Review: 'Delphi' by Clare Pollard

So much of current wellness and well-being talk emphasises living in the moment, or at least that's what it feels like to me. It is about seizing the day, about being in the now, and yet we are becoming increasingly anxious. Our future feels uncertain and nothing made this clearer than the COVID-19 pandemic. So is it any wonder that Delphi's narrator grasps for inklings of the future in whatever way possible, even if it doesn't prepare her for it? Thanks to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. My sincere apologies for the delay.

Pub. Date: 2/8/2022
Publisher: Avid Reader Press

Covid-19 has arrived in London, and the entire world quickly succumbs to the surreal, chaotic mundanity of screens, isolation, and the disasters big and small that have plagued recent history. As our unnamed narrator—a classics professor immersed in her studies of ancient prophecies—navigates the tightening grip of lockdown, a marriage in crisis, and a ten-year-old son who seems increasingly unreachable, she becomes obsessed with predicting the future. Shifting her focus from chiromancy (prophecy by palm reading) to zoomancy (prophecy by animal behavior) to oenomancy (prophecy by wine), she fails to notice the future creeping into the heart of her very own home, and when she finally does, the threat has already breached the gates.

Brainy and ominous, imaginative and funny, Delphi is a snapshot and a time capsule—it vividly captures our current moment and places our reality in the context of myth. Clare Pollard has delivered one of our first great pandemic novels, a mesmerizing and richly layered story about how we keep on living in a world that is ever-more uncertain and absurd.

Delphi is the first Pandemic novel, specifically COVID-19 novel I have read. I requested it two years ago on NetGalley, thinking that I was ready for it, but it actually took me until now to dive in. Delphi focuses on both prophecy and doom, future and the absence of it, seeing but not understanding, and that doesn't make it an easy novel. It was also confronting to read about something I experienced so directly myself. Literature always reflects, in some way, lived experience, but often it is at somewhat of a remove. In this case, however, COVID-19 and the way it was handled in the UK is much closer. I experienced my own lockdowns and my family was in London at the time, experiencing the same waves of lockdowns, the same betrayals by public figures, the same death toll. I am still not sure I enjoyed reading about this, but there was something compulsive about the reading experience as well, as if somehow Pollard could offer an alternative past in which things didn't happen the way they did. I still don't know whether I would read any other books which feature COVID-19 in such a central way. We're not out of it yet, after all, we are still dealing with it.

Our narrator is a lecturer and translator, splitting her time between teaching courses on the Classics and translating German novels into English. From a working class background herself, she is now solidly middle class and can't help but feel weird about the comfort she now experiences. Something is looming, something is coming, or maybe she is just stuck in life. She is always looking for signs and her interest in prophecy shapes not just her outlook on life but also the novel. Each chapter is dedicated to a different kind of prophecy as our narrator looks for signs of threats to her way of life, husband, beloved son. When COVID-19 hits, it seems the threat has been found, but perhaps something else is developing, lurking. Delphi is a novel about a woman's desire to know the future, to know that one is coming, a search for a certainty which isn't promised to any of us. Delphi is also a highly uncomfortable novel, but I do believe purposefully so. Our narrator isn't always likeable and neither is her husband. The worst is brought out of each of them by the pandemic and neither is prepared for actual tragedy. 

What I really enjoyed about Delphi was its structure. Our narrator is working, sort of, on a project about prophecy and so the novel is split into chapters which focus on different kinds of prophecy, from the reading of hands to the reading of bones and so much more. Some chapters are very short, perhaps a page, while others are a little longer. The link between the type of prophecy and the contents of the chapter aren't always immediately obvious, but what I liked was how it spoke to the narrator's mindset. In a world that is becoming unpredictable, where the future does not feel certain or even guaranteed, her focus on prophecy structures not just the novel but also her perception of her life. Delphi is also a highly personal novel, in some ways. It addresses issues of class, gender, parenthood, and selfhood, as well as self harm. Much of what happens in the novel will be recognisable, but for that reason it might be a difficult read. However, I was intrigued by the emotional sharpness of the novel and would definitely like to read more by Clare Pollard.

I give this novel...

4 Universes!

Delphi is a fascinating novel which really gripped me. While Pollard makes it clear that it is not autobiographical, the setting amidst our pandemic makes it feel incredibly real. It won't be for everyone, but I found Deplhi an intriguing read that touched on some important points.