Jenni Fagan's 'The Delusions' Presents a Satirical Afterlife of Queues and Bureaucracy
Jenni Fagan's fifth novel, The Delusions, opens with an epigraph from Philip José Farmer's Venus on the Half-Shell, a Kurt Vonnegut-inspired science fiction work, stating, "The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest." This afterthought subtly permeates the narrative, setting the tone for a story that grapples with infinity and eternity in a uniquely humorous and inventive manner.
A Vast Anteroom to the Afterlife
The novel unfolds in "the largest soul terminus in existence," a metaphysical equivalent of a big-box store where souls are processed before moving on to whatever comes next. This processing involves sorting false self-perceptions from reality, with failure leading to immediate dissolution. However, the staff in Processing are uncertain about what lies beyond, adding to the existential ambiguity.
Queues in this afterlife are long and volatile, filled with the angry, entitled, and afraid, mirroring the frustrations of earthly life. Recently, things have worsened; it is speculated that the wider universe has grown weary of humanity, leading to Earth being wound down. As a result, ribbons of dead people stretch across the infinite floor, the Leaderboard malfunctions due to overload, and mysterious occurrences, such as a sudden influx of a million cats, suggest that reality is increasingly unstable.
Targeting Human Follies with Wit
The Delusions fizzes with impatience, invention, and humour as Fagan skewers targets like greed, politics, celebrity culture, smartphone obsession, fantasy culture, billionaires, media, and digital simulacra. The process of expelling delusional systems is grotesque, involving wrestling live, slimy eels from victims' bodies in public, revealing their hidden truths—be it mass murder, rape, corruption, or other crimes. This satirical take exposes how individuals hide from themselves, with Processing resembling a cross between Heathrow security on a pre-Christmas day and a damp Monday at a Wolverhampton job centre.
Edi: The Weary Narrator
The story is narrated by Edi, an Admin who died of cancer and has been working in Processing ever since. She advises the newly dead to focus on identifying self-delusions without wasting time. Easily irritated and solely concerned with her son, whom she believes will soon join the queue, Edi breaches protocol by watching for him, highlighting themes of identity and ownership.
While Edi's monologue is packed with details about Admin organisation and the Universal Beyond, it can become tiring, as other characters feel thin and transparent. Readers might wish for moments of respite, but the narrative's humour and sharp critiques often overshadow this, keeping engagement high.
From Satire to Pathos
Initially reminiscent of Powell and Pressburger's A Matter of Life and Death with reversed hierarchies, the novel evolves to question the delusory values of the afterlife, managed by shady overlords. As satire gives way to celebratory pathos, Edi's own delusions come into focus, suggesting her monologue is a simulated rant of a restless spirit. Fagan's genius lies in making even uplift feel fragile and uncertain, leaving readers with a sense of wishful ambiguity.
The Delusions by Jenni Fagan is published by Hutchinson Heinemann (£18.99), offering a thought-provoking exploration of human nature through a metaphysical lens.
