The Mirror in the Well

by Micheline Aharonian Marcom

A woman s sexual awakening is a tragedy when the woman is married to someone other than the man who awakens her. But until then, her marriage, now doomed, was a sleepwalker s tragedy. This novel will shock and offend some readers. Unapologetically explicit in its language, extreme in some of the acts it catalogues, it makes no pretense of submission to middle-class decency, let alone to expectations of happy endings. All three people in this love triangle are flawed, damaged, human. Things fall apart, and the resolution is unclear. Why does she do it? Why should we read it? The answer is one word: Ecstasy. Micheline Aharonian Marcom has a genius for language that is not only beautiful in and of itself, but also engages the heart. Lusher than Marguerite Duras, more tender and erotic than Cormac McCarthy, but nearly as dark, this is a narrative masterpiece."

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary, Novels, American, Erotica, Sexuality, Literature

138 pages, Paperback

First published September 22, 2008

About the author

Micheline Aharonian Marcom has written seven novels, including a trilogy of books about the Armenian genocide and its aftermath in the 20th century. She has received awards from the Lannan Foundation, the Whiting Foundation, and the US Artists’ Foundation. She was a 2022 finalist for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature. Marcom is the founder and Creative Director of The New American Story Project [NASP], a digital storytelling project exploring the forces of migration and the lives of new Americans newamericanstoryproject.org. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia.

Reviews

[Ana WJ]

Girl…

[knig · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brutal, visceral ‘pour out’ of sexual unconstraining may be about many things, but one thing its not about is sex: erotic or otherwise. So what if cunt licking and sucking have a predominant market share per page: thats just camouflage, window dressing. The real ‘meat’ here is behind the scenes. This tale reads like a cautionary tale, with an Aesopian moral attached, free of charge: Leave the fuck well alone.

The protag is a middle aged woman, married for way too long to a nice man, has a high powered job, two kids and a seven year itch twice over. How this pans out is best described by Alison Pearson in ‘I don’t know how she does it’, which has turned into a cult classic/bible for that demographic. But whilst Pearson balks at the finale and takes a rain check on that ‘little something for the weekend, sir?’ Marcom takes it the next step forward. In fact, Amazon should probably link these two books together: you know, if you buy Pearson, you may want to buy Marcom next.

So, you’re stressed, overworked, underpaid, stretched to infinity and beyond, sex twenty years on with your husband is boring as hell, there is never a moment to yourself and mental meltdown is now a category one alert. Panic stations, go. Obviously something has to give. A repurposing, re-focusing, realignment,of mind body and soul would be nice, new gods to worship. Do you:

a)Go to therapy, rediscover the inner child within and start a commune in Timbuktu

b)Open the Jack Daniels, screw the ice and drink straight from the bottle until its all gone or

c)Take a lover for a little refresher course on ‘slap and tickle’.

Marcom goes for C. At first this seems like an ideal solution: its a sure fire hit, instant gratification and a quick sure high. Who can dispute the sizzle of a brand new relationship: the feuerwerks, the adrenaline: its all singing all dancing for a while there before it fizzles out into the inevitable slow and steady burn. Its those initial tinglings which Marcom feeds off of , the high of a new lover, which she centers on as her saviour – goal in life: Days have colour again, her pulse picks up a notch and she’s all electric like. 90 minute oral sex sessions help, as does probably the regular two hour stints her lover seems capable off.

This seems to do the trick. For a while.

But all too soon the doubts start in again. First, as the momentum declines, she starts thinking about yet a newer lover. See? A new ‘speed’ injection is needed to keep the high. Second, her brain goes into overdrive and mentally she is worse off than before: her primitive cortex registers that she is no way better off with her part-time lover at the expense of her family: they actually have to come first. Third, this dichotomy starts to take its toll: she cries after sex with her lover, loves and hates him, spends whole evenings sullen with him. Fourth, after 18 months of bedroom acrobatics on the side, her lover is now fit for recycling on the compost heap: the magic has worn off and he’s just some fat old dude with a beer gut. Charming.

The thing is, I doubt she ever needed the extra sexcapades to begin with. A spa break, a Sunday morning lie in followed by yoga and a little gardening on the side might have done the trick just as well.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

A breathtaking erotomanic romp, written in horny run-on sentences and sticky stream-of-consciousness. A woman embarks on an affair with you, the reader, gasping in pleasure at your cunnilingus prowess, until you abandon her for a Parisian with nice boobs.

