A Girl Called Eel

No cover — Aneesa Abbas Higgins, Ali Zamir: A Girl Called Eel (Paperback, 2019, Jacaranda Books)

Paperback

Published Jan. 31, 2019 by Jacaranda Books.

ISBN:: 978-1-909762-81-7

(1 review)

Anguille is a 17-year-old girl who leaves her rock on the archipelago of Comoros to lose herself at sea. She drifts between two states of mind and between two islands 'in a hollow maze', evoking her memories so as to forget nothing and so as to delay the inevitable outcome.

Confronted with the pressing immediacy of imminent death, Anguille recounts the story of her whole life in one long, sustained breath, in a series of brief couplets.

A story told in a single sentence, A Girl Called Eel is a memorial, a reckoning, and a powerful narrative imbued with a prevailing sense of urgency.

1 edition

Stephanie Jane reviewed A Girl Called Eel by Aneesa Abbas Higgins

Experimentally styled

3 stars

A Girl Called Eel is an experimentally styled novel which reads almost as if in verses. Its single sentence structure reminded me of The Last Wolf by Laszlo Krasznahorkai which is similarly a one sentence book. However, while The Last Wolf drew me deeper in to its narrative over time, I found that I became less enamoured of A Girl Named Eel as her story progressed. I think a lot of the problem was that I really did not like Eel as a character and because the novel is told in a long first person stream of consciousness, she was impossible to escape.

Zamir has created a plausible portrayal of a teenage girl who grasps her first chance at romantic freedom and, perhaps unsurprisingly to a cynic like myself, doesn't see her great affair blossom into a happily ever after. We know this from very early in the book, but …

A Girl Called Eel is an experimentally styled novel which reads almost as if in verses. Its single sentence structure reminded me of The Last Wolf by Laszlo Krasznahorkai which is similarly a one sentence book. However, while The Last Wolf drew me deeper in to its narrative over time, I found that I became less enamoured of A Girl Named Eel as her story progressed. I think a lot of the problem was that I really did not like Eel as a character and because the novel is told in a long first person stream of consciousness, she was impossible to escape.

Zamir has created a plausible portrayal of a teenage girl who grasps her first chance at romantic freedom and, perhaps unsurprisingly to a cynic like myself, doesn't see her great affair blossom into a happily ever after. We know this from very early in the book, but what we don't know is how Eel's life falls apart or why. Unfortunately she takes an inordinately long time to tell us all the details and, despite frequently admonishing herself to stick to the point because there isn't much time left, she goes off at a tangent or repeats her litany of familial complaints at every opportunity. I did appreciate the characters surrounding Eel. We only see these people through Eel's eyes of course, but the sibling rivalry with her sister, Rattler, comes across well and their elderly widowed father, All-Knowing, is a memorable comedic-tragic figure.

There is a strong, and poignantly sad, tale at the heart of A Girl Called Eel, but it was too well buried for me to really enjoy the read. I think I will probably be in a minority with this opinion because, in its original French, Anguille sous roche is highly spoken of and won awards, however, sadly, the novel just didn't really work for me.