Originally published 04/09/2017
Incredible! From the first paragraph, Alana I. Capria sets a bleak and tense tone and never does she turn back. Capria's wields a stylistic , somewhat stylistic pen, delivering a novel that's original, somewhat experimental, but wholly successful. It reads something like icy waves lapping at the shore (befitting I suppose given the title and subject matter). It is purposefully repetitive, and the fluid repetition works to drive a stake through the heavy atmospheric visuals and activity; whether decay, or rust, or a hammer cracking a skull.
To put the story simply, Mother goes out to the lake, returns to the home, and the children must deal. The narrator is a voice of the trio of children who have to stand by and watch their mother thrash about the home while falling deeper into despair.
The story itself does not follow in an obvious story form (beginning-middle-end) and yet it manages to tackles these three senses of point in afterthought, or perhaps focused mental revisiting. Amidst the frantic and panicked existence of the family, these points (beginning-middle-end) slide into the subconscious and narrow the story, pushing it, though it does not feel as if it’s moving at all.
Mother Walked Into the Lake is a short livewire of originality, brutal imagery, and powerful writing. It is a story difficult to describe or define for all the right reasons.
Available from Kernpunkt Press
