Still working out what I think of Jenni Fagan's The Panopticon--and that's probably a good sign

I’ve held off on posting about this novel because I really couldn’t decide what I thought of it. I found it completely absorbing and read it in about two days. It’s not so much that the plot is absorbing--in fact, it’s hard to say exactly what the plot is aside from the suspense about whether the protagonist’s rough situation is going to improve. Instead, what’s really compelling about this novel is the voice of the protagonist. In the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani describes The Panopticon as a voice-driven novel, and that is exactly right--and that’s the real success of this novel. Fagan has created a central narrative consciousness that is absolutely charismatic. Anais doesn’t pretend to be anything other than completely messed up, and she doesn’t try to deny her bad behavior, although she can’t always remember what she’s done. In a less dark novel, I might be tempted to label her spunky because of her energy, but resilient is really closer, although that signifies a harder and much less likeable character than Anais. I don’t know exactly how to describe her, but Fagan’s characterization is brilliant.

On the other hand, I have my doubts about the narrative itself, and by that I mean that Fagan piles on the unpleasantness until it begins to feel absurd. Terrible things happen in this world, but at a certain point the narrative as a whole strains credibility. Of course, that’s also part of the point, I suspect, since neither Anais nor anyone else seems completely sure of the facts. Anais has one view of “reality,” and Fagan gives her enough charisma to make it possible, all the while undermining everything she says. In fact, as I write this, I’m beginning to doubt whether the realism or otherwise of the narrative isn’t actually a strength. Similarly, there is much talk about how oppressive the home Anais is living in is (the eponymous Panopticon), but the characters who are stuck inside it have a surprising amount of freedom of movement, and they seem to have internalized the disciplinary surveillance that the panopticon is designed to evoke. On the whole, the situation of Anais’s world feels like a distraction from the main interest, which is Anais herself.