Catatonia
About
Catatonia is a penetrating examination of the idea of freedom in the 21st century. It is a spiritual and psychological drama centered around Bella Benfont, a constantly self-analysing young woman caught between her fading loyalty to her mother’s Catholicism and the new idea of freedom espoused by the monomaniacal Nicholas Shelley, the self-styled Apex of The Evolution of the Individual. It is a story of tragic intensity propelled by deeply-imagined characters brought to vivid life and an unrelenting pace that leaves readers breathless.
Praise for this book
Reviewed in the United States on May 22, 2023
“This is is not a light read, but if you strap in, get ready to do some soul searching. It's a spiritual meditation on the human condition intertwined with a religious psychological thriller. Fast paced and deeply moving, with flawed, and well fleshed out characters. Very interesting book.”
I was afraid, at the beginning, that Nick was going to keep spouting off about how he was important and everyone else didn't matter, but the reader was never going to see where such a philosophy led when practically applied. But you came through rather spectacularly at the end, and gave the reader a good, hard look at where such radical individualism actually takes people. It was horrifying, which was of course the point. My nerves were on edge for days after I finished it, and I am not a terribly excitable person.
I also appreciated the complexity of Angela Benfont's character. It is perhaps the only balanced portrayal of a rather naive but really pious individual that I have ever come across in modern literature.
You call your story a "novel of ideas", and I can honestly say that it is one of the few contemporary stories I have read that truly deserves that name. Many people try to grapple with ideas in their stories but do not have the dexterity to handle such material adequately, and either the literary drama is sacrificed to the moralizing aspect, or the moral gets lost in the messy details of the plot. You have managed to walk the line between the two, which is a difficult thing to do.