The Imago Stage

August 3, 2020
Canadian writer Georges (Under the Stone) crafts a cerebral novel exploring the thin line between the real world and virtual reality. In near-future Montreal, the unnamed agoraphobic narrator, a middle-aged woman, grows obsessed with her personal avatar, Anouk, who shields her from the chaotic world outside. When the narrator’s mother is diagnosed with terminal cancer, the narrator is forced to confront her fears and attempt to leave her apartment accompanied by a group of virtual super friends. Through memories of the narrator’s lonely childhood with an alcoholic father and nonresponsive mother in the 1970s and 1980s, Georges paints a portrait of a child who escapes through television and becomes a model at 13. Her reflections on modeling in ’80s Paris produce fascinating commentary on the oversized fashion of the period and the narrator’s awareness of her desire to remake herself on her own terms (“I was a figure all out of proportion, a humanoid hanger wearing creations of titanic dimensions, with pads that tripled the width of my shoulders”). While the story’s arc is slight, hinging on the narrator’s tinkering with her illustration of Anouk as she tries to will herself to visit her mother in the hospital, the vivid imagery and intriguing ideas keep it glued together. The result makes for an exhilarating and prescient ride through a woman’s lifelong drive toward disembodiment.