The Book of Love
The Book of Laura 1
by Link, KellyThe chapter opens with a mysterious and unsettling scenario involving three individuals trapped in a strange, impenetrable place. Their surroundings are described as a bleak, chilling nothingness, evoking a sense of confusion and despair. As they struggle with their predicament, an unexpected fourth presence emerges, deepening the enigma. The narrative conveys a haunting atmosphere, blending poetic imagery with an elusive reality that defies straightforward explanation. The characters grapple with questions about their state of being—alive or dead—and the nature of the space confining them, highlighting their isolation and vulnerability.
Gradually, the scene shifts as the four find themselves in a familiar yet uncanny setting: Mr. Anabin’s music room at Lewis Latimer Public School. This transition from the void to a tangible location introduces a new layer of mystery. The music room, with its distinctive features like the baby grand piano and posters, anchors the characters in a recognizable world, yet their presence feels ghostly and insubstantial. Mr. Anabin’s calm but probing demeanor adds tension, as he acknowledges the reappearance of Laura Hand and her companions in this space, underscoring the surreal nature of their situation.
The identities of the four—Laura Hand, Mohammed Gorch, Daniel Knowe, and the missing Susannah—are gradually revealed through Mr. Anabin’s gestures and the characters’ interactions. Laura’s self-awareness is fragmented; she experiences physical sensations affirming her existence, yet senses something amiss within herself. The absence of Susannah, a central figure in their group, intensifies the sense of incompleteness and unease. The dialogue among the characters reflects their attempts to make sense of their condition, balancing moments of warmth and familiarity with persistent strangeness and uncertainty.
Mr. Anabin himself is portrayed as a complex figure, embodying both the familiar role of a music teacher and an enigmatic presence with a quietly unsettling aura. His physical description and mannerisms, combined with his ambiguous relationship to the students, suggest a deeper significance within the unfolding mystery. The chapter closes with an open-ended tension, leaving readers to ponder the connection between the characters’ ordeal, their return to the school environment, and the unresolved questions surrounding their existence and the elusive Susannah.
FAQs
1. What is the initial mysterious situation involving the characters at the beginning of the chapter?
Answer:
At the chapter’s start, three characters find themselves trapped in an undefined, terrible place from which they cannot escape. They question whether they are dead and describe the place as a “blotted, attenuated, chilly nothingness,” evoking a sense of desolation and confusion. The mystery deepens when suddenly, a fourth presence appears with them, increasing their number from three to four. This setting establishes a surreal, liminal space that is both physical and metaphysical, setting the tone for the unfolding narrative.2. How does the chapter use sensory and metaphorical language to describe the “awful place”? What effect does this have on the reader?
Answer:
The chapter employs vivid, poetic metaphors to convey the characters’ experience in the awful place, such as comparing it to “an ant that had fallen into an Icee machine with only one flavor selection: expired-milk insomniac pushing dirty bad-luck needles through the hangnail skin of an endless, resentful night.” This metaphor evokes discomfort, stagnation, and endless suffering. The sensory descriptions, including the chilly nothingness and the feeling of being alone or together yet isolated, immerse the reader in the characters’ disorientation and emotional distress. This language deepens the reader’s empathy and curiosity about the nature of this place.3. Who is Mr. Anabin, and what significance does his music room hold for the characters?
Answer:
Mr. Anabin is introduced as a middle-aged music teacher at Lewis Latimer Public School, characterized by his distinctive posture, wiry hair, manicured hands, and slightly sardonic, knowing eyes. His music room becomes the new setting where the characters find themselves after escaping the awful place. The presence of his baby grand piano, posters of Hildegard of Bingen and De La Soul, and his playing a minor scale situate the characters in a familiar yet surreal environment. For the characters, especially Laura, this room represents a return to a recognizable world, yet it is tinged with mystery and unease, symbolizing a threshold between their previous existence and their current uncertain state.4. Analyze Laura’s reaction upon being manifested by Mr. Anabin. How does this moment reflect her internal conflict?
Answer:
When Mr. Anabin calls out Laura’s name and manifests her, she experiences a complex mixture of recognition and alienation. She pinches herself to confirm her physical reality, noting the “sturdy architecture of her ribs” and the red mark appearing on her skin, yet she senses that “something was still missing.” This moment highlights Laura’s internal conflict between her self-identity and the altered state she inhabits. The metaphor of feeling “squashed and stretched” like Play-Doh conveys her sense of distortion and fragmentation. Laura’s uncertainty about her completeness and the missing presence of Susannah deepen the emotional tension and reflect themes of identity, existence, and connection.5. Considering the information in the chapter, what role might Susannah play in the unfolding story, and why is her absence significant?
Answer:
Susannah, Laura’s sister and a member of their shared band, is noticeably absent when Laura and the others are manifested in Mr. Anabin’s music room. The chapter implies that Susannah was involved in whatever strange events led to their current predicament, as Laura immediately asks, “Susannah! What did you do?” Her absence creates a palpable sense of incompleteness and mystery, suggesting that Susannah’s role is pivotal to understanding both the characters’ entrapment and their escape. This absence likely serves as a narrative driver, prompting questions about Susannah’s fate and actions, and potentially positioning her as a catalyst or key to resolving the mysteries they face.
Quotes
1. “There was no comfort in being together, but it was worse to be separated. Sometimes each of them was alone and that was worst of all.”
This quote poignantly captures the paradoxical emotional state of the characters trapped in their mysterious predicament, highlighting themes of isolation and dependency that underpin the chapter’s exploration of identity and connection.
2. “They had been in an awful place. A blotted, attenuated, chilly nothingness—how to describe it?… Really, you had to have been there.”
This passage conveys the ineffable and haunting nature of the liminal space where the characters were trapped, emphasizing the profound disorientation and dread that defines their experience before their emergence into the known world.
3. “Such small stitches, whose hand had made them? Who had hung the hinges on this door?… but they were very thin now, too, and slipped through that loose stitch, one by one by one.”
This metaphorical description of their escape through a barely perceptible seam introduces a key turning point—their transition from imprisonment to ambiguous freedom—and raises questions about agency and the forces shaping their reality.
4. “Laura pinched her own arm. She was herself again: the sturdy architecture of her ribs, pulpy heart with its four chambers and the doors that open and shut, open and shut… And yet something was still missing.”
This intimate moment grounds the surreal narrative in physical reality, illustrating Laura’s struggle to reclaim her sense of self while acknowledging a persistent incompleteness that drives the chapter’s tension.
5. “Mr. Anabin closed the piano lid and rested his hands in his lap. ‘So,’ he said. The sound of a human voice in a human space was terrible and unfamiliar.”
This line marks the characters’ uneasy reentry into the ordinary world, where familiar elements feel alien, setting the tone for the unfolding mystery and the unsettling presence of Mr. Anabin as an enigmatic figure.