Mirrorstage by Peter Scalpello
Poet Peter Scalpello turns his hand to prose in this psychedelic exploration of queerness and addiction
Fortunately for fans of Peter Scalpello’s poetry, his debut novel, Mirrorstage, does not fall far from his celebrated lyrical work. Written mostly in verse, this formally daring journey follows an unnamed narrator as they travel through modern Britain, as well as inwards, through an exploration of their fragmented identity, queerness, substance abuse and strained family relationships.
The narrative breaks through the poetic images: the story emerges with a sense of restless movement. Readers are taken back and forth in time, between a youth of desire – for paternal approval, intimacy, self-understanding – and a present in which mental illness, addiction and sexual recklessness manifest these unattained cravings, alongside the Shame that has become the narrator’s constant companion.
In Mirrorstage, psychoanalytic vocabulary provides a structure for the narrator to process their own life and choices; for the reader, the opaqueness of the poetic language mirrors the inaccessibility of clinical terminology. The elegant metaphors and the sexual crudeness blend seamlessly with the psychiatric lingo.
This novel explores the vulnerability and alienation intrinsic to being. It asks what it means to be oneself, and why that process of recognition is so painful. Yet beneath these uncertainties, another revelation emerges – a hopeful affirmation of life itself. The question shifts from how to endure identity to why life, despite everything, remains worth living.