Silliness aside, this is a powerful and original blast.

[Ricky · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far, not an easy read. The prose is scattered and heart wrenching. "Chapters" are around four pages long and can only be read a few at a time, otherwise I feel like I am just being destroyed. That's Marcom, though. As a friend recently said, "She writes about genocide and fucking, what do you expect?"

[Kevin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my. Where do I begin here? Unlike her other books, which are apparently more political and more, uh, Armenian, this is a pretty blunt and explicit novel about a married woman's sexual awakening during a torrid affair. There's some crazy long swirly sentences in here and the voice is a bit confusing (sometimes in 2nd person, sometimes not). There were times when I thought, oh, this isn't more than a 3-star book. But I was so endlessly fascinated by the writing and the madness behind it that I really looked forward to reading more (thus the 4 stars). It isn't necessarily sexy--it's actually a bit mannish, sometimes disgusting, and no nonsense--but she goes on and on and on about her "cunt" (how many 100s of times does that word appear) and how much she loves it when her lover goes down on it. In fact, that could almost be the summary--it's about a woman who discovers that she really likes oral sex. This book could possibly become a kind of cult classic (being published by Dalkey Archive helps) and it is infinitely quotable.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a tough one to rate. It should actually be 3.5 stars.

This is an explicit novel, but Marcom is effectively exploring the intersection of sexual awakening and emotion. The poetic quality of most of the writing is wonderful, and she's also an extremely perceptive observer of human emotions and psychology.

The reason I would probably leave it at only 3.5 stars is that she occasionally indulges a little postmodern self-awareness, referring to the book itself as you read it. It seems to me she's playing with the idea that we each write the novel of each of our relationships, that in the end erotic love must contain a large helping of fiction to be real. It's an interesting idea (though not exactly fresh) but it felt a little forced in this novel, where so much of the rest of it was lyrical and frank. I wish she'd stuck (in this case) to the story itself. (And if you look at the other books I love you'll see I'm not exactly averse to a bit of postmodern noodling.)

[Keleigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy wow. The content of this novel is quite a departure from Micheline's trilogy about the Armenian genocide...but the hypnotic rhythms of her prose are still there, lulling me into a kind of underwater dream. 'The Mirror in the Well' is fiercely, unabashedly sensual; an homage to the body, its pleasures and horrors alike, rife with words many people only whisper in the ears of their closest lovers, or perhaps never utter at all. Her fearlessness is awe-inspiring, and lit up all kinds of triggers in me to write, write, write what I least want to say, what feels most unwelcome, least appropriate, but most of all what is urgently driving itself to the surface, looking for an opening to birth itself to life. Definitely recommended to the unsqueamish, or those wishing to challenge their squeamishness, and come to a deeper awakening to the body's mysteries, hungers and innate wisdom...and how madness can manifest in myriad ways through all three.

[Reisse Myy Fredericks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written in second-person, the reader is explicitly intertwined into the protagonist’s cruel mythology, morality, and stream-of-consciousness anxieties. Freudian, lyrical, and powerfully vulgar. Not for everyone, but certainly for me.

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is hard for me to rate or review because I personally disliked this book, but had to read it for a class and therefore was sort of forced to analyze it and find merit in the writing.

I did not like the stream of consciousness writing, but can also appreciate the difficulty and skill it would take to write. Many parts felt repetitive or redundant (like I get it she likes oral sex) and while I understand the bigger themes of the narrative it just didn't work for me.

Toward the end of the book it started referring to itself as a book? Which was weird and would have made more sense if it had done so from the beginning.

Anyway, in a literary sense there is much here to be contemplated, but in a "reading for enjoyment" sense I could not stand it.

[Emily Welling · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was really poetic, and flowed beautifully. It felt more like reading poetry than a novel, which I think really added to the flow of the story and the writing. However, the novel is about a woman's sexual awakening and self discovery about herself her past and her present. It was almost difficult for me to read the story because I felt that the woman was just in so much pain and it felt so real. The book is great if you are really looking to dig in and drag out some depth and important undertones. Marcom has given the readers these moments in spades from start to finish. The reason why I gave this two stars and not more is that, I just didn't enjoy the story as a whole. It was really beautiful to dissect and have a conversation about different passages or moments but as far as the works as a whole it just was a heavy and sad with no purpose or direction I felt.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible lyrical narrative describing the slow self-destruction of a married woman as she has an affair. I would pair this with Anne Carson's "Eros the Bittersweet" and Louise Gluck's "Vita Nova."

