The Spine and Its Tingle: The Complete Tales of Merry Gold

The Complete Tales of Merry Gold

by Kate Bernheimer

Published by The University of Alabama Press (Tuscaloosa, AL)

2006

A while back, I read a quirky little book called Horse Flower Bird by Kate Bernheimer (which I have previously blogged about). I liked it well enough that I decided to check out Bernheimer's other work. I'd already started reading a collection she edited and contributed to (My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me) and saw that she had a series of books about sisters named Ketzia, Merry, and Lucy Gold. In looking at the descriptions on Amazon, I noticed that on the cover of The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold was my favorite artwork of all time--Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Dorothea Tanning. For those of you who don't know me, Dorothea Tanning has been a long-standing obsession (I first encountered her work--this painting, in fact--in black and white on the cover of a live Babes in Toyland album at around age 15). I was interested in reading the stories because I'd liked what I'd read by Bernheimer so far but it was the cover that decided me . Yes, I do judge books by their covers--don't you sometimes?

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, Dorothea Tanning

The Complete Tales of Ketzia Gold is a difficult book to describe. The "tales" are usually short, sometimes not more than a page or page and a half. A plot is there but it's vague and it's all filtered through Ketzia, who, while likable and sympathetic (and frustrating, at times), isn't the most reliable of narrators.Some tales in the book are just transcriptions of the original tales the stories are loosely based on or inspired by.

I just received the two other books in the series this week and am picking up with The Complete Tales of Merry Gold. So far, it is following the same pattern that the first book in the series followed. Merry, like her sister, lives in a seedy hotel where she sleeps during the day; she wanders the lonely, frozen streets at night. She pays her rent with random nickels she finds and, when it isn't enough, she (like her sister Ketzia) gives her landlord a peepshow to make up for the missing rent money. One night, Merry is on one of her nightly journeys through the town when she rids herself, first, of her meager daily meal of coffee and a roll, which she gives to a homeless man (it's so cold out the coffee freezes in the homeless man's hands), then her jacket, then her pajamas, which she gives to a shivering, almost transparent little boy who runs away into the night. There is a dreamlike, surreal quality to this scene, underscored by the fact that, as we will learn later, Merry is not usually so kind and considerate to others. The next day, Merry is dressed in a seal coat and waits for the taxi that will take her back home to her parents. This is one of several recurring fairy tale patterns in this series. This particular one is based on the fairy tale "The Star Talers."

“The Star Talers” by Paul Hey

Despite the similar trajectory of their lives, Ketzia and Merry are quite different. There's something innocent and pathetic about Ketzia. She seems incapable of acting in her own best interest at times but her weakness elicits pity. Merry, on the other hand, is, at best, impish. Often, she is pathologically cruel. She amputates her dolls and cuts her sister Ketzia's hair while she sleeps.There's a certain knowing to Merry that we do not see in Ketzia--Merry is, in her own words, "sharp as a needle." Ketzia is all blurs and smudges but Merry's edges are razor sharp, at least at the beginning of the novel. Later on, Merry becomes enveloped in the same blurry vagueness as Ketzia.

Legless, Armless and Clueless

In both books, the stories are sometimes told in the first person, sometimes in third person. One of the most disturbing first person tales in Merry's Tales is called "The Beggarwoman". The beggar in question is a woman who knocks on the door of the Gold household, begs, is given popcorn by Mrs. Gold, and then has the door shut in her face. Merry, in an attempt to anger her mother, lets the woman in to stand by the fire in the den. The beggarwoman's tattered clothing catches on fire and Merry, instead of putting out the fire, watches her burn until she is nothing but a "tiny black smudge". Merry's family asks what has become of the woman and this is what she tells us:

"She was never here," I said very loud. "You weirdos." It was an illusion, you see. But I had seen her, and she had seen me. What does that mean? Do you know, my pretties? Do you, my sweets?

My pretties...

At this point, it is obvious that Merry cannot be trusted to put out fires or accurately recount the events of her childhood. When she isn't gluing dead flies to paper doll dresses, these are the kinds of stories she tells and you can't be sure whether you are encountering a fantastically horrific event or the fabrications of a mentally ill mind.

these dresses need more dead flies...

A few tales in, it becomes clear that Merry is dealing with a very deep, unidentified pain. She starts drinking before middle school, using her allowance to buy peppermint Schnapps. When she's older and drops out of Design School, she makes ends meet by tracing and pinning patterns. She eats her lunch from an automat machine. She meticulously tracks her earnings and expenditures and reads herself to sleep with fairy tales every night. Merry's obsessive compulsive tendency to keep detailed records of things is developed in her childhood, when she keeps records of her expenditures, how many pieces of bacon her brother eats, and, most tellingly, how many times her mother tries to hug her.

tomato and cheese

Merry's treatment of her sister Ketzia is sadistic and, often times, dangerous. Ketzia's weak personality and innocence seem to incite Merry and bring out her inner beast. Merry sees Lucy as more of an equal because she isn't as easily conquered and controlled as Ketzia. It is Lucy's interactions with her sister that provide the clue to the true state of Merry's mind. In one chapter, we are told by Merry that she and her sister Lucy were once roommates. This living situation comes to an end when Lucy comes upon Merry conversing with imaginary mice while darning her socks. All along, it has been unclear if Merry has been pulling the reader's leg with these nonchalant claims of fantastical occurrences or if they are events that she truly believes have occurred. Lucy's reaction tells us that Merry is obviously, visibly disturbed and that she is most likely hallucinating, although one guesses there may be a story behind Lucy's reaction to this scene that we won't know until we read her tales.

Darning Socks, Charles Spencelayh

Ketzia was a difficult character to grasp. She was so vague at times, so much like a typical fairy tale heroine, that you couldn't get a handle on her personality. As she wandered aimlessly through life, you just hoped she'd overcome her troubles and end up with a happily-ever-after. Merry is more clearly defined than Ketzia and more flawed. She dwells more often in reality than Ketzia and even her dreams seem more tortured than Ketzia's. It's difficult to see things ending happily for Merry and, at the end of the book, the reader isn't given a clear indication that things have ended so; the lines between reality and fairy tale-dream remain blurred.