A Scarab Where The Heart Should Be, Marieke Bigg
Marieke Bigg holds a PHD in Sociology from Cambridge University and her writing style is clearly informed by a well-trained and analytical eye. Her observations of human behaviour and all of our foibles are fascinating and, in A Scarab Where The Heart Should Be, she offers an unusual perspective from a strange but compelling protagonist named Jacky. Despite Bigg’s expertise, hers are definitely characters not case studies, and whilst there are scientific elements to the novel, she allows the narrative tensions to build and coagulate between conflicting characters. Bigg also leans into the absurdist connection, in an unavoidable nod to Kafka, a metamorphosis takes place but not the kind we would predict.
Alongside the events of the novel, there are interludes named ‘Verses on Entomology’. These are short entries on different types of beetles, which read like an archive of sustained study of the insects. There is also a reflection in each of the species of Jacky’s traits, either how she views herself or how she is perceived by others, anomalous in a world she views as weak and inconsistent. One entry on the Rainbow Leaf beetle reads: ‘A strange and warped reality, where beetle-women too, rise and fall on the basis of human whims.’
Jacky lives by a rigid regimen and despite bristling against unfavourable opinions, she is obdurate and makes no attempt to modify her behaviour in order to gain social favour. She is intertwined aesthetically and functionally with her work as an architect and is insistent that everything must be ‘streamlined’ and efficient. ‘The way I present myself is a natural consequence of my design ethos’, Jacky tells a journalist. Her unorthodox opinions are then spun into sound bites, the article becomes sensationalised, and Jacky finds herself at the centre of a media storm. She decides to lean into her unpopularity, seemingly protected by her hard outer shell, although she is vulnerable underneath, leaning on her long suffering partner Clarissa for emotional support, despite the fact ‘she hates talking to people, it made her feel alone.’
This isn’t a conventional novel, but enjoyably so. A Scarab Where the Heart Should Be is published by Dead Ink Books, a brilliant indie press based in Liverpool who make daring and bold choices with their authors, Bigg being one of them.
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