The Shame by Makenna Goodman - Book Review

Story/The Premise

Alma and her family live the dream, an idyllic suburban life; they raise chickens, sheep and make maple syrup during their spare time. Alma stays at home to be a good, present mother whilst her husband works at a nearby college. Life seemed perfect for this happy family, until one day Alma flees to New York, leaving life behind.

In a series of flashbacks, Alma reveals the moments that lead to her impulse decision, including her fervent fixation on Celeste - a mysterious doppelgänger who she once sought for inspiration and had now become a concerning obsession.

The Characters

Alma is not a likeable character. She is selfish, thinks only about herself and does not realise her own hypocrisy. And yet, beneath her flaws lies a deeply relatable, sympathetic character. She feels trapped, isolated - all markers of capitalism and the result of a nuclear family unit. She critiques consumerism and yet the only way she clings to sanity is by online shopping for second-hand goods. She receives an offer to write for a toy company, yet she is dissatisfied with the array of marketing writing she has done - longing for something more authentic with artistic merit.

Like a lot of people, Alma seeks refuge in her para-social relationship with Celeste. Her obsession with Celeste’s curated online presence fuels her, living vicariously through her images of class, poise and glamour. Alma seeks Celeste as an extension of herself, and throughout the story, it is made extremely clear that Alma does not perceive Celeste as a person, rather, an idea of who she wants to be. Her husband and even her own children seem to be backdrops in her own life, as the novel increasingly fixates on Celeste and her obsession with her life.

This shows Alma to be not only self centered but a victim of rampant social media culture - she is self-aware of her privileged position in life and yet seems unhappy with the direction of her life in comparison to her ideal doppelganger. When an opportunity presented itself to potentially meet her doppelganger, she seized it and fled to New York.

Ultimately, the novel is a character study of how consumerism, late-stage capitalism and the nuclear family unit can bear an effect on someone’s psyche. Alma is a demonstration of how easily someone can fall into the trap of chasing achievements in which there is no glass ceiling.

Review

The book was short, slow-paced and compelling, with beautiful prose and excellent characterization. It perfectly captured the feeling of dissatisfaction, isolation and what it feels to be dissatisfied with the hand you have been given in life. Alma is imperfect and yet her struggles are deeply relatable and you can see glimpses of your own life through her narration. The book perfectly demonstrates how one can never find meaning in fixating on another’s life, and the story captured on social media is never entirely what it seems in real life.

One critique of the book is the lack of attention paid to the children and her husband, but it inadvertently becomes the point of the book as it is very much a character study of Alma and how she is too wrapped up in her own life and her perception of Celeste to ultimately care about things that should matter to her. The overall themes of the book were executed perfectly, and you can get a real sense of what the author was trying to convey by the end of the book.

Conclusion

The Shame by Makenna Goodman is the ultimate short read for anyone looking for a slow-paced, character-driven story. It is a thought-provoking debut about isolation, motherhood and the search for meaningful art.