It can take a long time to come by originality. Think about it for a moment. When was the last time you encountered a truly original work? Most of the best novels owe their existence to inspiration from something else. In a world filled with content of all kinds, finding something that feels fresh and new seems like an impossible task. Enter debut author Monica Brashears and her novel House of Cotton. On the surface, it is a continuation of the Southern Gothic literary tradition of countless works that have preceded it. Inside, however, lies something that defies classification. It is a searingly original tale that manages to draw great empathy from the reader while challenging the very conventions that inspired it.
Magnolia is only nineteen years old, but she already feels as if she has reached her breaking point. It isn't as if young Black women like herself have ever had it easy, but life has been especially difficult for her. Magnolia's only parental figure, her grandmother Mama Brown recently passed away. In the wake of that death, she is left alone. Now the bills are all hers. Try as she might, she can't escape the predatory landlord who demands rent, the deadbeat job at a local gas station that will never earn her enough money to live off of, or the ghost of the woman who raised her, haunting and taunting her about the state of her life. And that's not all. Magnolia spent her last few dollars on the pregnancy test that has confirmed the latest misfortune to rock her life. No, life is not easy for Magnolia.
Her salvation reveals itself in the unlikely form of a slickly dressed white man named Cotton. He waltzes into the very gas station where Magnolia works and seems smitten by her. When he offers her a modeling job on the spot, Magnolia is skeptical. The money, even if it is an unlikely reality, would be life-changing for her. Against her better judgment, she travels to the address that Cotton provided. The place isn't the studio that she expected. Instead, Magnolia finds herself at the front door of a funeral parlor. Could this place of death be the key to her life? With red flags abound Magnolia does what any desperate woman would do. She goes inside. The money, after all, is why she is here. This peculiar employment by an eccentric man could be the salvation Magnolia covets. The extraordinary things that await her behind that door, could also bring about her demise.
Take any expectations or preconceived notions that you may hold about House of Cotton and toss them to the side. I can assure you that the story Monica Brashears has concocted is both better and worse than anything you could possibly imagine. Whether or not that is a positive thing will mostly depend upon your taste. There are elements of Southern Gothic fantasy permeating each passage of this novel. The story is unabashedly set in the present day yet it feels like a timeless fable from long ago. Brashears deftly melds timely contemplations of race, class, and gender into a mind-bending story that will have you questioning what is real and what is imagined. Humorous moments balance dark, graphic, sex-fueled flurries that are at times difficult to read but essential to deepening our understanding of the main character. Even as I've finished reading the book, I'm still unsure about how I feel about the work as a whole. The underlying sense I come away with is a profound empathy for the characters who inhabit the world of the story. Through the odd, uncomfortable, and offbeat moments that occur in this novel, it is these grounded characters who more than uphold the weight of each passage. I'm not certain that everything perfectly came together for me at the end, but I was in awe of the book's boldness. Brahsears debuts as a force of literary heft and imagination. She is a unique voice that had me hanging onto every last word.
For more information visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2023, 40)
