Find the Magic in the Everyday with The Changeling
The last few days at work have been on the slow side, which is convenient. Had there been an onslaught of tasks, I would have played the role of the stereotypical government employee, letting the people's business pile up and being generally inefficient. I take heart in knowing that if those people had read The Changeling, by Victor Lavalle, they would have understood. Sometimes finding out What Happens Next is more important than work. Or food. Or basic hygiene.
Lavalle does a pitch perfect job transforming his readers from mildly interested to insatiably curious. The Changeling has the surprises and the grit of a top-notch crime novel, but the formulaic suspense associated with that over-saturated genre never really takes hold. For suspense to do its job, the reader has to be wrestling with unanswered questions. Discovering Who Did It and Why is a foolproof way to keep a reader turning pages. Lavalle's story could have taken that obvious route and still been solidly entertaining. He takes the more difficult road, however, by drawing the reader into such a deep emotional investment in his characters that we keep reading just for their sake. We want to know that they're okay, that they survive and go on to live again. We read because we think we know What Happened and we just aren't completely sure how our characters handle it. The discovery that we're still two steps behind and that all we think we know is wrong and what is right is far beyond what we could imagine is a happy surprise, like discovering a hot brownie underneath the ice cream and sprinkles of our birthday sundae.
The arm's-length distance between reality and science fiction and fantasy has made them ripe for social commentary since their earliest days. It's easier to shine a light on society's hypocrisies and inequities when they're plagues scouring an alternate universe. Lavalle doesn't take the easy way out, though. In a story so richly textured by myth and magic, the reader never forgets that they're grounded squarely in the New York City of our world and our time. Observations made in dark corners and hidden nooks of The Changeling remind us that evils like racism and sexism have often been coopted and cleansed to fuel some of our most beloved cultural and folkloric treasures. The financial insecurities of feudal and patriarchal societies helped cultivate our understanding of the wicked step-mother. Discomfort with women who have either chosen or been denied the social goals of motherhood and marriage transformed into tales of evil witches. Fear of the outsider in a world with a radius of a day's ride in any direction helped build the legends of any number of half-human or disfigured villains lurking on the edges of society and waiting to prey on the unsuspecting and innocent.
Lavalle has centered his story entirely in the geographic and sociocultural New York City of today, which lets it travel to a world of fantasy and myth while still feeling grounded and understandable. His characters wrestle with challenges unworldly and Earthly and transcend both with only an adequate degree of success. My first reading of The Changeling was too fast for me to absorb all of its nuance and detail. Lavalle's creativity and empathy left me with no choice but to rush through and see what came of the characters' search for redemption and revenge. Now that I know how things turn out, I'm looking forward to a more leisurely second read, where I can linger with the story and savor the early moments of reality where the book's fantastical conclusions are foreshadowed. The Changeling is a love story and a crime story and a fairy tale. Lovers of any of those genres will find a home in its pages and just might find their literary horizons expand to incorporate its unexpected sidetracks and broad cultural influences. See what you think and don't be afraid of where it leads you.
