Elliptical Selfhood

WILL THERE EVER BE Another You, Patricia Lockwood’s new novel, is a lyrical portrait of life with long COVID, a colorful and intimate study of a mind struggling to formulate and reformulate itself in the face of imminent collapse. Early in the novel, the narrator—also named Patricia, and based on Lockwood herself—contracts COVID-19 on a family trip. In the four years that follow, she experiences constant migraines, debilitating brain fog, and cognitive and sensory distortions that challenge even the most foundational tenets of her selfhood. Though the book loosely follows the chronology of the author’s own life, whatever narrative events Lockwood is successfully able to communicate to the reader (her book tour, her husband’s surgery) are translated through a haze of sensory experiences that keenly evoke the disorientation and exhaustion of chronic mental illness. Absurd, jarring, and at times darkly funny, Will There Ever Be Another You is a diary of a mind in flux and a profound reflection on what it means to live in an increasingly chaotic world.