Jess Shannon's hypnotic, weird, and dark debut novel, Cleaner, charts the awkward journey of an unnamed narrator as she attempts to discover her artistic self through cleaning.
Overeducated, jobless, and "with an ungodly amount of student debt," the novel's 20-something protagonist moves back in with her laconic parents and discovers she has a passion for cleaning. This leads to a janitorial job at an art gallery, where she meets a cocaine-sniffing artist, Isabella, in the bathroom. When the two are discovered having sex in a stall, the narrator is fired. Obsessed with Isabella, who lives with her wealthy boyfriend, the narrator wheedles her way into Isabella's life, first as a cleaner, then as a lover to both Isabella and her boyfriend Paul. The throuple doesn't last long, however, as one day Isabella disappears. Without a ripple, the narrator slides into Isabella's life and attempts to make it her own with results that are decidedly mixed.
Written in one unbroken stream-of-consciousness paragraph, Cleaner is short on plot but replete with reflections on what it means to be an artist and the vague line between self-indulgence and supporting one's art. The narrator often makes disastrous and selfish decisions, but her sardonic sense of humor and ability to see the world as an evolving canvas make her an interesting character with whom to spend time. After envisioning a fried egg as a bleeding "carcass," she reflects, "No else at the table saw what I saw. I supposed this to be the curse of the artist." Provocative, unusual, and striking, Cleaner marks Shannon as a writer to watch. --Debra Ginsberg, author and freelance editor