By Coco Mellors
This is a debut novel by the author.
I started of thinking if this is a romance novel. The story starts with the meet-cute and that is highly unlikely for a romantic novel. And hence this book is. Cleopatra and Frankenstein is more than romance, it is more than a relationship, but it dwells deeper into the aspects of life and the people it is embedded with.
Cleo is an art student from London, who lives in US and she might have to leave the country sooner and that’s when she meets Frank and they talk, flirt and like each other. Six months in, they get married. There is a constant doubt in the air whether they married for love or out of desperation. Frank is 40-something ad exec, while Cleo is trying to figure out an identity for herself.
The dynamics of their individual lives is already a lot, let alone the life they try to work out together. Cleo’s friendship with Quentin doesn’t make things easier. She had the longest friend in him. But, the perception of his life makes Quentin even more hard to work with. He tries to establish a status around Cleo, on how his friendship with Cleo will never be matched by any relationship of hers, be it her marriage.
It starts from a point where Quentin tries desperately to suppress his feelings to being immature about them. His hold on drugs and sabotaging relationships makes things go even more harder to restore to normalcy and adds on to Cleo’s plate. The uncertainty grappling both of them, makes their friendship go more incomprehensible.
Zoe, Frank’s sister tries to find her place in Frank’s life after his marriage to Cleo. She is studying and is monetarily dependent on Frank. Cleo wants to have a friendly relation with Zoe, for she feels Zoe can understand her more than any of the people in Frank’s circle because of their age as well as she knows how important is Zoe to Frank. Zoe and Cleo share a bond, but which the author fails to take it any further.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein’s side characters had a vivid life with too many details, but it misses when they just disappear as side characters. The author was trying to show how everyone in this world made sense but actually couldn’t make it to a point. Eleanor and a possible affair, completely drives the plot to a whole another path. I liked how Eleanor’s life was written in first person, it is hard to not like Eleanor. She is a simple 30-something woman who is still figuring out her life with her own set of obstacles.
Sometimes, it felt like Coco really liked the side characters and she went on talking about them and suddenly gets reminded of whom the book is about and returns back to them. But it is hard to not fall in love with them, so who am I to blame !
The plot was too short, too chaotic to give them a space to fill. It encompasses on relationship, marriage, friendships sometimes complicated, trauma and separation. But it was a whole less soup with many ingredients. They were flavorful, yes, but could have had much more as well.
Cleopatra and Frankenstein is an interesting read, you can take up your cup of coffee and enjoy the drama it has to unfold. Would have loved it more, if for less sway.
Rating: 4/5
Lit Loom 