Book Review: Elizabeth Kadetsky’s ‘On the Island at the Center of the Center of the World

The latest from Nouvella sets a young mother’s struggles against the backdrop of a flailing island.

by Kaylen Ralph

It would be possible to write a review of On the Island At the Center of the Center of the World that comes out longer than the book itself. Weighing in at less than 90 tiny pages (pages that are six inches tall, to be exact), On the Island (released April 21) is the latest from Nouvella, an independent publishing house that specializes in novellas.

Elizabeth Kadetsky, whose stories and essays have been published in New England Review, Antioch Review, Glimmer Train and The New York Times, documents the swan song of Netti, an alcoholic single mother, who, along with her 11-year old son, Ian, flees New York City to the war-torn Mediterranean island of Malta to retreat from her most recent failed relationship and the temptation of the bottle.

But life in Malta doesn’t provide the dry relief Netti craves. In fact, it does the opposite. Ian’s ability to recite (unprovoked) tidbits and factoids about previous world wars—he spends a lot of his time in Malta listening to old war reels—ensures that decades-old horrors remain alive in the present. Netti continues drinking as it become clear she can’t outrun her demons simply by moving across the world.

Centuries of war and death influence the day-to-day lives of the Maltese. Familial war alliances, which led to the establishment of the Maltese class system, persist to the present day (a modern day, for sure, though a year or era is never specified). The absence of “time” and a series of surreal events give the novella a slightly eerie, supernatural feel. I kept waiting for the sky to fall, or Netti and Ian’s surrounding to crumble like a cardboard set.

Despite a period of relative peace on the island, there is little food for the lower classes, which is where Netti and Ian find themselves, as well as the middle class. This classism fuels the plot directly—On the Island begins with Netti (and several other townspeople) witnessing a hit and run. An elderly woman is run over in the street, and the perpetrator, driving a “fortified silver Toyota,” escapes the scene with ease. As soon the incident is over, it is forgotten. The mass “amnesia” is an example of the “surreal” that laps the fringes of each page in this story.

Netti’s vain attempt to find the couple that plowed the older woman down in the street dominates the novella’s plot. In the process, she slips further into her own darkness, dismayed and depressed by the apathy she finds around every corner. Her attempt to start over on her own, as an island to herself, is complicated by the fact that everyone she meets is operating within their own selfish orbit, whilst cohabitating on one of the most strategically-placed and oft-occupied islands in world history.

Netti’s honorable intentions of finding the perpetrator are rapidly tarnished as she succumbs to the island’s cheap, vinegary wine and a relationship with a man who mysteriously shares the last name of nearly every person she meets. 

The setting’s horrific history combined with Nettie’s deteriorating personal life (of which Ian pays the price), come together for a book that, despite it’s small size, leaves you with a brick-sized lump in your gut.  

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Kaylen is The Riveter’s co-founder and editor-in-chief. She moved to Minneapolis, MN after graduating from the Missouri School of Journalism in August 2013. In addition to her editorial duties at The Riveter, Kaylen also works as a freelance researcher for The Sager Group. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter at @kaylenralph.