"Foe" by Iain Rein "2018"

What a grand way to start my 2023 reading challenge! After finishing a couple of generic thrillers, Foe felt like a breath of fresh air. It’s simply one of the best atmospheric novels I’ve ever read. It’s profound in a classical way with nods to the styles of Don DeLillo and Haruki Murakami (at least, that’s my impression of it).

 

Anyway, the story is simple. You’ve got your one-in-a-million couple living on a farm in the middle of nowhere when suddenly their harmonious life is disrupted by a nighttime visitor who tells them that the husband’s name has entered a lottery where the prize is leaving Earth and temporarily settling in a space station called the Installation.   

Sounds too science fiction-y? Well, it is, but the story is all about relationship dynamics along with a bunch of other concepts like identity, purpose, existential crisis, self-determination, etc.  

 

As I started reading, I couldn’t help but notice an insidious sense of unease and dread creeping inside me, quite typical of Reid’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things. The rural setting just multiplied this feeling tenfold. So, I kept guessing and guessing and ultimately I saw the ending miles ahead. Still, that didn’t take away the value of the book as an entertaining and thought-provoking work. Foe represents one of the cases where readers aren’t looking for actions or plot twists more than trying to figure out what’s the writer’s comment on the human condition.

While I’d place Foe under the genre of suspense/thriller, a great number of readers tagged ‘horror’ to it. It doesn’t make sense, right? But if you put yourself in the character’s shoes, you’ll start to see where this ‘horror’ comes from. There’s no talk of psychos or deformed monsters or menacing aliens… true horror stems from the realization that reality is subjective.

 

Summary: Foe is one of the most underrated books I’ve ever encountered. Pure chance played a major part in discovering it. And I’m glad it did. This is a true gem if you’re in the mood for books that will leave a big impression on you and keep you thinking for days. It’s part mystery, part philosophy, part horror (especially if you’re in a relationship and you think things are all fine and dandy).