mrs caliban, by Rachel Ingalls

A housewife takes on a green monster for a lover

Dorothy Caliban lives with her husband Fred in California. She’s recently bereaved, having lost her son and miscarried a baby. The love has gone out of her marriage. Her husband Fred is even having an affair, but the two stay together because they can’t really be bothered separating. Dorothy pretty much takes all of this in her stride. To keep her sane, she has her friend Estelle to confide in. Estelle is a feisty character and tells it like it is.

Another outlet for Dorothy’s frustrations and anxiety is the news on the radio. She hears all sorts of stories. One tells of a creature that has escaped from a laboratory and is on the run, an amphibious being called the “Monster man”. When Dorothy is cooking dinner one evening, the kitchen door opens and the monsterman appears. He’s a green thing, about six feet seven, and besides his green skin and funny ears, looks like a man. Dorothy decides to call him Larry.

Larry stays in a spare room, and seeing Fred is always out, it’s easy to hide him. Soon a closeness develops between Dorothy and Larry. They become lovers. Their relationship you couldn’t call a classic love story, but there’s an intimacy and sharing there. Larry helps with the housework and listens to Dorothy as she relays her day to day problems, mostly involving Fred, her friends and family.

First published in 1982, soon forgotten, then again revived, it’s hard to categorise Mrs Caliban. On first blush it’s a weird, eccentric story, but it’s also briskly paced, enjoyably quirky and with a breezy, wisecracking type of humour. In short, it’s got a very American style (author Rachel Ingalls moved to the UK in 1965). Trying to figure out what the book means is mystifying. Dorothy Calibran is betrayed by many people in the story, but she doesn’t play the victim, and when Larry comes along she seems relieved to have someone to honestly talk to. Larry is masculine, we learn he’s quite a powerful creature, but he’s also easily domesticated. A perfect at home companion who doesn’t cheat or judge.

A blunt, comic portrait of suburban American life and its petty aspirations. 

Mrs Caliban, by Rachel Ingalls. Faber. $19.99

Review by Chris Saliba

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