In the author’s note for her new book, Evil Genius, Claire Oshetsky writes that the novel “owes its existence” to a John Cheever short story titled The Five Forty-Eight.
The 1954 Cheever story is about a businessman named Blake who has a coercive sexual encounter with a secretary named Ms. Dent — and then fires her. The story does not directly state that Blake raped Ms. Dent, but that’s certainly the suggestion. Full of rage, Ms. Dent follows Blake to the train station and forces him at gunpoint to kneel before her with his face in the dirt. As he grovels and weeps, she says, “Now I can wash my hands of you.”
This moment of revenge and self-affirmation isn’t nearly enough for Oshetsky, though. She writes in her author’s note that, “Ever since I first read ‘The Five Forty-Eight’ in 1976, I’ve wanted to put a weapon in Ms. Dent’s hand, and to give her the confidence to defend herself against Blake’s needy fondles.”
Evil Genius is not a retelling of the Cheever story, but it does pay homage to it. Oshetsky’s main character is Celia Dent, a 19-year-old telephone company employee in a soul-crushing job and an even more horrible marriage. The setting is 1970s San Francisco, and Celia keeps telling herself that she’s lucky to have her job and her Drew — a domineering and rageful man who doesn’t actually hit her, but does control, demean and gaslight her at every opportunity.
Celia’s naive contentment with her life is challenged when a woman she knows from work is murdered in a love tryst gone awry. She starts wondering what it would be like to die for love … or to kill for it. That leads her to start socializing with her coworkers, pushing boundaries and discovering herself in a whole new way.
I have not read Oshetsky’s previous novels — Chouette, which was longlisted for the PEN/Faulkner Award in 2022, or the more recent Poor Deer. She is known for her surreal and unsettling fiction, and this new novel offers that in a big way. Evil Genius explores complex themes of obsession and desire, with a darkly comic style and a storyline that twists, turns and goes places you never expect.
The novel has been billed as horror, historical fiction and as mystery-thriller, but it doesn’t fit neatly into any of those boxes. This is bizzaro literary fiction and, more than anything, a young woman’s coming-of-age quest to throw off the dull reality of her daily life and imagine something better. There are guns and knives — and a particularly creepy scene involving a pantry full of headless Barbies — and I imagine readers will either love it or hate it. Count me among the ones who appreciate Oshetsky’s original voice and wry humor. This is a clever, fiendish, wild ride, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
