51
An image-
obsessed
politician, a
big secret and
an aardvarkwants to be someone he isn’t, and
thinks he can buy his way into becom-
ing the next Reagan. When preparing
to confront the man he thinks sent the
animal, he seethes as he dons his politi-
cal costume: “Motherofgod, you think,
what a pain in the ass, as you dress
yourself, head to toe, in light casual
summer wear from J. Crew.”
Though Enter the Aardvark is
certainly satire, Anthony’s depiction
of Wilson’s repressed sexuality cuts
beneath the surface. Her dissection of
Wilson’s political beliefs, particularly
his anti-abortion stance, isn’t just
sharp commentary on
polarization, identity and
power in the U.S. It’s also
a poignant examination of
what happens when we deny
ourselves the ability to love
and be loved. —A.G.When AlexAnder PAine Wilson
sees the aardvark for the first time,
he’s annoyed. This isn’t a surpris-
ing reaction for the young Republican
Congressman—he’s easily irritated.
That morning, he’s already aggrieved
by the broken air-conditioning in his
townhouse (on a particularly hot day in
Washington, D.C.) and the fact that he
has no wife or children, which makes
his re-election odds less favorable than
he’d like. When a giant box with a taxi-
dermied aardvark arrives, Wilson sus-
pects he knows where it came from.
And he’s not happy.
Enter the Aardvark,
Jessica Anthony’s sec-
ond novel, flips between
modern-day D.C. and
19th century England,
where the aardvark
was first found by a natu-
ralist who offered it to
his friend, a taxidermist.
Quickly, Anthony reveals
that these men had more in
common with Wilson than
he’d like to admit: they were
gay and forced to hide their
sexuality. The aardvark
served as a totem of their
forbidden love—and its
arrival threatens to unravel
Wilson’s carefully con-
structed image.
The politician’s narra-
tion, which is written in
the second person, cap-
tures his gnawing agi-
tations with the world,
which quickly fester to
anger. It’s this rage that
Anthony methodically—
and hilariously —picks
apart through her pro-
tagonist’s misguided
obsession with how
he’s perceived by oth-
ers. Wilson desperatelyREVIEW
An unexpected deliveryREVIEW
Doom in a
dry spell
Drought has devastated
the small California town
where 14-year-old Lacey and
her mother live. In Chelsea
Bieker’s haunting debut,
Godshot, they, along with
several members of their
community, find hope in Pastor
Vern, a cult leader with a plan
to bring the rain back. Lacey
is willing to do whatever Vern
wants—until her mother is
exiled and flees the area.
Don’t let the glitter and
gold of Godshot’s cover fool
you. This is a harrowing tale,
which Bieker smartly writes
through the lens of a teenager
on the cusp of understanding
the often fraught relationship
between religion and
sexuality. Lacey, now living
with her grandmother, begins
to see the cracks in Vern’s
“assignments.” He believes
that fertility is the answer to
all their problems—imposing
terrifying realities on Lacey and
her peers.
Godshot evolves from
an intense coming-of-age
story to an urgent survival
narrative as Lacey desperately
searches for her mother. In
snappy prose, Bieker captures
a young girl’s desperation
and yearnings for a parent,
which come sporadically and
fiercely: “I needed her body
next to mine to remind me
of my own.” It’s a timely and
disturbing portrait of how
easily men can take advantage
of vulnerable women—and the
consequences sink in more
deeply with each page.
—A.G.
▷
Anthony wrote the
book while working
as a “bridge guard”
on the Danube River