Overview
It may sound like the beginning of a joke: a viral author and a global virus come together in a novel. The outcome? Long Covid, an illness that disrupts conventional storytelling. Patricia Lockwood’s latest autofiction, Will There Ever Be Another You, emerges from this disarray. She candidly shares, “I wrote it insane, and edited it sane,” highlighting her unique creative process. But does one need to understand the mind behind the madness to truly grasp it?
About the Author
Lockwood is a literary blend of Dorothy Parker and Flannery O’Connor, combining sharp wit with a gothic flair, and revamping classic humor for today’s digital landscape. Her influence is felt strongly among fans, some of whom replicate her iconic hairstyles. Lockwood first garnered widespread attention with her accomplished memoir, Priestdaddy, which introduced a charming and chaotic portrait of her father, a Catholic priest who funneled her college funds into a vintage guitar.
The Impact of the Pandemic
Lockwood’s experience with the pandemic added a layer of absurdity. She contracted Covid early on, in March 2020, during a time when every surface felt potentially contaminated. She was among the first authors to articulate the cognitive estrangement brought on by the virus, capturing its strange logic. In July of that year, she remarked, “Hours, days of my memory had fallen out of my mind like chunks of plaster,” as if she believed the worst had passed.
Book Insights
Will There Ever Be Another You explores the chaotic aftermath of this experience, presenting a fictional Patricia who grapples with aphasia, hallucinations, migraines, amnesia, paranoia, and a relentless sense of self-destruction. The book poses a provocative question: can a novel convey such intense chaos without itself being consumed by it?
“What are you working on?” people kept asking me. Little stories, I would evade, and leave it at that, because if to write about being ill was self-indulgent, what followed was that the most self-indulgent thing of all was to be ill. But I was determined to do it. I was going to write a masterpiece about being confused.
The result? A collection of fractured thoughts that resonates with authenticity. The title itself—without a question mark—serves as a prayer, punchline, eulogy, manifesto, and nightmare all at once. Lockwood’s unique narrative style, previously recognized for its fragmentation, takes on a new depth as a longing for coherence permeates her work.
The book feels like the literary equivalent of a Wes Anderson film: over-styled and perilously close to self-parody.
The story opens with a family reeling from the loss of a loved one, traveling through Scotland on sheer determination. A lost treasure leads to the protagonist slipping into a fever, signifying a deeper loss of self. Lockwood’s illness acts as a dark enchantment that displaces people from themselves.
Interwoven Themes
Within the narrative, moments of delirium juxtapose cultural references from Roland Barthes to Cabbage Patch Kids, capturing Lockwood’s signature humor. The pages are brimming with themes of replication, mirroring the modus operandi of a virus itself.
Lockwood’s work summons the specters of literary giants like Virginia Woolf and Susan Sontag—patron saints of ‘sicklit.’ While Woolf mystifies illness, Sontag grounds it in the ordinary. Both views are essential for understanding how literature has evolved to include the body’s experiences.
Contemporary Relevance
A century after Woolf’s observations, literature increasingly embraces the physical body as a canvas for exploration and invention. Recent works, such as Katherine Brabon’s Body Friend and Hanya Yanagihara’s A Little Life, continue to push boundaries, exploring themes of chronic pain and trauma.
Writers today are dismantling taboos around illness, embracing the corporeal experience as a central theme. The body has become a stage for a variety of narratives, shifting the conversation toward a more nuanced understanding of our shared humanity.
Closing Thoughts
While Lockwood’s style might feel familiar—drawing on aesthetics seen in past works—Will There Ever Be Another You presents a compelling exploration of the mind and body during turbulent times. It challenges readers to engage with their own relationships to illness and creativity. Ultimately, this book reminds us that our stories, particularly those shaped by suffering, are worth telling and hearing.
