How well do you know your parents? When they’ve passed and you’re trying to quantify who and what they were, what would you say about them? I imagine being overwhelmed, unable to truly grasp their legacy in mere words. But Griffon Keming, the narrator of Isaac Fellman’s enchanting, wistful and wholly original Notes From a Regicide, suffers no such reticence. By combining his father’s journal with his own recollections, Griffon constructs a portrait of past lives lived and new lives forged, a loving yet unflinching reflection on family.
In a dystopic world sometime in our future, 15-year-old Griffon, desperate to escape his abusive father, begs Etoine and Zaffre Keming to take him in. He’s met them before and feels a kindred connection with the couple, both of whom are trans, even though he’s unsure how to live out his own identity. Eccentric, brilliant and somehow distant from other people, Etoine and Zaffre give Griffon the home he never had. After their deaths, Griffon begins to uncover the layers of his adoptive parents through Etoine’s diaries. What he finds are chronicles of pain and loss, as his parents are shaped by blood, tears and a lifetime of hardship. Through tales of revolution, prison, art and self-actualization, Griffon interprets the mysteries of these strange but captivating people, ultimately realizing how pain made them into the people who loved him.
Through chapters alternatively narrated by Griffon and Etoine, Notes From a Regicide follows a nonlinear path as it reveals the full picture of the Kemings’ life. At times, the reader will feel a sense of incompleteness, as some but not all of the puzzle pieces are laid out before them. Fear not: Fellman adeptly and deliberately peels back each narrator’s story, revealing the missing pieces just in time. His prose is gorgeous, full of dreamy nostalgia and numbing sadness when called for. Etoine’s voice is distinct from Griffon’s, who acts as investigator as often as son. His curiosity drives the plot, creating a sense of momentum across time and place.
Notes From a Regicide is about family, identity and identity within a family. All three concepts are intertwined, equally important and cherished. Fellman posits that the scope of one life is too large to explain without the person’s own voice. Together, Griffin and Etoine create an opus, stitched from moments never forgotten.
