This is another book club recommendation (thanks Leah!), and my library happened to have it. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Aside from being told it was literary fiction, I didn’t really know the synopsis ahead of time, but sapphic literary fiction is an easy sell for me. I enjoy the quality writing, a story that falls outside the realms of genre, and the often emotional complexities garnered from both. We Do What We Do in the Dark delivered on all fronts.
The summary is simple: a first year college student settles into an affair with an older woman who teaches at her university. You don’t get the older woman’s name (a detail I thought worked well), but you do get a very close look at Mallory, the student. The story covers a wide range of time, though not outside what’s needed to see the full picture. It can be broken up as: The Present, The Past, The Future, and The Further Future (an epilogue I actually enjoyed) or rather: The Affair, Before the Affair, Closure of the Affair, and The Affair as an Item of the Past. I’m going to provide a quick breakdown of each to describe what I thought worked effectively.
- The Affair—Mallory’s life post the recent death of her mother. A young person who can’t relate to those her age (a set back from death and depth) finds comfort in someone older who shares similar views and thoughts. You’d think that two lonely people could resolve their loneliness together, but this wasn’t that type of story. Even though Mallory felt the relief and excitement in having someone to relate to, the older woman was married and therefore distant. When the husband came back from abroad, the affair ended. It was something I felt would happen the entire time, lending an undercurrent of tension that worked alongside the story, as opposed to against it.
- Before the Affair—We learn of Mallory’s childhood which is rife with the helplessness of watching a loved one deal with illness. The most interesting and detailed part of this was the relationship she formed with her best friend’s mother. It was a sort of mirror to the affair in an emotional way. Again, two lonely people seeking comfort from each other and not really resolving it.
- The Future—A few years after the affair Mallory seeks out the woman. We see the two perspectives of the relationship and how different it was for each. This shows the woman in a more layered and complex light.
- The Further Future—A short but wonderfully effective conversation between Mallory and her current girlfriend in which she tells her about the affair, breaking the secret. It’s roughly ten years after the affair and Mallory is living what looks like a very full life.
The writing took a little adjusting to, but once I was there I found it intentional in an interesting way. All that telling of what the character was thinking and feeling, and then, without describing it, this meaning of the story breaks through without description. The meaning is vague, but impactful—“loneliness isn’t an uncontrollable force” with a whiff of “relationships have nuance.” I found this strategy effective, and I enjoyed being exposed to a different style.
This is an impressive debut novel from Michelle Hart. I’ll be looking out for more from this author.