Late by Michael Fitzgerald

Late is not for everyone - it requires a special degree of preparedness for the unusual. The ‘What if…’ of the fiction writer is given a Hollywood touch in this unusual narrative. This is an esoteric, stream of consciousness journey, peppered with references to the life and passing of the icon that was Marilyn Monroe – a journey punctuated with parentheses and dotted with footnotes as literary signposts to the thoughts of the narrator along the way. This is a strange insight into the pain of fame and the stranger life of the narrator who once was Marilyn Monroe, but now has a new alter-ego identity as Zelda Zonk. Zelda has left behind the madness of a past life, and now lives in her isolated, architecturally-designed and austere apartment overlooking the clifftop ‘suicide zone’ adjacent to the Sydney Heads. Zelda, reflects on her life, her new home, her death (she is after all ‘the late Marilyn Monroe’), her ageing and her journey to her present existence 27 years on, … but always with an inherent, chaotic, literate and artistic essence that is hard to define. Is she mad or is her sanity beyond the norm? She was the consummate performer and ingenue in her past life, but who is she now? Into her world drops the young, gentle man, Daniel. Locked out of his own place (literally and metaphorically), he lands into her spotlight briefly and Zelda entertains and saves him.

The rambling of this book creates an other-worldly feel. It is written, not for the masses, but rather for those who like the challenge of exploring ideas rather than plot. The language use is a performance, an artistic, metaphorical work or an evocative dream. (It also sent me on some dictionary exploration to uncover meaning! And I was frequently re-reading sentences and paragraphs to clarify the intentions of the author or the narrator. There was sometimes a madness in the way the author/narrator communicated ideas.) Interestingly, Sydney Harbour almost becomes a character itself in this unusual text, and it was possible to get lost in the resonance of a cliff-top life. In reviewing this text I am conscious of the school-based reader, consequently I am not sure that it will hit the mark for any but the rarest of readers. However, the maturity of language, exploration of philosophies, the random directions of flow (including the use of the random asides in footnotes), the interjections of ideas from multiple sources and the iconic nature of the central character would be worthy of study for the astute literature student or adult reader prepared to wrestle with this unreliable narrator and extremely profound text. Expect this to get good reviews from the literati set, but certainly not from the general populace.

Themes: Marilyn Monroe, Fame, Identity, Secrets, Jewish identity, LGBTIQ, Mental illness.

Carolyn Hull