Cleopatra and Frankenstein by Coco Mellors
– An essay.
Last month, I read the Tik Tok acclaimed best novel of the year ‘Cleopatra and Frankenstein’. It is safe to say that it gave me everything it had promised, briliantly comedic interactions and inner monologues, and heartwarming and wrenching stories of love and marriage.
Upon first inspection – through the short blurb on the back of the book – we have Cleo, the ‘undoer of men’ and Frank, ‘the creator of monster’; born in different countries finding themselves in love in New York with a 20 age gap between them. With Cleo’s visa in the US running out and their love for each other grew, the two decided to tie the knot shortly after.
The story details the perspective of both Cleo and Frank as well as those around them and their opinions’ on the marriage.
(Spoiler ahead!)
Like all relationships, the two kicked it off being high on their honeymoon (not literally). Shortly after, we learned more about each character, Frank took after his mother and is a heavy drinker but a very quick-witted marketer running an ad agency. Cleo is from the UK and witnessed her mother suicide as a child and is now a talented art graduate.
Both have relational issues with their birth parents and battle inner demons that united them with Frank’s vow being “When the darkest part of you meet the darkest part of me, it creates light”. Sadly, the story ends with the vow being proven wrong when their dark part is the very thing that destroyed them and their marriage.
Characters analysis
Cleo
Cleo early on in the relationship could be described as an enigma. She is the pixie dream girl, artistic and always make heads turn when she walks through the door, though she might not know it.
Watching her mother battling with depression and losing to it has made Cleo question her own worth and eventually developed an anxious attachment to Frank; abandonment issues that arose from her mother leaving her despite loving her.
Before the relationship, Cleo strutted the street of New York in her heels and attended high-life parties of the upper east side. She was known amongst the art community and was making a name for herself.
Frank offered to give her a green card and a wealthy lifestyle in Manhattan and like any smart girls in love with her boyfriends, she took it.
However, I believe that that was the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
After the wedding foam died down, Cleo seemed to fixate on her relationship to Frank, her motivation to do art died, and alive was the emotional need not fulfilled with Frank’s busy schedule and occasionally coming home drunk or not returning at all. This was the relapse of her depression which I think was also fueled by her lack of direction in life being only 24 years old and a stay at home wife.
Frank
Frank owns an ad agency and has that jolt about him like how most marketing people are. He is self-made and humble. His weakness is Cloe. Frank is very fond of her and would give the world to her except giving up on his drinking problem. Frank is a workaholic and an alcoholic, which cam be blamed on his growing up watching his mother get wasted every day, and his field of work which celebrates everytime a pitch is successful.
His attempt at stopping his marriage from falling apart is truly appreciable, but no attempt at staying sober was made. This prompted Cleo to feel that she was not worthy of him stopping his addiction for her which of course he eventually did for his new girlfriend, Eleanor after things ended with Cloe.
The book's conversation on marriage
One thing about the book that was spot on was the ways in which ‘conventional marriages’ are untalked of. Love is not enough for marriage. The two loved each other other very much and will continue to do so, but in the process of loving one another, they were also destroying each other.
The book touched on the topic of mental illnesses in relationships. As Frank mentioned in the end to Cloe about his relationship to Eleanor, it was clear that unlike Eleanor who grew up loved and turned out healthy mentally, Frank and Cloe are too messed up and being together only destroys them both. It reminded me of the attachment styles and how it is very true that avoidant and attachment styled individuals should be with a safely secured person. Cloe’s anxious attachment and Frank’s avoidant tendency were bringing the worst out of them.
My opinion on the book
It started out very strong and has every potential of being the best book on relationship in 2020s, but after half way through the book, the side characters stories seem to trail off, chapters at a time only to never be discussed again.
On the other hand, Cloe’s character is another attempt at the poetic depressed artist. While some may say that what the writer did with Cleo was romanticing mental illnesses, I think that it addresses depression in early twenties womenhood pretty well – the painful attempt at being great after graduation and the feminine rage and sadness to be loved by men who are simply just men.
I would say that the book did feminism justice. The relationships between the female characters were very tear-jerking. For instance Cloe and Zoe’s (Frank’s younger sister) shared a heart warming relationship after being at each other’s throat early in the story. Zoe’s cradling Cloe after her and Frank’s split and repeating the words “You are safe now Cloe, I will not leave you” reminded Cloe that those were the very words she had always wanted to hear from men in her life, but instead came from a girl.
Overall, I would give this book a 3 star rating out of 5, just because it felt like the story dragged on and on about people who contribute little to the story. However, it is still a very fashionable read, the characters are described using a female’s view and are very stylish.
*I especially love Coco Mellors’s acknowledgement to her husband in the end of the book which read:
“And finally, my Henry. Thank you for loving me, for marrying me, and for creating a life with me far too honeyed and harmonious to ever make for interesting fiction. I’m yours.”
