By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
Spoilers: There are two things that instantly help the Reader understand the type of book they are reading when coming across Amy Felix’s The Art of Agony. One of them is the name of the series, The Nihilist Duet. The second is the opening content warning which states in bold lettering that this novel is not a romance. You are instantly told this is going to be a strange, dark, uncomfortable, troubling, disturbing, critical, skeptical and pessimistic ride. Those early assumptions are certainly warranted. This is deconstruction of various genres such as Romance and Conspiracy Thrillers by focusing on the troubled souls that reside within them.
The Sinnenberg Mental Institution in Germany has two new patients, twins Eva and Isak Jager. They have been institutionalized under suspicious circumstances that suggest guilt more from those around them than their own. One of their fellow patients is Sebastien Guzman who has his own violent history and background of questionable guardians. Along with the story of their institutionalization, rebellion against authority, and desires of escape, we are treated to flashbacks of their lives before their institutionalization and what led them to this placement. Along with the three protagonists, we are also treated to chapters of dialogue that suggest that Eva, Isak, and Sebastian are being observed by some authority for some unknown and possibly nefarious purpose.
There's something down right confusing and uncomfortable about The Art of Agony. Something that provokes the Reader by purposely getting under their skin. Something that stays within the dark recesses of their mind and subconscious like a bad memory that is suppressed but should be acknowledged.
This book is one of the best but also one of the most disturbing books that I read so far this year.
The backstories of the characters are where a lot of the darkness lies. Eva recalls being molested by a religious family friend. She responds with verbal hostility and affects an arrogant demonstrative attitude. Her retaliation in the matter results in institutionalization. Instead of taking her side, her superficial mother has her committed as a means to silence her and get her out of her life.
Eva strikes back at her captors and challenges them in various sessions by not participating and glowering in disdain. There are moments where she uses her sexuality as a weapon, as if inflicting her pain on others will somehow make her pain go away. She is a creature of understandable hurt and rage. She suspects ulterior motives from everyone so often strikes back at those around her before they strike her.
While Eva lives in a dark cloud of suspicion, Isak’s hurts are less visible. It takes awhile for him to follow his sister’s path and when it does, the results are just as traumatic as Eva’s. Part of the trauma is because he spends so much time trying to be Eva’s polar opposite, much to his sister’s early chagrin, who derides him as the “family favorite” without realizing that he is no more loved or respected than she is. He acts like the perfect son and student but has hidden imperfections.
Isak is quiet, remote, and lives inside his own head. Eva’s hostility is known but his negative emotions are buried underneath a cold introverted surface. This surface analyzes his thoughts towards others before he acts. He has a troubled sexual history of his own, but it is one in which he thought that his logic and calculated thought could protect him. The pain that sends Isak to Sinnenberg is self-inflicted as though his head could no more protect him than Eva’s body could protect her.
Sebastien, the third member to their triangle, comes from a different place than the Jager Twins. He has been at Sinnenberg for a long time, long enough to take active part in and lead group sessions. He gets to know and bond with the twins and becomes a facilitator in helping them face their own unhappiness while coming to terms with his.
If Eva uses her body and Isak uses his mind, Sebastien uses his heart and emotions. Despite trying to be a welcoming presence to new patients, he has emotional violent tendencies. Before his institutionalization, he committed a violent act, one that came from fury, anger, and impulse. There are verbal and accusatory parts of his mind that tries to resonate his acts of violence with his current responsibilities. They remind him that his warm empathy towards his fellow patients can also burn and blaze with unfelt passion and potential homicide.
Eva, Isak, and Sebastien are damaged individuals who have one way or another been hurt and respond by hurting others or themselves. Felix is very realistic with how her protagonists are depicted and that can be found in the lack of romance among them. They are capable of feeling. There are moments of familial love between Eva and Isak and companionship between them and Sebastien but that’s as far as it goes.
Much of their issues are sexually related, Eva’s especially. They have naturally skewered outlooks at lust, love, togetherness, and partnership so they are not going to find a quick fix relationship that will heal all wounds. Instead, it is enough to find someone who might understand the insanity that surrounds them every day because they see it too. Sometimes it’s enough to have someone say, “No you’re not crazy. They really are after you because they are after me too!”
What makes this book so disturbing and unpleasant is the undercurrent of Nihilism, nothingness. Through their own individual experiences on the outside, Isak, Eva, and Sebastian are betrayed by those around them: friends, family, lovers, school, work, religion, home. The institutions that surround them become a mockery as they can't find comfort or protection in them.They are left unable to trust anyone, even themselves.
These characters are cold, barren, alone, numb, used, abused, and cast adrift.They used their body, mind, and emotions to gain back some feeling or control in their lives and ended up with more pain and less control than they had before. Sinnenberg becomes a microcosm of that world around them, the world in which they have no control.They were surrounded by nothingness before and nothingness afterwards but now only on a smaller scale.
There are hints throughout the book that there are larger conspiracies and plans involving the patients, particularly The Jager Twins. Once again like with the romantic aspects, it is dealt with realistically.
In other books, the protagonists would get to the heart of the conspiracy, try to escape, and either burst it wide open or die trying. Here however, it just becomes yet another thing that traps the characters. Another link in the chains of captivity since their youth, possibly since birth. They may try to escape (and to their credit make a great attempt at escaping), but will in one way or another will always be captives.
Life inside and outside the institution is the same. They just have different ways of capturing, detaining, and holding a person. Sometimes the only meaning that can be found is to find understanding in others who have been through that experience and through oneself in surviving it.
