A character in search of a bit of certainty
In her second novel «Thermokrasia domatiou» (Room Temperature), published by Patakis, Dimitra Kolliakou creates a classic heroine who is at the same time very much a product of the present day. The main character, whose name we never learn, narrates the story, which helps the reader enter into her state of mind and sense her internal confusion and absence of meaning and aims. When her mother and sister die, the narrator follows her father’s advice and goes to London. She leaves behind her first cousin Orestes, a model of the ideal, much-desired but inaccessible lover. English literature studies offer her no help in dealing with the present or the future, though her creative writing course presents a possible outlet. Unable, however, to satisfy her pressing need to shine in the eyes of her tutor, she abruptly hooks up with someone else. He is her English-Israeli supervisor, whom she follows to Tel Aviv to continue her studies and try her luck. Once in the new country, she again confronts her own lack of direction, and a persistent suspicion that her partner’s family are trying to control her. Endless questioning Various hypotheses and plausible explanations go round and round endlessly in the mind of the touchy narrator. What are other people? What are their motives? What do they think about her? What are their relations with each other? Is their care a sign of interest or an attempt at control? Is the hand of friendship they extend to her a friendly gesture or a sign of a conspiracy against her? Is the psychotherapist that they have recommended to her a protective ally or a Trojan horse? The boundless distrust of Kolliakou’s ultra-sensitive heroine creates the atmosphere of uncertain reality that surrounds her. At the same time, her stoicism, the fact that she endures this chaotic situation, makes matters even more alarming as we suspect that there is no way she can extract herself from the quagmire in which she is trapped. «Room Temperature» portrays a classic heroine who is floundering. In a futuristic environment of advanced genetic medicine for preventing fatal illnesses, automated communications and easy student/university interactions, the hero’s trips from Athens to Tel Aviv and London are no longer imbued with the drama expressed in C.P. Cavafy’s line: «The city will follow you.» In these new circumstances it is very difficult for us to discover suddenly that the impasse is within ourselves because, as well as the inner discontent, we also feel that even if we travel to the ends of the Earth, we will find ourselves in cities that are in fact practically identical. This is a new kind of nightmare, which accentuates both the impasse and the difficulty in becoming aware of it. Kolliakou’s employs an interesting technique: While writing about what is indeterminate, chaotic and indistinct, she manages to bestow a controlled clarity on the elements – characters, events, narrative flow and expressive means. How does this young writer achieve this effect? The secret is in the constant wavering that obsesses the heroine. Everything seems equally reasonable and equally likely.
