The Echo Wife
Author:
Genres: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Paperback
Author:
Genres: Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Book Type: Paperback
Marvellous little Science Fiction allegory, using cloning as a metaphor for thoughts about identity, about survival of childhood (and adult) trauma, about the possibility of reinventing yourself. And about forgiveness ...
A carefully paced, and (with a few quibbles) beautifully written story of the redemption of a woman whose life, right up to the beginning of of novel, has been shaped by horrific (but only vaguely described, and hinted at) childhood abuse.
"I'm not a monster," she says, again and again. But, like all good unreliable narrators, she is condemned from her own lips, and every thing she says, and everything she does, makes it clear that the insufferable Evelyn Caldwell IS a monster: completely self-centred, blind to the feelings of others, and oblivious to the pain of anyone (including herself ...). And then ... and then ....
Gailey handles the SF elements extremely well -- of course, the premise is utter codswallop, but I felt that she handles the science-y jargon that she needs for her plot well enough to allow the suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the idea of clones who are "born" as adults, with all of the personality traits, and most of the memories of their template human.
It reminded me a bit of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" (especially the clever use of a VERY annoying, completely unaware, first person narrator). There were times when I wondered if Gailey had been inspired to write a novel that answers one of the questions that someone reading NLMG might come away with: What kind of monsters would DO this horrible thing? If NLMG is the story of the clones who have been created to serve as tools, and be sacrificed in some sort of (vague, and also unscientific) organ donation scheme, this starts as the story of someone who would develop that process, and think it was a great idea -- and be cold-blooded and heartless enough to carry it through.
Highly recommended!
A carefully paced, and (with a few quibbles) beautifully written story of the redemption of a woman whose life, right up to the beginning of of novel, has been shaped by horrific (but only vaguely described, and hinted at) childhood abuse.
"I'm not a monster," she says, again and again. But, like all good unreliable narrators, she is condemned from her own lips, and every thing she says, and everything she does, makes it clear that the insufferable Evelyn Caldwell IS a monster: completely self-centred, blind to the feelings of others, and oblivious to the pain of anyone (including herself ...). And then ... and then ....
Gailey handles the SF elements extremely well -- of course, the premise is utter codswallop, but I felt that she handles the science-y jargon that she needs for her plot well enough to allow the suspension of disbelief necessary to accept the idea of clones who are "born" as adults, with all of the personality traits, and most of the memories of their template human.
It reminded me a bit of Kazuo Ishiguro's "Never Let Me Go" (especially the clever use of a VERY annoying, completely unaware, first person narrator). There were times when I wondered if Gailey had been inspired to write a novel that answers one of the questions that someone reading NLMG might come away with: What kind of monsters would DO this horrible thing? If NLMG is the story of the clones who have been created to serve as tools, and be sacrificed in some sort of (vague, and also unscientific) organ donation scheme, this starts as the story of someone who would develop that process, and think it was a great idea -- and be cold-blooded and heartless enough to carry it through.
Highly recommended!
