Carmen by Lucia Berlin

 

A spoonful of sugar make the medicine go down

It’s been a minute since I read anything by Lucia Berlin and I was looking forward to something light and breezy. Maybe a little of her trademark dry wit, maybe a chuckle or two to cut through the day. Carmen turned out to be absolutely none of those things. Quite the opposite, really. In hindsight, I should have reached for P.G. Wodehouse if I wanted something gentler on the soul. 

Carmen is a bleak and heartbreaking story about a pregnant woman who becomes a drug mule for her heroin-addicted, deadbeat, abusive husband. Since his heroin supply has run out, he's now chasing that high with cough medicine. Sometimes referred to as lean, as the rappers call it these days. Except, this dude isn't mixing it with Sprite, he's drinking it straight out the bottle. A charming man, truly. Berlin’s usual wry humor is nowhere to be found here. No sly smiles, no moments of levity. Just a mounting sense of dread and hopelessness. The protagonist keeps trying to prop up a marriage that has already collapsed, maybe out of obligation, maybe out of love, or maybe because escaping an abusive relationship is far easier said than done. The story simply refuses to give her (or the reader) a break. When she arrives at the apartment to purchase the drugs, the scene unfolds like something out of a Tarantino film. Lot's of tension, a tiny sliver of dark comedy but mostly just tension. If the situation weren’t already dire, she's almost raped by some hooligans soon after the drug deal goes down. Talk about a really bad day. 

It's just misery stacked upon misery, reinforced by the tragic ending when she rushes to the hospital to give birth.  You can probably guess what happens next. There’s no Hallmark-style hospital scene, no tender tableau of a happy couple cooing over their newborn. 

Next time, I’m sticking with Wodehouse when I need something a bit lighter. At least with him, the worst thing that can happen is a stolen cow creamer or a misunderstanding about engagement rings. Not a harrowing odyssey through drug dens and emotional devastation.