Although this is not unique to the 2020’s, such levels of justified paranoia haven’t been seen on such a scale, arguably, since the 1970’s. Then, scandals like Watergate, divisive wars like Vietnam and the legacies of political assassinations demonstrated that the times were indeed a changing. Revolution was in the air, but the radicals knew their governments weren’t going to stand for it.
Of course, some of the most important works of art were (directly or indirectly) influenced by the upheaval in that period and Holy Smoke is no exception. In fact, it revels in the thick aura of that era and gives us an astonishing read.
According to the publisher:
Republished for the first time since its 1979 release, in a new revised edition, Holy Smoke is an account of the frenzy and paranoia of United States politics refracted through one individual’s psyche. With her theme of a child disappeared – and all that that phrase carries with it – Howe captures the chaos of reality in her salient mix of poetry and prose. Readers will find it hard to believe that this book, which gives fresh sense to the demand for universal human rights, was written in the last century.
Ostensibly a tale about a mother travelling to the ends of the country to free her kidnapped daughter, it’s also an exploration of a fractured psyche trying to make sense of the United States as the post-war consensus is about to give way for Reaganomics, portrayed via a mix of drawings, poetry and cut-up paragraphs.
Not only does this brilliantly depict the amphetamine driven paranoia of a particular type but it also adds further tension to the narrative as characters drop in and out with little to no fanfare, as if the reader is being constantly monitored and upended by external forces beyond their control.
Take this as an example:
There was a person on board I didn’t notice at first, but now I believe he is the one sent after me. Young, in an inappropriate Army jacket, big hood hiding a smooth face. I catch glimpses of girlish hips...he is always hidden. Hood. Could be a college drop-out on his way to the cane fields, but he keeps glimpsing at me as I turn aside...I don’t like it. I don’t like the way he keeps muttering. Who let him on the plane, unless he is serving a function? He is staying at my hotel, but then we all are, the journalists, the tourists. He follows me around the hotel lobby like a dog, whining and muttering, and only I seem to care.
Of course, there is the distinct possibility that this whole tale is merely LSD induced paranoia from a 60’s burnout who still believes that Castro and Stalin were doing what they had to do for the good of the revolution and who has heard promising words about an upcoming revolutionary in Zimbabwe called Robert Mugabe.
Regardless, I was utterly fascinated and gripped reading this 116-page novel. Although something of a time capsule as the sense of suffocating conformity that permeates the current socio-political discussions is largely absent here, you can walk away with a mild sense of hope that things can be overcome.
Paul Thomas Anderson should have filmed this instead.
Fanny Howe, Holy Smoke, Divided Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-1068439513
⏩ Christopher Owens was a reviewer for Metal Ireland and finds time to study the history and inherent contradictions of Ireland. He is currently the TPQ Friday columnist and is the author of A Vortex of Securocrats and “dethrone god”.
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