The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden
A Novel
In the quirky novel The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden, a wounded woman embraces art and the unexpected.
A woman moves to a small town to heal in Nan Sanders Pokerwinski’s zany novel The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden.
Belle is a Chicago event planner and an assault survivor. She moves to Lawrence, Kansas, to heed her best friend’s advice to “color outside of the lines.” There, Reba, an artist with a Francophile wallaby that requires babysitting but is otherwise treated as a normal pet, and Mae, Reba’s crossword-solving partner in crime, invite Belle to help them with their summer parade. The tradition might pull Belle out of her dark memories. Indeed, Belle’s skills prove useful in smoothing out planning obstacles, even as intrigue builds regarding whether she will share more of her personal story with her new friends.
Belle’s secrets are revealed at a gradual rate as she is introduced to Lawrence’s art scene. She attends a quilt show and visits nearby S. P. Dinsmoor’s Garden of Eden, an unusual sculpture garden that stirs her imagination. She also explores other historical art media that flesh out the town’s longstanding heritage of outsider art. Her creativity stirs through return visits to the garden; her introspection volleys with her involvement in the adventures of others, as when she pitches in at a roadside zoo.
Mentions of colors are used to signal Belle’s growth. At first, she favors gray clothes; she adds vibrant accessories as she heals and learns to appreciate impromptu eclecticism. As she makes fresh discoveries, as with thrift shopping for chipped dishware, she becomes more adept at inviting novelties into her once routine life. Indeed, broken objects fold into her eventual mosaic and concrete garden project, which runs afoul of zoning regulations and fuels amusing debates about whether it is an eyesore or ingenious.
Belle’s art project is an apt articulation of her attempts to piece together the fractured parts of her psyche. However, as she makes statues representing people from her past, the storyline becomes diffuse. For instance, Belle muses for too long about people’s individual impacts on her and spends too long choosing specific designs.
Most of the supporting cast is developed in terms of their offbeat interests. Beyond mentions of quirky superficialities like wearing flashy clothing, few are developed in full. Instead, they are present to offer good-natured support to Belle. A close neighbor with whom Belle has deep conversations about trust is a noteworthy exception. Belle’s development is more thorough: Memories of her parents and of Chicago help fill in her background.
The zoo and the concrete garden problems are resolved in a way that supports the book’s underlying moral: that animals and people alike need benefactors. In its realistic progression from Belle’s painful solitude to finding a like-minded community, the novel proves to be rich and satisfying, depicting Kansas artists and the sometimes renegade process of making art well.
A woman embraces the unexpected in The Utterly Unacceptable Atrocity of Isabelle Marsden, a warm novel about neighborliness and improvisational art.
Reviewed by
Karen Rigby
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
