"The Harpy" by Megan Hunter

"The Harpy" by Megan Hunter

A review

In her debut novel(la) The End We Start From, Megan Hunter imagines a post-apocalyptic scenario where waters are inexplicably rising, laying waste to towns and cities.   Many critics read in it a timely warning about climate change.  However, there was also a sub-text to the novella which one could easily overlook – I interpreted The End We Start From as a celebration of motherhood and the sense of hope that a new birth brings with it.   

The theme of motherhood also looms large in Megan Hunter’s second novella The Harpy, but here it is conveyed in much darker and more pessimistic hues.  Indeed, The Harpy is an indictment of a patriarchal society that first expects women to be faithful wives, perfect mothers and dutiful homemakers and then sidelines them precisely for having fulfilled these expectations.  In the novella, this critique of patriarchy is eventually extended to comprise the theme of domestic violence and the way that “forgiveness” is expected of  (female) victims as a means to maintain the status quo.  This widening of the theme leads to some loss of focus, but the work’s message remains a powerful one.  

If, in her first novella, Hunter gave her personal twist to the post-apocalyptic genre, here she ventures into “domestic thriller” territory, albeit laced with mythical elements and more than a twist of horror.

Rainbow Harpy by Italian artist Elisabetta Trevisan (b. 1957)
https://www.saatchiart.com/art/Painting-rainbow-harpy/53010/942462/view

Since her childhood, Lucy, the novella's protagonist is fascinated by harpies – legendary creatures of vengeance, birds with a female face and torso, “their eyes pale slits, their hair thick black lines, flying in shapes behind their heads”.  At University, Lucy opts for Classics and chooses harpies as an object of research. Years later, now settled down with her husband Jake and tethered to a daily routine of caring for their two young boys, the harpies seem like a long-forgotten obsession.  Until, that is, Lucy learns that Jake has been sleeping with a work colleague, Vanessa.   Older, sophisticated and unblemished by child-bearing or rearing, Vanessa seems everything that Lucy is not.  Jake admits to his infidelity and agrees to submit himself to an exemplary punishment. Thus begins Lucy’s change into the mythical harpy.

The Harpy manages to be at the same time a hyper-realist portrayal of the frustrations within a contemporary family and a mythical tale ripe with symbolism, told throughout in Hunter’s trademark poetic prose. The final pages are particularly haunting as the distinction between fantasy and reality becomes increasingly blurred.  Some passages are not for the faint-hearted – but, given the subject-matter, some disturbing images are hardly out of place. 

This is another strong showing from Megan Hunter. Clearly, the success of her debut was no fluke!

ebook, 389 pages

Expected publication: August 21st 2020 by Grove Atlantic/Grove Press

Phineas and the Harpies, Greek Hydria, c. 480 BC