A Woman From Whom Nothing is Either Wanted or Expected
Shirley Kaszenbowski lives in a nice home in a nice part of Toronto.
She plays the role CRITIQUE:
A Woman From Whom Nothing is Either Wanted or Expected
Shirley Kaszenbowski lives in a nice home in a nice part of Toronto.
She plays the role of wife and mother, but it is not enough. Love, sex and parenthood have become routine.
She leaves home to follow the call(s) of Coenraad, an occasional lover who invites her to meet him via coded entries in copies of National Geographic.
Coenraad is an agent who works for an organisation called "the Agency" (it might be the Canadian Security Intelligence Service [CSIS], given the Canadian context). It's likely these coded arrangements are designed to protect his identity and movements from other security organisations.
As if to compensate for her routine marriage, Shirley meets Coenraad in places all over the world on short notice. She arrives by plane or train (how she can afford the cost of her travels isn't explained), after which she walks around trying to find the precise location of their meeting, and then has to wait for him to arrive.
Coenraad's motive for the relationship isn't apparent. He doesn't seem to be moved by love or lust. It's not clear what he wants or expects from Shirley.
These assignations don't sound or read like anything especially romantic, sensual or erotic. The novel's only dramatic tension derives from whether the two lovers will actually find each other at a designated location.
Nevertheless, this relationship gifts Shirley a liberation of sorts, or, at least, the beginning or foundation of a liberation. It's an escape from marriage and a respite from routine.
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A Rapport With Your Own Substitute
One day, Shirley returns home to her husband and children, only to find that Zbigniew has likewise taken a lover (Francesca). This relationship is just as unsatisfying as Shirley's marriage. Francesca is no more than a substitute who has literally assumed the same roles and functions as Shirley.
On the first night back together, all three sleep in the same bed. After Zbigniew has dispassionate sex with Francesca (while Shirley quietly masturbates herself to satisfaction), Francesca comforts Shirley:
"You need have no jealousy; I never have an orgasm."
Shirley takes her clothes, and leaves to continue on her quest for a lover or some other form of personal satisfaction. She concludes:
"I will not miss being a stranger from whom nothing is wanted and from whom nothing is expected."
She walks and searches across town, though inside her "a resolve against waiting" has grown.
The novel reminded me of several literary works: "The Odyssey","Ulysses", Anna Kavan's "Ice", Rikki Ducornet's "The Fan-Maker's Inquisition", and Alain Robbe-Grillet's "Jealousy", not to mention any work of the Marquis De Sade, as construed from a woman's point of view.
To paraphrase and question the writer of the novel's afterword, this is more a feminist odyssey than an espionage novel.
SOUNDTRACK: (view spoiler)[ The Flaming Lips - "Ego Tripping at the Gates of Hell"
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