Her Fearful Symmetry - A Book Review

Audrey Niffenegger's latest novel, Her Fearful Symmetry, is just as fascinating as The Time Traveler's Wife. The subject matter is completely different, no time traveling, and no encounters between soul mates at different periods in their lives, but it has the same haunting effect on the reader. You will keep on pondering its premise long after you've put it down.

Aundrey Niffenegger interweaves four fascinating themes in this novel: twins, ghosts, obsessive compulsive disorder and grief. The novel begins with the death of Elspeth, a middle-aged twin living in London. She dies alone, unable to call out to her partner Robert who has just stepped out to buy a candy bar in the hallway. Elspeth had stopped speaking to her twin, Edwina, after she eloped with Elspeth's fiance, Jack. From beyond the grave, Elspeth manages to get her revenge, by leaving her London flat to Edwina and Jack's daughters (twins with a striking resemblance to their mother and her twin) provided they live in it for a year before selling it. The revenge lies in the stipulation that Jack and Edwina are not allowed to step foot in the apartment, thereby separating the girls from their parents for a year.

The two girls arrive in London and move into the apartment, still filled with Elspeth's books and furniture. Although the girls are in their twenties, they have not begun working, and seem to float in and out of colleges without ever finishing. And so Elspeth begins to haunt them in earnest, attempting to connect with her nieces in death, as she could not in life. But the girls are haunted by more than the ghost of their aunt. There is also Robert, Elspeth's lover who refuses to make contact with them but follows them from a distance around town, Martin, their obsessive compulsive neighbor who scrubs the floors above their heads, as well as their own relationship as they struggle unsuccessfully to forge lives with some degree of independence from each other. All of this takes place on or around the grounds of Highgate Cemetary, with its elaborate Victorian tombs, where Elspeth is buried.

Her Fearful Symmetry is the type of novel that makes its way into your dreams because of the power of Niffenegger's story setting. As I read it, I could feel the fine London rain and could close my eyes to imagine the landscape of beautiful abandoned tombs and mausoleums. I normally loathe stories and movies about ghosts, but found myself cheering for Elspeth, believing in her life after death, and hoping that she would finally right the injustice she suffered, while teaching her nieces how to avoid the same mistakes.

I wonder if this novel, like the Time Traveler's Wife, will also be turned into a movie. Niffenegger's intriguing characters and exotic locales seem to lend themselves powerfully to that medium. However, if Hollywood does snap Her Fearful Symmetry up, I will certainly avoid seeing it, as I avoided The Time Traveler's Wife movie, preferring to keep the mental images she gave me with her words unspoiled.