Makenna Goodman's New Book Is a Gripping Portrait of a Disgraced Professor

"With her second novel Helen of Nowhere, Goodman continues to draw inspiration from her own rural lifestyle, asking who is allowed 'the good life', and whether it even exists? A disgraced professor goes looking for an idyllic rural enclave and is shown around a house by a realtor who expounds on the eponymous Helen, the previous owner, as a prime model of ecofriendly living."

"For both of my books, I began with a question, and the form sort of presented itself. The Shame is, essentially, an exploration of what happens when one encounters the Self, really sees oneself in full awareness. The idea of self, of course, is very interior, and so the book naturally took the shape of an interior monologue."

A young mother drives overnight from rural Vermont to New York to find a woman she became obsessed with online. A disgraced professor seeks an idyllic rural enclave and encounters a realtor who presents a former resident, Helen, as an ecofriendly model. The narrative is structured in five acts, blending surreal moments with reflections on cancel culture, empathy, identity, and how societies define the 'good life'. Themes include obsession, selfhood, rural living, creative transition from homestead to town, and the challenges of loving another person. The portrayal mixes humor and unsettling reveals to examine who is permitted certain lifestyles and whether ideals of ecological or moral purity mask colonial or exclusionary impulses.

Read at AnOther