The Changeling (2017)
Written by: Victor LaValle
Genre: Dark Fantasy
Pages: 431 (Hardcover)
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Why I Chose It: I have wanted to read a longer work by Victor LaValle ever since I reviewed his The Ballad of Black Tom for last year’s Hugo Awards. I enjoyed way the novella explored racism and Jazz Age in New York City, but it was far too short for my taste. The Changeling also fits into my 2018 resolution to read more diverse books, as LaValle is African-American.
The premise:
When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word IMPROBABILIA. Now Apollo is a father himself — and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Apollo’s old dreams return and Emma begins acting odd. Irritable and disconnected from their new baby boy, at first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go even deeper. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act — beyond any parent’s comprehension — and vanishes, seemingly into thin air.
Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he’d imagined. His quest, which begins when he meets a mysterious stranger who claims to have information about Emma’s whereabouts, takes him to a forgotten island, a graveyard full of secrets, a forest where immigrant legends still live, and finally back to a place he thought he had lost forever.
This captivating retelling of a classic fairy tale imaginatively explores parental obsession, spousal love, and the secrets that make strangers out of the people we love the most. It’s a thrilling and emotionally devastating journey through the gruesome legacies that threaten to devour us and the homely, messy magic that saves us, if we’re lucky.
Spoilers: A few mild spoilers ahead.
Discussion: LaValle has a clear knack for creating charismatic, compelling, and unique characters. Apollo Kagwa is the son of a Ugandan mother and a white father who abandoned him when he was four. His legacy from his father is a recurring nightmare and a copy of Maurice Sendak’s Outside Over There, a children’s book about a girl who has to rescue her baby sister from goblins. The book starts Apollo on the path to a lifetime of reading, and he becomes one of the few black book dealers in New York City. When he needs to be brave, he tells himself, “I am the god Apollo,” but his name actually came from the movie Rocky. Apollo is defined by his love — for his mother, Lillian, his wife, Emma, his best friend, Patrice, but especially for his son, Brian. Apollo describes himself as one the New Dads, who wear their babies, change diapers, and share the housework. He is determined to be the father that he never had, which makes it all the more terrible when new parenthood goes shockingly wrong.
I’m not normally the sort of a reader who pays much attention to book covers, but The Changeling’s cover is fantastic. On the front, a baby’s tiny legs peak out of a bassinet in a blue-and-silver tinted forest and on the back, the same baby crawls through the eerie trees . The cover sets a sinister tone and reveals just enough about the story.
I also enjoyed LaValle’s exquisite sense of place. I felt fully transported to New York City, even though I have never been there. Emma gives birth to Brian on a subway train, with a dance troupe of teen-aged boys working to thwart the camera phones of nosy onlookers. Later on, Apollo describes the Northern Forrest as, “it was possible to forget you were in one of the most densely populated cities on the planet in the twenty-first century. It could be a hundred years in the past, a thousand or more” (p. 341).
The book’s short, punchy chapters, which were sometimes only three pages long, worked, but this is an oddly plotted book, too long in some places and too short in others. We spend a very long time on the charming romance of Apollo and Emma. The main event of the book doesn’t happen until chapter 30, 120 pages in, and it’s not entirely clear that something supernatural is going on until chapter 61. It confused me that we spent so many pages on the love story between the two main characters only to have Emma keep Apollo in the dark about what happened. Emma trusts her sister with the truth but not her husband. At first, it seems that Emma suffered from some kind of postpartum psychosis but then we learn that all kinds of supernatural things are real, so Emma wasn’t crazy. So why did she keep life-ruining secrets from her husband?
It’s obvious that LaValle wanted to create a modern fairy tale, but he doesn’t entirely succeed. This is an old school fairy tale that is definitely not suitable for children. The violence in this novel is jarring and unexpected, which is right for the story, but it will probably be too horrific for some readers. LaValle tries to connect the Internet and social media to the monsters of old. “Vampires can’t come into your house unless you invite them. Posting online is like leaving your front door open and telling any creature of the night it can come in” (p. 222). It’s not a triumph because the monsters in the story are a confusing mix of literal and figurative. There are a lot of inexplicable loose ends in regard to how the magical events are possible. As much as I liked Apollo, I think this would have been a better story if we got more from Emma’s point-of-view. At the end of the book, I wondered how the characters would go on, not so much emotionally as “You just committed a whole slew of felonies. I don’t think you’re just going to be able to walk back into your old life.”
In conclusion: A character in The Changeling says, “A great fairy tale tells the truth (p.244),” and this modern-day fairy tale tells many important truths about what it means to be a father. It is a sprawling, ambitious novel that tackles racism, love, parental fears, friendship, and the role technology plays in our lives. Unfortunately, LaValle has bitten off more than he can chew, but I still recommend the book in spite of its flaws.
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