ANZ LitLovers LitBlog

The unusual title for this novel derives from the author’s experience of it in Bali: ‘fogging’ is the routine spraying of pesticide to eradicate mosquitoes and other unwanted nasties such as cockroaches, from beachside resorts.  In the novel, it’s the catalyst for a relationship breakdown…

Tom and Clara are 30-something academics living a life of delayed adolescence, taking their first holiday together in ten years though they can’t really afford it.  At home, they’re still living in a ‘student-digs’ atmosphere of squalor, and it’s taken them both of them ages to get settled into steady employment.  The issue of having children has been postponed, (though after they meet another couple at the resort, there are signs that Clara might want a child).  (Horton doesn’t address the structural reasons for their situation i.e. insecure employment in the university sector.  That’s not his focus.)

At first Tom resents Clara’s interest in this other family at the resort, then he bonds with them too.  The days drift by in the claustrophobic heat, while Tom is plagued by his doubts and fears and petty jealousies.  The novel is told entirely from his point of view, and from the outset it’s clear that he is a very troubled man. What seems like narcissism, endless self-questioning and a preoccupation with analysing everything and everything, are symptoms of his extreme anxiety.  He has a panic attack on the plane despite using the strategies he’s been taught to control the anxiety, and these panic attacks — which have been more-or-less under control — seem to be triggered by his introspective responses to ordinary events and interactions, and since the narration is all about him, his wife Clara’s attitude to his behaviour remains opaque.

Flashbacks from Tom’s memories illuminate some of his issues, as, for example, when he suffers extreme anxiety in the early days of his teaching career.  The novel is extremely perceptive in depicting how debilitating this condition can be.  It demonstrates that it’s not a condition that can be easily concealed, which makes the reader wonder whether Tom was actually successful in concealing his panic attack on the flight, and what Clara thinks about it.  Because there’s no doubt that it’s embarrassing for both of them.

The novel also shows how isolating extreme anxiety can be, and how it impacts on relationships.

Both my parents suffered from anxiety as a consequence of WW2: they lived through the Blitz; and they lost friends and family to the war, especially my father who was orphaned by the time he was nineteen and had lost his brother and an aunt too.  My mother was claustrophobic all her life after being trapped underground in a bombed building, and my father was bombed out of his childhood home, which meant he lost — along with his home — all contact with his childhood friends and his teachers because he had to move away.  He had a terrible time as an evacuee too.  My earliest memories are situations in which my mother suffered anxiety that in retrospect seemed irrational and melodramatic — until as part of my professional development at school, I learned how ‘catastrophising’ is an aspect of anxiety and that the fear of losing loved ones was an entirely rational response to their traumatic experiences.  Helicopter parents probably don’t realise that they pass on their anxiety to the children, but our school trialled a program to teach children self-help strategies to control it.   I’m not ashamed to say that I benefited from learning these strategies too.

Aspects of Tom’s characterisation are irritating, but there’s purpose in his representation.  I found it strangely compelling but I’m not sure that everyone will.

Jennifer at Tasmanian Bibliophile at Large reviewed The Fogging too. 

Author: Luke Horton
Title: The Fogging
Cover design by Scribe
Publisher: Scribe Publishing, 2020
ISBN: 9781925849592, pbk., 213 pages
Review copy courtesy of Scribe Publishing.