Yatterings

Elizabeth Hand’s Generation Loss is a strange novel which reads as a crime book, a literary fantasy and a mimetic novel.

Cass Neary is a photographer who is tricked into covering a reclusive artist in Maine. Her punk glory days are over and she is a shattered wreck of her former glory. As she comes to Maine, she is involved when a local girl disappears from the motel where she is staying.

The book centres on photography with its grainy black and white textures and the occasional hint of colour. There is a sense that art is both destructive and creative at a personal level and that artists will go the extra mile to capture the essence. The texture is also covered in amphetamines and sour Jack Daniels, the smells and substance of which eak their way into the text.
Hand creates strong senses of closed communities, from the island to the locals in the bar. The sense of outsiderdom, even in New York city, is touchable. Cass navigates her way through the human islands, coming to shore as and when needed or allowed.

Some of the scenes echo Hand’s own life and it is hard to tell whether this is a taking stock of her own life. This does make the book slightly difficult to read at times.

Like the photography of Cass and Denny, Generation Loss captures the moment just after a death and vividly brings it to life. It is,at once, elegiac and beautiful in a punk way.