Welcome to another installment of If My Book, the Monkeybicycle feature in which authors compare their recently released books to weird things. This week Caroline Hagood writes about her new novel, Ghosts of America, out now from Hanging Loose Press.
If Ghosts of America were a child, it would be the creepy one from the horror movie, who just might be the spawn of Satan. You know the one. Let’s call her Merle. Merle would definitely have an imaginary friend who’d tell her to do eerie things for inexplicable reasons.
Merle would be the prodigy kid who knew everything about a few spine-chilling subjects. She’d insist on telling you about them constantly. She’d certainly be chosen last for all sports-related activities because she’d be busy foreseeing the apocalypse of late capitalism.
The other kids would be trying to eat lunch, but she’d insist on telling them how in the 11th century Japanese book, The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu, the titular character describes how hot this lady is by comparing her to a molting cicada. See, I get that because I find that hot. So does Merle. But, let me tell you, nobody else does.
It’s important to note that if Merl had gone to my school, I would have been her best friend. Just saying. I wouldn’t have let her eat her tater tots alone, prophesying the collapse of our culture, all by herself. I would have loved Merle like nobody else would, parted the hair that covered her face, and kissed her decaying forehead. You have my word on that one.
Caroline Hagood has published two books of poetry, Lunatic Speaks (FutureCycle Press, 2012) and Making Maxine’s Baby,and one book-length essay, Ways of Looking at a Woman. Her writing has appeared in The Kenyon Review, the Huffington Post, the Guardian, Salon, and the Economist. She blogs for The Kenyon Review. Follow her on Twitter at @Caroline Hagood.
