Book Review: Madame Zero

Madame Zeroby Sarah HallCustom House Publishing, 2017 Are men from Mars and women from Venus? Well no, not really. However alien to one another, people share a humility that binds them through life’s oddities and common experiences. In nine short stories, Sarah Hall’s Madame Zero attempts to convey the ever-dynamic human condition. Half of you might think, Oh great, a beach read about the throes of love. Perhaps the other half will pick up this book for that same reason. Hall’s prose has a knack for adopting a multitude of perspectives, making Madame Zero, unironically, a beach read about emotional throes in their plenitude.Mrs. Fox, which won the BBC National Short Story award, depicts marriage—the joy and torment of loving someone. Sophia and Esme, like many couples, remain unattainable to one another in inexplicable ways—each suffering an isolation that transcends sacred vows. Sophia is “in part unknowable, as all clever women are.” Literally and figuratively, Hall makes Sophia a fox. We know nothing about her demeanor prior to the marriage, or if the marriage causes her transformation. Sophia arrives home from work to find Esme anxiously awaiting her return. Readers can sense, but not quite grasp, their marital friction. Sophia is just out of reach, undomesticated. The windmill-like workings of her mind are opaque—except to herself. Esme’s feelings, however, are clear:

He sits for hours, thinking, silent—every time he speaks he feels the stupidity of his words. What has happened? Why? He is unable to unlock anything reasonable in his mind...[Sophia] is in the house, a bright mass, a beautiful arch being, but he feels increasingly alone.

Esme possesses a melancholic reverence for his wife, which appears unrequited. After all, “the one who loves less is always loved more.” In her mysterious, fox-like way, Sophia leaves, and we don’t know where, why, or if she’ll return. Esme is riddled and no longer asks why. Despite this, he keeps the back door unlocked. He wants her to walk through, but can't expect it. Matters of love often escape closure, and he’s grown accustomed to her coming and going:

What will become of them he does not know. The woods are temporary and the city is rapacious. He has given up looking for meaning. Why is a useless question, an unknowable object...But to suspend thought is impossible. The mind is made perfectly of possibilities. One day, Sophia might walk through the garden...she will open the back door, which is never locked… It is a forgivable romance, high conceit—he knows. At night he lies in bed, not at its centre... He no more expects her return than he conceived of her departure.

Hall often leaves mysteries unsolved, to both readers and characters. Moments of irresolution prod the psyche, drawing out our time in reflection. And if our sympathy runs shallow for Esme, he did, after all, fall in love with a fox.In Case Study 2: Recognition of the Self, we meet a wildling named Chris, who’s discovered wandering the moorlands. Chris has no regard for social rules, exhibiting odd behavior such as nibbling his shoes, and communicates in “fascinating and unorthodox” ways. After extensive testing and hospitalization, Chris is placed in foster care. As a developing child, ripe with potential, Chris has “an attachment to the collective,” and believes that “one must leave room for the inexplicable.” Chris’ untimely and mysterious death—like Sophia’s departure—reinforces Hall’s motif: humanity’s thirst for answers to the largest questions will never be quenched.Madame Zero’s pieces are as vividly detailed, as frustratingly relatable, as a life remembered. Many readers will find themselves in these nine stories, empathizing deeply. Others will see nine random, fleeting instances of characters who, like everyone, experience unique emotional challenges. Humans are fragile, often at the behest of others or haunted by that which lies beyond understanding. Hall accentuates these truths, but nevertheless some may find the stories an emotional burden, unswayed by romantic melodrama or existential irony.Hall writes endearingly from the perspective of young children in Goodnight Nobody. Siblings Jem and Sav, like the adults in this collection, grapple with the existential spookiness of life. As Jem begrudgingly reads Goodnight Moon for Sav, he turns each page to ensure that Jem doesn’t skip ahead. She finds the book eerie, comparable to a ghost story. They can no more fathom life’s abstractions than adults peering into the vast unknown. Hall voices Jem’s uneasiness:

If it was some kind of joke, she didn’t get it, because it wasn’t funny. It was exactly the opposite, and opposites always created big problems. The opposite of married. The opposite of love. The opposite of alive. She nudged her brother and blew on the back of his head. He smelled of milk and potato...Sav turned the page....Goodnight stars, goodnight air, goodnight noises everywhere. The End.

Emotionally complex—and occasionally sexy—Madame Zero should appeal to those who revere contemporary romance and slice-of-life tales. Hall opens nine narrow windows into the human condition, and while peeking inside means a quick read, we’ll dwell long afterward on that which we may never understand. In this way, the art of Madame Zero most definitely imitates life.