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

If I didn’t have to read this for school, I would have DNF’d it. I mean, I can understand the point the author is trying to make, but I hate the way she went about it. The stream of consciousness writing was so cumbersome and wordy, I couldn’t even focus on the story. I kept having to read and re-read passages because I was so confused about what was going on. Plus, the main character was absolutely spineless and couldn’t make up her mind to save her life. I couldn’t stand her at all. The back and forth emotional cycles were exhausting to keep up with. The back cover of the book said that the woman did what she did because she felt ecstasy, but I never once got that feeling. The sex scenes didn’t feel pleasurable at all. They, unfortunately, just felt forced and rather odd. The explicit words and scenarios didn’t bother me (I read a lot of smut), but some of the imagery was just so bizarre and out there that I kept asking myself, “What the hell is going on here???” Overall, I was not impressed. I’m so glad it’s over with.

[Rafael Nicolás · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have a lot of thoughts on this book that I can't really organize.

I think it's an imperfect book. There was a lot I would have cut from it personally, metaphors that didn't work, lines that made me cringe a little. BUT, I felt a lot of this book deeply (which is surprising as, like, a gay person). It also felt incredibly authentic, even the vulgarity of the sex scenes and all her feelings about them. On that note, the exploration of obsession was incredibly well-done here; I'll reread the book just for that theme alone.

I think she might have taken too much on style at the end (as in, introduced too many elements (for ex., she brings in a 4th wall break which was fun but not super necessary or interesting)) but it was still incredibly *fun* to read this book. The style had such a nice flow that it made me not want to put the book down.

If nothing else, I'll remember this book, and I enjoyed it quite a bit by the end.

[Jasmyn Buduan · Rating 2 out of 5]

it’s in second person pov for a lot of it and it keeps calling u fat and pale. kind of hurt my feelings but also just not the best book in my opinion??? it’s wordy and kind of hard to read and also has no real central plot.. read it in one sitting because i literally just wanted to get it over with

[Dearwassily · Rating 1 out of 5]

The back cover asks why we should read this. Ecstasy, it answers.

So very false. So very monotonous.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really loved the stream-of-consciousness style which gives it a breathless quality suited to the subject matter

[Hunter St. Anthony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hahaha wow this was bad.

[David Serota · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is bizarre. But I loved it. Not sure I understood it, but I will remember it; it definitely leaves a taste in your mouth...

[Terresa Wellborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unlike any book I've ever read or will ever read. Gorgeous.

[Armando Olivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The novella The Mirror in the Well by Mcheline Aharonian Marcom is a pared down construct entact with exquisite prose that manages to get it's reader excited about the discovery of a great new writer. This novella also seems to me to be a modern nod back to classical pagan eros. Apart from the nameless man and nameless woman character, the third character is the only one who gets specification, completing a veritable erotic triangle, undeniably is the woman's sex, or as Marcom heavily refers to with the power use of the word cunt. In a matter of fact, despite the female character's existentialist psychological construct, the woman's sex or cunt receives the most in descriptives. Marcom, by heavily employing the "c-word", makes it her own and apart of the vocabulary of modern feminine eros. The repeated use of the word cunt (while reading, one can't but help wonder what the use count really is) seems to me to be a signifier for the nameless woman and for all nameless women's displaced raison d' etre.

[Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s something about the blurb for Micheline Aharonian Marcom’s new novel, The Mirror In The Well (2008), that just makes it all the more tempting. How could anyone not want to read a book that declares “this novel will shock and offend some readers”, even if just to prove that it’ll take more than words scattered across pages to vex them, thank you very much. The obvious concern is that if its ability to shock and offend are its main strength then, as a reading experience, these traits may be its weakness. Thankfully, this isn’t the case and The Mirror In The Well is a strong, memorable piece of writing.


Read my full review here.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is disturbing - a very quick read, but it touched a nerve and kept me thinking about it for days after I finished it.

[Mely · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horribly disappointing.

[Leona · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Edith · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book was not what I thought it would be.