The Changeling, by Joy Williams

If I hadn’t noticed the other editions of The Changeling, by Joy Williams, on Goodreads, I would not have figured out that this book was originally published 40 years ago. It’s fairy-tale-like portrayal of a very strange and disturbing family on an off shore American island could have been set in almost any time and any place. This is certainly true of the novel’s central story of a woman descending into madness while her family insists that everything is fine and that she just needs a little “rest.” The Changeling is one of the most unsettling books I’ve read in a long time.

Pearl tells is over and over that she wants what’s best for her son, Sam, when we meet her in a hotel in Florida. There is something very wrong about the island and the family she fled. Unfortunately for both of them, Pearl returns to her hotel room and finds the husband she ran away from waiting for her. Her brief escape is over. Even worse, the plane that they board to take them back “home” almost immediately crashes. Her husband is dead. She and her child are never quiet the same, even after they’re escorted back home by her husband’s sinister brother, Thomas.

Pearl’s interior monologue at the hotel clues us in to the fact that things are deeply wrong on the island. Thomas, the leader of what might be called a cult if they had more rules, is intent on raising children with complete freedom. We never learn what he’s after. He just tells Pearl and the rest of the adults that things are fine while children concoct a small culture that is flavored by medieval philosophy, a dash of Lord of the Flies, and narcissistic whimsy.

Because her life, before and after her escape, involves spending large amounts of time with these children, Pearl is often adrift in what is real and what isn’t. Even though she’s supposed to be recovering, she is often the rare parental voice on the island asking the children to stop this or that. They don’t listen to her of course, but she tries. When she starts to see very strange things (children changing into animals, for example), Pearl falls headlong into what I think is madness and what other readers might more charitably call a fairy tale. I’m not entirely sure they’re wrong. There is a lot in this book to make everyone question what they’re really seeing.

The Changeling is a difficult read because Pearl never gets any respite from the oddness of the children and the island. Because we spend the entire novel in Pearl’s head, neither do we. It is mentally exhausting to constantly question what’s real and what’s not. I suspect this mental exhaustion is exactly what we’re supposed to feel, given that I think this book is about a descent into insanity. I would recommend this to readers who are looking for a challenge, for a novel that makes them forget everything that’s going on around them even if it makes them question their own sanity.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss, for review consideration. It will be released 10 April 2018.