- The Great Night by Chris Adrian was published April 26, 2011
- Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- 304 pages
The novel begins with three human beings – Molly, Will and Harry – each pondering, moaning and dissecting the end of recent relationships. They find each other imprisoned in a bizarre dream world in San Francisco’s Buena Vista Park. This particular night, the celebration of the Great Night of the faerie kingdom ruled by Titania, Oberon, and their court, has suddenly fallen into anarchy and the human and faerie worlds are colliding. Titania, in an unspooling depth of grief over the loss of her human toddler and the crumbling of her marriage to Oberon, has released the chaos of Puck who has no care for the plight of any being and is now run amuck with demonic glee.
Intrigued or lost? Because if you are already feeling lost, this take on Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is not for you. There are other distracting and somewhat seemingly insane elements abounding throughout. Along with an unholy dearth of characters -- fantastical and mortal -- that swirl through this den of random poignancy and bizarre eroticism, Adrian complements his sumptuous writing with masturbatory scenes (both literal and metaphorical) as Molly, Will and Harry learn to cope with the mischievous machinations of the malevolent Puck.
But, I will also say this. As a pediatric oncologist, Adrian’s observation of the selfish Titania’s grief (as well as the three main humans’), which causes this night of anarchy, is mesmerizing. Chapter 2 alone is worth stopping by a Barnes & Noble and reading. In his profession, I’m sure Adrian has observed this breakdown of emotions many times. He brilliantly captures how Titania, a very self-absorbed royal faerie, comes to love the human boy Oberon kidnapped for her and brought into their world. The Boy, as they name him, takes all their time and energy, even their love for each other, much like children do for selfish, young human couples. In this selfishness, Titania ultimately feels betrayed and abandoned, lurched in paralyzing grief and blaming Oberon, when she discovers they are going to lose this Boy they inexplicably learned to care for to leukemia. It’s a piercing observation ringing with raw honesty.
Other notable scenes in the novel involve Adrian’s substitution of Pyramus and Thisbe for a musical version of "Soylent Green," the 1973 dystopian thriller starring Charlton Heston. The play is being put on in the park as a cry against the city’s reaction to the homeless. Soylent Green dealt with a society where there isn’t enough to eat; the great reveal is that the Soylent Corporation makes its money by secretly turning people into food. With this play within a play, it seems Adrian is asking, "Is this what grief makes human beings do to other human beings? At our basest form, do we survive off each other as parasites, only feeding on what another can give?"
Other questions the novel raises include, Can "magic" take away the memory of suffering or does it help reveal its purpose? Do we serve ourselves or others when we go through life-crushing pain? The Great Night is tender and harsh, compassionate and ruthless, beautiful and profane -- much like humanity in that we often appear lovely when things go our way, but reveal a sad undercurrent when we realize just how helpless and needy we are. This new twist on Shakespeare is so tough going that many will get disillusioned far before the novel ends, but The Great Night does have rewards to relish for the faithful and persevering few.
