Originally published in 1991, one of the most striking qualities of Lynne Tillman’s Motion Sickness is that it feels contemporary enough to have been written yesterday; its fragmentary, non-linear style is surely a precursor for what has come to be known as autofiction. There is no plot as such, as we follow our unnamed American protagonist as she drifts from one dreamlike vignette to another, travelling through Europe and North Africa, sometimes alone, sometimes accompanied by one or more of a cast of characters she meets and re-meets in different places.
The surreally coincidental meetings and intertwined personal lives of these characters are the only connecting threads between the experiences of the narrator, who leaves as little trace of her itinerant existence as possible. She writes postcards before moving on to the next place but tears them up as often as she sends them, creating her own strange network from her random encounters along the way.
The languid prose perfectly suits the looseness of Motion Sickness’ mood, and the shifting unsteadiness of the narrative might be its point. There is not much to hold onto except the narrator’s voice; written by Tillman, that voice is always sharp and distinctive.
Motion Sickness, Lynne Tillman (Peninsula Press)
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words JOSHUA REES