Ripples from one couple's tumultuous relationship spread widely in Coco Mellors's engaging debut novel, Cleopatra and Frankenstein. Cleo and Frank meet at a party and embark on the kind of immediate, passionate romance that seems bound for greatness or disaster, but it's not clear which at the beginning. Creative, magnetic Cleo is in her early 20s and a fitting counterbalance to Frank, owner of an ad agency in his 40s. Frank is always up for a party, and his carefree, stubbornly youthful lifestyle fits Cleo's post-college artistic one. They quickly marry, and Cleopatra and Frankenstein takes place within the emotionally turbulent first year and a half of their relationship.
While Cleo and Frank are the focus, Mellors also tells the stories of Santiago, the restaurateur who introduced the couple; Quentin, Cleo's troubled best friend; Anders, one of Frank's oldest friends; Eleanor, one of Frank's employees; and Zoe, Frank's much younger sister. These secondary characters' chapters are presented more like snapshots or sketches, but their narratives don't exist simply to support the main characters' arcs. Instead, they serve to remind readers that Cleo and Frank are two flawed people who create something of a disaster together, but everyone else has flaws, too. Mellors aptly moves the camera off her self-absorbed protagonists and focuses it on the people with whom their lives intersect, creating a nuanced, deeply emotional journey for her cast.
Mellors's prose is a compelling balance of beautiful phrasing and snappy dialogue that propels the story while allowing time for reflection. She varies the mood of her chapters to fit the point of view of the character, reflecting the chaotic misery of Quentin, the narcissistic ennui of Anders and the hopeful kindness of Santiago. She startles readers with moments of shocking violence--in thought and to the self--and lingers in character-revealing moments such as Zoe's attempt to recall a night when she partied to excess.
Coco Mellors manages to meld the mundane, self-destructive and tragically beautiful into a genuinely enjoyable story. Characters project their ideals onto each other, only to be disappointed when their friends, family and lovers turn out to be real humans. In the end, however, it's the fullness of their humanity that makes Cleopatra and Frankenstein a worthwhile read. The beauty lies in the broken bits, and Mellors captures both. --Suzanne Krohn, librarian and freelance reviewer
Shelf Talker: Told in multiple points of view, this engaging literary debut reflects on the wide-ranging impacts of a marriage--and lives--gone astray.