Book Review: The Centaur’s Wife by Amanda Leduc
The Centaur’s Wife is distinctive in form and rich in fabulism. Author Amanda Leduc blends dystopia with fantasy and casts her story (or stories) through the prism of fairy tale. Her writing plays with metaphor and weaves magic into literary realism, all within the pages of this genre-bending novel. The result is a truly unique and enchanting read.
After a cataclysmic environmental event destroys a city, killing most and cutting off access to the rest of the world, Heather, her husband, and her twin newborns must struggle to stay alive. As other survivors attempt to rebuild, Heather finds herself drawn to a mysterious mountain at the edge of town. The towns people (at least, what’s left of them) have heard the stories—about how the mountain is dangerous, how people have disappeared. Nevertheless, the mountain and its magical inhabitants call to Heather like a siren’s song. She is unable to resist, until her own story becomes part of the myth.
Leduc is a master storyteller, of that there can be no doubt. Her ability to build worlds is par none and her prose lifts effortlessly off the page. While I sometimes wondered where the author was leading me, I became entirely absorbed in the novel’s dual narrative and was charmed at every turn. Perhaps this was the author’s intent? To enthral the reader while inciting a deep sense of mystery? Many of the images and fairy tales braided throughout The Centaur’s Wife are clearly allegorical. They wrestle with questions of grief, disability, survival, and acceptance. Other times, the allegories are not so cut and dry. Narratives are left ambiguous and unresolved. Stories are left to be continued. This, perhaps, is the brilliance of Leduc’s form: she invites readers to insert their own stories into the narrative, to create their own meaning from the metaphors provided.
Since my reading habits tend to favour literary realism, Leduc’s genre-bending style was new to me. It did, however, remind me of a short story by Kelly Link entitled The Specialist’s Hat. I fell in love with Link’s short story after listening to the podcast LeVar Burton Reads. Like Leduc’s novel, Link’s story is a little bit dark, but full of magic and… mystery. Author Carmen Maria Machado also uses fabulism in her writing. Her short story collection Her Body and Other Parties pushes the boundaries of literary realism to include elements of science fiction and fantasy. What makes Leduc’s novel unique in this company is the dreamlike quality she injects into the narrative. Fairy tale pushes against dystopia and as such, despite the novel’s shadowy tone, The Centaur’s Wife unequivocally moves towards hope, towards renewal, towards…rebirth.
The Centaur’s Wife is a thoroughly gripping and entirely original read. Prepare to be swept away—this novel is a delight.
You can learn more about the author and her books at https://amandaleduc.com
The Centaur’s Wife by Amanda Leduc Random House Canada, 2021, p.p. 308 ISBN: 978-0-7352-7285-9