructed by people because it makes life a little more convenient to remember things one way as opposed to another. Beyond that, what physical records we may have---be they old court documents, television documentaries, or, photos from paparazzi---are all constructed by people with their own particular agendas. 

Whatever reality we may objectively inhabit, it is mediated by the stories we tell ourselves and each other. Nacheva's novel reminds the reader of how much of our lives are just collections of stories. 

Not a bad message for an writer to convey. 

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Moreover I say unto you, the Climate Emergency must be dealt with!