Sarah Gerard is an American writer and essayist who works on writing autobiographical, maximally honest, and quite harsh texts. She touches on such serious and important themes as the body, mental health, addiction, and all kinds of attempts to survive in the modern world. One of her works is the debut novel “Binary Star,” published by Two Dollar Radio, which is called a stunning achievement of the writer. In this overview, you can familiarize yourself with a short review of the book and understand what exactly the writer wanted to convey in her novel.
Introduction to the Book
The novel first saw the world in 2017. Despite the fact that this is a fiction novel, it has a quite strong autobiographical feeling. In places it is quite sharp and harsh, and in places – quiet, reminiscent of a light whisper through teeth.
The role of the narrator is played by a young girl who is going through a struggle with a severe form of anorexia along with the accompanying problems of such a disease. Despite all the problems, the girl tries to build and support in every way a relationship with a young man who is possibly in an even worse position.
The main driving factor of the book’s plot and life in general is their codependent relationship: “We know each other’s illness. It makes us orbit.” They act as fuel for each other, circling around each other in a contour of space and time.
The Unnamed Narrator: Who Is She
The role of the unnamed narrator is played by a young student-intern who is working on obtaining a degree necessary for teaching astronomy to schoolchildren. She is quite intelligent, a talented teacher, but her life problems prevent her from remaining a good student and professional teacher. Her knowledge in the field of astronomy and celestial bodies was organically integrated into the concept of a “constellation of beauty and pain.”
The prose is presented in a light format, without intrusiveness, which simultaneously allows it to amaze the reader with its depth. In the process of reading, one can trace how in places classical poetry turns into narrative. The main character constantly strives to become smaller, to be invisible, and at times to disappear altogether like a fading star. At the same time, she does not wish to give up attention, her own desires, touches, and craves attachment. These are quite understandable human needs that become a weak but pulsating warmth that is felt under the heavy darkness of the novel.
Loss of Control
The book describes very well the contrast between massive celestial bodies and the gradually decreasing weight of the young narrator. In addition to such an obvious comparison, no less interesting can also be called evidence of the vastness of the Universe: a star, as something large and explosive, can quite remain unnoticed because it is too far from a person. This also happens because the bright light of a porch lamp “closes” the bright star from our view. When it comes to perspective, distance becomes quite significant.
How can one not notice that there is a person right nearby who needs help and support? How does the narrator gradually sink into her oblivion without receiving the necessary support and comfort? This is exactly how the isolating effect of mental illness works: the porch lamp easily fogs a person’s vision, preventing them from seeing how close someone who really needs help is to them.
The heroine gradually loses control over herself. The author compares her to a meteor, which is visible to people only in the moment when it rushes through the atmosphere. The book helps to capture those very seconds of this burning: first she is completely invisible, and then – she begins to burn brighter and her brightness increases as her mass burns up. Then, she completely disappears.
The reader remains in complete ignorance of what happens to the heroine next, because the pages of the book end. Perhaps someone will still be able to help her, or maybe she will simply die without receiving the desired support. Perhaps she will continue her “burning” on the edge of the attention of all society. This can no longer be known, because the distance is too great.
“Binary Star” as an Emotionally Heavy Novel
“Binary Star” by Sarah Gerard is an incredible debut that has already made it to the list of the best books of the year. In the process of reading it, the reader will be emotionally shocked, amazed by the power of writing and presentation of material. One will be able to feel the meaning of what is written with every cell of their body. Therefore, it is not surprising that the book ended up at Two Dollar Radio publishing house, which today is called the best independent fiction publisher.
The main theme that gradually unfolds in the book is eating disorder (anorexia), addiction, and the attempt to hold on to life. The plot was built around the road, the disintegration of the main character – both physical and internal. Around relationships that simultaneously save and gradually destroy her.
The style of presenting material is quite restrained, sharp, fragmentary – there are no attempts to romanticize the disease. Fragmentation manifests itself in often short and sharp scenes that do not have long descriptions. This style creates and evokes in the reader a feeling of anxiety, a certain tension that the main character experiences. The author almost does not use dialogues in the usual form, which enhances the feeling of isolation and internal struggle.
Despite the fact that the book is emotionally heavy, it receives more and more enthusiastic reviews due to its honesty and absence of “beautiful” justifications for the disease (anorexia). This is not at all about recovery as a happy ending, but about the vulnerability and survival of a person in such difficult life conditions.