COMFORT ME WITH APPLES

 

Warning: This review contains spoilers

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Trigger warnings for this book: spousal abuse, Judeo-Christian references

Sometimes when I’ve taken a bite out of a book, I must come back for more! I loved Comfort Me With Apples so much that since it is only a 100-page book, I simply HAD to reread it.   Because it had a huge buzz around the time it came out, I automatically bought it but it is one of those books that kept getting pushed toward the bottom of my TBR.  The first time I read it, I loved the suspense of the story with the Stepford Wives meets the Garden of Eden premise with the condo association’s oddly strict rules. Also, since I knew very little about the story initially, it was not until the snake Cascavel became an informant to Sophia, the main character, I realized that this was the Garden of Eden retold as a horror story.

One of the reasons I love short fiction so much is that it is easy to justify re-reading it soon after to pick up nuances after getting caught in the thrill of the plotting. It was definitely no accident that the setting of the home is in the Arcadia gardens. In ancient Greece Arcadia was viewed as a version of paradise.  The community describes itself as “an exclusive, upscale gated community.”   Theologically, the Garden of Eden is similar to a gated community as the paradise can only be available for people who follow God’s rules.  In the context of Comfort Me With Apples, the association’s rules are supposed to be like God’s rules, and article 26 Honeycrisp reads, “For in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” just as in Genesis 2:16-17 the Lord states, “You are free to eat from any of the trees of the garden except the tree of knowledge of good and evil. From that tree you shall not eat; when you eat from it you shall die.”  As eating the forbidden fruit is the demise of Adam and Eve in Genesis, it is also the demise of Sophia in Valente’s novel.  When Sophia’s husband Adam finds out about the that she has consumed and the knowledge she possesses, he proceeds to kill her. This makes her name, Sophia, very fitting. Sophia is Greek for wisdom.

This book brought a new perspective to me on the Garden of Eden narrative as well.  Many of the feminist criticisms of the narrative that I’ve studied were rooted in how Eve, the woman, is to blame for being tempted by the snake to eat the forbidden fruit. But the sexism of a woman being made out of parts of a man became very apparent.  The phrase that Sophia repeats throughout the story is I was made for him. The repetition indicates that I was made for him is the basis of her understanding of who she is.

The terror that builds suspense in the story is how Sophia keeps finding bones and body parts in her home. Later she discovers these were coming from Adam’s (her husband) previous wives. Wives who get killed when they do not prove to be ideal partners for Adam.  This resulted in the satisfaction that the book ends with the introduction of the wife after Sophia is Eve. Being aware of the Judeo-Christian mythology, I smiled with satisfaction knowing that what Eve is the key to the retribution that Adam will deserve.

Valente’s original story and prose that reads like poetry made this a fantastic book to read and reread. I am sure I will be tempted again….