By Stephanie Domet, Frye Correspondent
Book read: Foe by Iain Reid (Simon and Schuster, 2018)
Weeks after reaching the final page of Foe and putting the novel down for the last time, the story and its themes still haunt me.
Though Iain Reid’s books are often classified as thrillers, what’s happening in Foe is quieter than that, but no less unsettling, honestly. Where other writers might lean into baroque writing dripping with adjectives, Reid employs restraint and rhythm to create a creepy tension that keeps a reader turning pages till way past bedtime.
In Foe, we meet an isolated, recently married, rural couple, Henrietta—or Hen—and Junior. In short order, they are visited by Terrance, who says he works with OuterMore—a public-private partnership designed to colonize space. And Junior’s been chosen for the Installation—a short term outer space residency. Not to worry, Terrance lets them know, while Junior’s gone, Hen will have familiar company, in the form of a kind of replica.
The story, such as it is, unfolds within tight constraints. Three characters and a limited setting. The isolated farmhouse, and the fields of genetically modified canola that surround it. We’re in a near future world in which there are self-driving cars, in which it is illegal to own livestock, and in which the government is working with industry to colonize space. Oh, and the algorithm is always listening, via the microphones in devices. A chilling, not-likely-far-off vision of the future.
Reid writes with considerable restraint, spare prose, uninflected dialogue, and a slow but steady pace as Junior and Hen wait years for something to happen—for Terrance to return and let Junior know he’s heading off to OuterMore, or to let the couple know that Junior is off the hook and their life can return to its usual rhythms. Against this constraint and restraint, however, Reid is able to dig deeply and repeatedly into big philosophical questions about who we are on our own and in relation to others. He explores what it means to be known deeply within a marriage, but also how easy it is to disappear inside one, to be held in place by old narratives and ideas, or by a partner’s faulty perceptions. He examines, too, what’s at stake when one partner changes or desires something different.
There are plot twists here that I did not see coming and that made the entirety of the story wash over me in a new way, sending me back to the first few pages to look for clues. And while nothing gory or overtly frightening happens during this book, the tone and pacing are such that my reading was accompanied by a deep and thrilling sense of dis-ease. That Reid accomplishes all of this with spare prose and deep questions about the nature of love, relationships, and our very existence, is truly a testament to his skill as a writer and his insight into human nature.
Cite this document:
Stephanie Domet
Stephanie Domet is the author of two novels, Homing and Fallsy Downsies, both published by Invisible. She has also co-authored a nonfiction book for intermediate readers titled Amazing Atlantic Canadian Women, published by Nimbus. She is a co-founder and co-executive director of the AfterWords Literary Festival and editor-in-chief of The Dalhousie Review. She teaches creative writing to adults and children from her home in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She’s probably wearing something she sewed herself.
Iain Reid
Iain Reid is an author and screenwriter. He has written five books, including I’m Thinking of Ending Things, which has been translated into more than twenty languages and was adapted into a film by Charlie Kaufman. His second novel, Foe, was also adapted to film. His third novel, We Spread, was nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award.
