Our story begins with Lilly Drach, an eccentric mother living in a peculiar house so filled with items from flea markets, found curiosities, and inescapable heirlooms, that it leaves little room for its inhabitants.
The neighbors in the village seem to take this odd living situation in stride; the village itself is an odd place where everyone knows everyone yet no one truly knows anyone – not even those living under the same roof.
The small village ambiance, the quirky residents, and the pervasive sense of oddity may bring classic Austrian literature to mind. Yet, in her new novel “Lemons,” Fritsch crafts a story from these familiar elements that stands out due to its radicalism.
A Dysfunctional Family
In the heart of this story is Mother Dragon, disillusioned with life, who feels a connection with the late Princess Di and watches repeated video clips of royal funeral ceremonies. Lilly, even if not crowned, strives to be an extraordinarily loving mother. All she would need to do to earn the love of her son, August, is to protect him from his hot-tempered father.
August must always be on his guard to avoid his father’s wrath. Lilly, however, does not intervene when her husband lashes out. Instead, she puts emotional pressure on her sensitive son – reading him unsettling fairy tales and asking him who he would save in a house fire, her or his father.
Physical and psychological violence permeate this family’s life, so when August’s father vanishes one cool spring night and never returns, it does not overly distress August. The circumstances of his disappearance remain a mystery.
Meanwhile, Lilly appears content in her new circumstances and becomes acquainted with Otto Ziedrich, a doctor who is the antithesis of her missing husband. However, the unsuspecting doctor fails to realize that he is being used as part of Lilly’s sinister plan.
Lilly gets her hands on various pills using a stolen prescription pad and forged signatures from her unsuspecting lover. Unbeknownst to her son, she begins to administer these pills to him, causing him to fall ill and sparking perverse joy in Lilly.
Munchausen Syndrome
This form of child abuse is medically termed as Münchausen syndrome by proxy. Fritsch, born in Graz in 1989, is a writer and photo artist who has successfully transformed this grim subject matter into literature in her novel “Lemons.” The novel is less about the theme and more about successfully portraying the hatred that can exist in love, all while telling a chillingly captivating story.
Lilly, however, fails to foresee Otto’s concerns when he invites her and August to his family property under the warm southern sun. During their journey, Lilly loses her backpack along with the pill bottles. Surprisingly, August begins to recover without the pills, enjoying the fresh sea air, the southern sun, and the scent of ripe lemons. This recovery, however, does not sit well with Lilly.
It is only after they return home, when August begins to experience unexplained bouts of illness, that Lilly’s deceit is uncovered. Otto stumbles upon the pills and fake prescriptions in a drawer, leaving him horrified. His only recourse is to whisk August away to a city far from his sick and twisted mother.
The Impostor
Not revealing the reason for his sudden actions, Otto turns August into an unwitting participant in his own life. Unaware of his history of abuse, he is unable to confront or address the influence of his parents, leading him to become a compulsive liar and an inventor of false life stories.
The second part of the novel demonstrates Valerie Fritsch’s meticulous storytelling. The motifs take on a life of their own, with new permutations of the introduced problems continuously arising. August embarks on a journey to uncover the truth about himself and his inability to love.
The narrative voice, which is both eerily personal and authoritative, reveals the protagonist’s internal resentment with almost brutal clarity. Given his circumstances, this resentment inevitably leads to violence. Can August escape from his web of lies?
What began as a dark village and family novel evolves into a biographical thriller with an unfortunate love story at its core, ending tragically. The prose is empathetically “heartless”, which is fitting given that the emotions in this novel are used as a means of repression.
