The Mesh

by Lucie Marchal

Vintage paperback

Genres: Romance, LGBT

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1951

Reviews

[. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book gets a call-out in Robin Talley’s new book, “Pulp”, but I’ve actually owned it for a few years; I just never got around to reading it until now.

Trigger warnings for severe animal abuse, emotional/mental abuse, and some (subtly mentioned) sexual harassment! This book’s headline is “a novel of hidden evil” and that is not to be taken lightly.

It’s a slow starter but once it gets going, wow, it manages to hook you in. The narrator of the book is Madeline, a 28 year old woman who lives with her very dysfunctional family: her mother, who is emotionally and verbally abusive; her older brother, Charles, who is “frail” due to a childhood illness; her cousin, Jules, who comes across as nice but is actually a total creep. Madeline and Charles have a love/hate relationship for their mother, who has obviously groomed them to be this way. They desperately look to her for love and validation, despite resenting her.

The plot kicks off when Charles decides to suddenly marry their neighbor, Noemi, a woman whose husband died some years ago under mysterious circumstances. Needless to say, this throws a wrench into the family dynamic ...

Now, this is considered a lesbian pulp fiction book, but discussing it involves some spoilers ...

Surprisingly, the lesbian subplot is not terribly done, all things considered. Madeline slowly falls in love with Noemi, though it’s not until the last 40 or so pages when she finally examines her feelings and eventually confesses her love (and it’s reciprocated!).

Unfortunately, all Madeline knows about love is the unhealthy, abusive kind, and in the end she muses about how she wants to keep Noemi as hers forever by essentially forcing Noemi to have the same relationship with Madeline as Madeline has with her mother. That being said, Madeline is aware that these desires make her into the monster that her mother is. So there’s some level of self-awareness on her part.

IMHO the author absolutely is not condoning these actions; it seems like the author is commenting on how abuse is generational and how difficult it can be to break free of that. (Even Noemi’s acceptance of being an abuse victim is explored by showing how her family emotionally/mentally abused her as a child.)

Mind you, I wouldn’t argue that this is handled as good as it could be, but all things considered? It was a surprisingly insightful commentary.

Interestingly Madeline’s sexuality isn’t particularly focused on, nor is it demonized. It’s made pretty clear early on that Madeline is a lesbian (though not put quite so plainly as that, mostly because Madeline is completely closeted/not so self aware, despite acknowledging several times that she is not interested in men and has no desire for them). Her feelings for Noemi are explored more in the context of how she desires to have the control over someone she loves just as her brother and mother did. Madeline’s lesbianism isn’t the cause for her awful behavior — she’s the victim of abuse, too; her behavior isn’t justified, merely explained.

Neither Madeline or Noemi die, “turn straight”, or go crazy. They don’t even kiss in the book, honestly ... I think the restraint here in regards to their relationship fit the tone of the book and shows the author was at least trying to tell a “serious” story.

But it’s an open-ended story ... I really wanted to know what happened to everyone once the book was over! How frustrating ...