Invention of Morel review - immortality, inspiration, and feeling ‘Lost’
The Invention of Morel is a book so obsessed with immortality in its content, that it has in a way achieved immortality itself. A lesser-known novella, it is the inspiration behind modern storytelling and beloved pop culture works like the tv show, Lost (2004).
The protagonist is a runaway criminal, escaping to an infamous, abandoned island in hopes of saving himself from a life of imprisonment. And that, he does. But in his attempt, he comes across a relic of the past.
The novella focuses on the story of people who came to the island before him, and of one man who, in a selfish attempt, chooses to murder his friends to "immortalize" them. It's a simple portrayal of evil done in the name of good, of friends betraying each other in the name of love.
“The habits of our lives makes us presume that things will happen in a certain foreseeable way, that there will be a vague coherence in the world.”
The evil of the people from the past are echoed by our nameless protagonist himself. He finds himself in love with a mirage, with a woman who is long dead and cannot see him. He falls in love with a woman that does not know he exists, has never spoken to him, and feels nothing anymore. He goes to great lengths to please this woman, traveling through a myriad of emotions of love, hurt, and betrayal, all in his own head, all until he begins to hurt himself simply because he cannot be with her.
And what a beautiful commentary from a novella written in 1940 on how our world works now. A timeless classic, it proves itself immortal in its ideas of loving people we solely know from our screens, who do not know we exist, and of the lengths a lonely man can go to in order to be with a woman he doesn't know.
It tries over and over to capture immortality with science, with love, with persistence, and ultimately concludes that immortality is only of use when there is someone to remember you. He knows that despite becoming immortal, it will have no effect until the next traveler comes to the cursed island, and sees him, perceives him.
While the second half of the novella can drag on quite a bit in its literature, the finale makes the journey worth the trouble. It is a masterpiece of its own time, and worth the addition to your literary canon.
Written by Noora Zahedi
Writer
Noora Zahedi is a writer and designer based in Canada. She enjoys writing personal and political pieces, and holds a degree in Political Science and History from the University of Toronto. In her free time, she likes to read, cook, and garden.