The ‘reality’ of our selfhood and place in the exterior world has become hard to define in the context of how we fabricate an idea of ourselves on social media. Here, John Lanchester dives into the world of ‘reality TV’. Told via the interior monologue of Iona, an “actress slash model slash influencer”, which her agent describes as “a triple threat” to the other participants, we encounter six young people in a beautiful villa in the Balearic Islands. They wait for the ‘tasks’ to begin, but that doesn’t seem to be happening.
They are being watched… What will the viewers think of Iona? Communications are coded; “Allegiances and alliances were covertly forming. Iona couldn’t say anything explicitly, of course, but she knew she could do a lot with body language and eye talk, grunts and nods and even silences”. She is jealously alert to Nousche, a skilful player of this psychology, and possibly more attractive to the handsome “ripped” guys of the group than Iona. We gain the sense that Iona is not as clever as she thinks, perhaps more a derivative of the world she is attempting to create. Iona remembers her poker player father’s advice about determining whether someone is telling the truth by listening to the echo of their voice. The villa is full of echoes, mocking and derisory. It seems a metaphor for Iona’s world. An ocean of the echoes of others. Like the island she is named for, Iona is surrounded by it. Lanchester is skilful in his use of sound as part of the narrative, and the naturalistic language of the contenders, like the woman Laz’s distinctive “Oi oi”, and Nousche’s French expressions, which give her an exotic edge. The story coalesces after Nousche makes them porridge for breakfast. Misunderstandings, nuanced remarks, and Iona’s comment “I wish I hadn’t had that porridge… Bloat City”. Allegiances turn, and Iona finds herself alone in an echoing sound of laughter. “the sound of souls screaming in pain grew louder and louder”. The scene breaks when one of the men, puts his arm around her. He reassures her; “…the tasks and evictions, they’ll begin soon. It’s not as if this will go on for ever”.
First published in the London Review of Books, 2018 as ‘Love Island’, and available to subscribers to read here; collected in Reality and Other Stories, Faber, 2020
A Personal Anthology 