If Edgar Allen Poe and Charlotte Bronte were to write a story set in contemporary London, the result would be Her Fearful Symmetry. In a Victorian gothic style befitting of its cemetery setting, Audrey Niffenegger unfolds a story of relationships, love, and secrets.
Mirror twins Valentina and Julia inherit their Aunt Elspeth’s estate after her death. The conditions: they must live in the London flat for a year before selling it, and they must disallow their parents, Edie (Elspeth’s estranged twin) and Jack, from setting foot in it. Once there, the twins meet Robert, Martin, and Elspeth herself.
Robert, Elspeth’s lover, spends his days working on his thesis, volunteering at the Highgate Cemetery (the subject of his thesis), and mourning Elspeth. Martin is their OCD neighbor who has papered his windows and refuses to leave his flat. Elspeth haunts her old flat, attempting to build some relationship with the twins and rebuild her relationship with Robert.
The book looks at the identity we receive from and lose in relationships, whether romantic, sibling, or parental. It also looks at how our desires for these relationships (and our insecurities in them) cause us to deceive those we love. With each character, I understand what motivates them, but I want to sit them down and talk some sense in them. The title is reminscent of (if not taken from, which I suspect), William Blake’s famous poem The Tyger, which looks at the complexities of creation–the symmetry and combination of wildness and danger with calm, peace, and goodness. In Blake’s poem, this symmetry exists both in creation (the peaceful Lamb v. the wild Tyger) and within the Tyger itself (majesty but a hint of danger and even evil). This is reflected in the characters of Her Fearful Symmetry, most obviously in Elspeth’s loving and drawing nature contrasted with her manipulative side and in Valentina and Julia as a set of twins who mirror each other physically and in personality. But is this not true of all of us? We are made up of beauty and corruptness?
Niffenegger’s delicate prose reflects a Victorian sensibility. The omnisicient voice makes the reader feel as if she haunts the characters. Her story is tightly woven, reflecting the same ability she displayed in Time Traveler’s Wife without repeating story or theme. Her sub-plots support the theme of boundaries and identity in relationship, giving us contrast and fulfillment. Ms. Niffenegger has been able to deliver a book with a fresh story differing not just from the plethora of stories hitting our shelves but from her own success. I look forward to what else Ms. Niffenegger has to offer us in the future.
