by Joanna Acevedo
September 8, 2021
Joanna Acevedo is the author of the poetry collection The Pathophysiology of Longing (Black Centipede Press, 2020) and the short story collection Unsaid Things (Flexible Press, 2021). Her work has appeared in Seventh Wave Magazine, Sheila-Na-Gig Online, FOLIO, Track Four, and many others. She was longlisted for the 2021 Sexton Prize and is a Hospitalfield 2020 Interdisciplinary Resident. She is also an NYU Goldwater Fellow, Poetry Reader at Frontier Poetry, and Associate Poetry Editor at West Trade Review. She received her MFA in Fiction from New York University in 2021.
The War for Gloria by Atticus Lish; Knopf; 464 pages; $28.00
Keeping with the tradition of the richly imagined, highly descriptive prose style of his PEN/ Faulkner Award winning debut, Preparation For The Next Life, Atticus Lish’s much anticipated new novel, The War For Gloria, takes place in Quincy, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Lish’s traditionally lush, hard-edged prose details the upbringing of Corey Goltz by single mother Gloria, with only spotty influence from his father Leonard, who claims to be a PhD candidate in Physics at MIT. By the time Corey is fifteen, however, Gloria is diagnosed with ALS, a terminal disease, and Corey is forced to grapple with both his burgeoning adolescence and his mother’s decline, as well as his father’s continued and somewhat unwelcome involvement in their lives while he tries to figure out what it means to become a man and to be a son.
The plot meanders somewhat, seeming not to know exactly which direction it wants to go in, with the throughline of Gloria’s illness and Corey’s reaction to it being the only constant as we travel through time. Corey has a variety of small misadventures in the first half of the book, and many characters are introduced, but few seem to hold enough weight to carry us in a significant direction. Gloria’s decline, however, is gripping and horribly detailed, told in a matter-of-fact and often clinical method that allows us to empathize directly with the character in a way that is extremely effective. The revelations of character that take place in the first half of the text prove that, similar to Preparation For The Next Life, Lish's new novel is designed to be a slow burn, captivating us with gorgeous descriptions of place and character rather than surprising us with twists and turns of plot. In this way, the work very clearly imitates life: Corey is believably a teenager, living at a teenager’s pace, and we experience life along with him.
Martial arts is a strong theme in the first half of the book, one of the major plot lines which is picked up and then mysteriously put down. Corey’s violence, both controlled and uncontrolled, is a major part of his evolution as he grapples with his relationship with parents and his father’s reaction to his mother’s illness. It is this violence which carries the novel; violence is a building block upon which the text makes its most salient points about the human condition, illness, death, and fatherhood. Martial arts serves as a way for Corey to take his power back, reclaim his lost youth, and gain some strength in a world that has failed him.
Corey’s relationship to his father is another powerful theme throughout the work, but it is not completely developed. As a villainous character, Leonard is terrifying, with Lish’s trademark disturbing qualities of intensely believable psychopathy, but as he drags Corey through the court system, the fear Leondard inspires loses some of its momentum. This is built back up later in the novel, but for much of the book, he mostly seems like a nuisance. The moments that are most explosive aren’t as hard-hitting as they could be when they’re coupled with lengthy court battles because Leonard is hiding behind the system. His involvement in the later events of the work make sense for his character, but they could be more dramatized. However, Corey’s idolization and then rejection of his father is a nice arc which spreads across the novel very cleverly mirroring Gloria’s illness and decline. Leonard comes on strongly and leaves a powerful impression on the reader.
It’s only in the last third of the book that Lish’s careful plotting and planning really come together. There’s a feeling of extreme horror as we realize what is about to happen, and Lish is a master at fitting pieces together. Every detail of the plot is meticulously placed and each section of the puzzle references another part of what will come later. However, the novel is a little bottom heavy, with a somewhat formless first half and an incredibly forceful, directed last hundred or so pages. It mimics the style of Preparation For The Next Life in that every detail is important, and there are many callbacks which will keep the reader deeply engaged and excited as they recognize details which come up again and again throughout; however, the novel does not really get going until about two hundred pages in.
Gloria’s final months are terribly vivid, and the depiction of illness is one of the most stunning parts of this novel. They are almost hard to read as she slowly declines and becomes weaker and weaker. Corey’s struggles and tribulations feel real and well-realized, and his characterizations feel strong, his anger necessary. As villains, Leonard and Adrian are truly terrifying and their dialogue in particular is deeply disturbing. As with Preparation For The Next Life, Lish proves to us that he can write truly villainous characters.
Many of the plotlines seemed to wrap up neatly in a way that seemed somewhat easy but the ending is powerful in its own right and fits with the message of the novel. The War For Gloria is a satisfying read and a strong showing after Lish’s powerful debut.
©2021 West Trade Review
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A Clear Imitation of Life in Atticus Lish’s The War For Gloria
FICTION REVIEW
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