Helpmeet was recommended to me by a friend. Since most of my reading these days seems to be in the form of long books, I welcomed a brief one. And the story, which is gothic and distinctly creepy, unfolded quickly. I’ll not give away the ending, but the premise is spooky enough. Edward is a physician who is married to Louise. This is in the late 1800s. Louise is aware that Edward has been unfaithful, but she loves him nevertheless. He is dying. His request is to end his days in his ancestral home near Buffalo, New York. Travel is difficult because his body is literally falling apart. Other doctors don’t know what’s wrong with him. Some acquaintances suggest a venereal disease, since, well, he hasn’t kept his love in one place. Louise agrees to the move. Edward has lost both his eyes and his nose, and some other extremities.
He has to be wrapped carefully for the move, which is by train. In a private car. Secrets are revealed. The mysterious woman with whom he had an affair. How she was able to reach inside his body. And how she is coming to visit in their new location. After all this the plot takes an unexpected twist, which I’ll leave out in case it’s a spoiler. Atmospheric and melancholy, this is one of those horror stories that is easy to get into and difficult to put down. Body horror is a sub-genre that can be disturbing since we all have to deal with bodies and their issues. And bodies are tied to mortality. We are pretty sure from the beginning that Edward is not long for this world. His body has begun to decompose with him still in it. Louise’s care for that body is also a factor that forces us to look at what we’d rather not see. Out of love, in her case. And maybe revenge.
Spare stories such as this can still be powerful. There’s a supernatural element to the twist, but it doesn’t feel like a deus ex machina. It has been there from the beginning, but the reader couldn’t see it. Helpmeet also raises the question of how well we really can know another person. Even couples have to spend much time apart and individual experiences can change a person. Edward isn’t a sympathetic character here, but he’s not evil. Louise has to accept him as a man with weaknesses, and one who requires, as the title suggests, a helpmeet.