Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum | A Fermented Book Review

fermentedphil(77)

Published in

Hive Book Club

Words

963

Reading

5 min

Listen

Play

My fiance gave me a short book, Helpmeet by Naben Ruthnum, to read. It took me less than two days to devour. And it was one of the strangest books I have ever read.

When I started writing, I judged other people's work, not in a judgmental way but in terms of one simple rule: Could I have also done this? Various people will stand in front of abstract art and think (and say out loud): I could have done this. (And sometimes I respond by asking sarcastically, why did you not make it then? I digress...) And then I always proceed to try and copy, not in the literal sense, but in a creative way, what the authors did. I have managed to publish some poetry, so my creative instincts were not too far off: I did make this.

When I read this book, Helpmeet, I felt this same urge to write my own stories. The book felt like something one can conjure up after a strange dream. And maybe we should listen to this voice in our minds, for as some artists think that words are like winds blowing across an open field. If you do not write them down as soon as you feel (or hear) them they will be lost for all of time. It is an event, something in the moment. Either way, I am not sure if this is what made the author write this book, but it felt like it.

Before I carry on, I just want to take a moment to think about the beauty of the binding. It was a more than usual expensive book, but the decorations in some sense makes up for this extra price. Even though it is an incredibly short story, the inside of the cover page looked stunning, and each chapter's first page had these beautiful designs.

Little did I know that this was a foreshadow for what was to come...

AS ALWAYS, THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS

The book started off very strange and odd. I was obviously reminded by the fact that this was a body horror book, so do not go into this book expecting anything less than disturbing.

We are greeted with some gruesome scenes that left me shivering in strange ways. I did not feel good after reading some of these sentences. But is that not the sign of a good body horror? I remember reading American Psycho by Ellis a long time ago, and this also made me shiver in a strange way.

But this book was far shorter than Ellis' novel, but it packed a similar punch.

The strange setting and the lack of real detail also helped the story.

But then, in the last sections of this novella, scenes I did not expect unfolded at an incredible pace. Someone said in another review that the novella should only have been a short story, but I think it needed some more "meat" in terms of giving the reader one, more things to grab onto, but two, more gruesome scenes as well. The writer wrote in incredibly beautiful prose, and this sometimes took away from the gruesome scenes being described. But this also lent into incredible unfoldment of the story.

As quick as it started, it ended. It left me flabbergasted, confused, wondering what just happened. Most of the reviews online shares a similar confusion.

I will not try and unravel the story here, as it will not do any justice. But let me just say this. Every gardener should read this book if they like body horror. But I also think this is one of those stories that will only arise when you stand in the garden, pulling weeds, being hit with this strange story. It feels like a reddit post that went too far. It feels like a scary story someone tries to tell at the end of a long night around a campfire.

As I finished the book, I felt the need to write, to write equally strange stories. To think about the world in this phantasmic way. To allow body horror to mix with old era stories, set in times we can only access through nostalgia. It felt like a Rembrandt painting but with the scene described by Salvador Dali.

At the end we are left with more questions: What was the flower thing devouring the soul of the main character? Why did they merge? What was the meaning behind it? A sort of metaphor for loving the other so much that you become them? That the border between you can the other is in fact porous and we can move between them?

I am not sure any of these questions will help, but in the end, I think this was the goal of this book. To create more questions than provide answers for, the cause discomfort and unease in the reader. And the author achieved this with flying colours.

I really hope that you will take up this book (if you like body horror) and that you will enjoy it!

All of the musings and writings and opinions are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.