Skin Contact by Elisa Faison
A married couple decide to open up their relationship in this timely exploration of non-monogamy, parenthood and intimacy
Frances wants to open the relationship. Ben complies. Elisa Faison’s debut novel Skin Contact examines non-monogamy, grief, and motherhood, and the ennui faced by millennials who were forced by the pandemic to both grow up and delay their young adulthood. What follows is two years of characters Ben and Frances exploring non-monogamy as Frances deals with her mother's death and their friend’s own similar grievances with traditional heterosexuality.
Skin Contact is a book for the heteropessimistic, for those who use The Cut essays to navigate the contradictions in their politics and personal life. Yet in its attempt to capture the discourse, Skin Contact threatens to shorten its shelf life. Faison references Oscar Isaac thirst traps, tradwife influencers, “deeply unserious" male blondes and Amber Heard. Ben critiques another man as biphobic who “privileges heterosexuality”, and Frances flirts with an ex through Kant quotes. It is so of a particular moment, that it almost feels dated as soon as it ends.
This book does not fail, and does add complexity to this modern parable with its omniscient point of view. Towards the end we even time travel, learning about Frances' mother and grandmother in their early 30s. It is ambitious and admirable, exploring the evolution of the relational gender dynamics that persist. However in doing so, it spreads itself too thin, instead of just letting Frances and Ben speak for their polyamory themselves.
