2000ft Above Worry Level

2000ft Above Worry Level by Eamonn Marra. Wellington: Victoria University Press (2020). RRP: $30. Pb, 192pp. ISBN:  9781776562978. Reviewed by S J Mannion.

Eamonn Marra is a New Zealand writer and comedian from Christchurch who now lives in Wellington. Previously better known for his comedy shows, 2000ft Above Worry Level is his first book. 

            Mundane descriptions of household objects and everyday activities made           special by the knowledge that whoever wrote it felt absolutely terrible at the       time.’(Dog Farm, Food Game, p. 11)

I knew from the first line I might love this book. And having read the above quote, a few lines later, I knew it. By the finish I felt as though I had been in conversation with … no, I felt privy to a most unusual and completely contemporary voice. There is a ridiculously poignant yet almost puerile love affair that could only happen nowadays – a strangely sweet, and very modern exchange. 

            Do you want to see my cock or my face? I typed.’ Are you going to feel bad       about whatever I don’t say?’ she typed back.’(Dog Farm, Food Game, p. 12)

The book is split into three cohesive parts and reads more like a novel than a collection of short stories. There is a central character, each piece echoes and calls to the other, speaking of connection and isolation, relationship, endeavour, failure and futility. Comedy and tragedy, a Shakespearean motif, is a thread that binds throughout.

There is much anxiety in this book, as both a heightened form of awareness of everyone and everything, especially oneself. And the attempt to avoid this awareness via isolation, distraction and diversion.

            I liked Duncan.  He was more like a piece of furniture than a flatmate.          (Flatmates, p. 53)

Much of this anxiety seems inevitable, authentic even, given the world we inhabit. In a farcical scene in a WINZ office, I found myself thinking of Beckett and Waiting for Godot. Perhaps it had something to do with the general ‘destitution of modern man’, and the ludicrous nature of that.

            I have skills,’ I said. I just need to find a job for them.’(Flatmates, p. 56)

An excruciating paragraph on excavating a wart made me wince and gurn. It was so bad/good I am unable to repeat it. You will have to read it yourself (Kafkaesque in its horror, I quote the mild intro):

            The wart wasn’t doing any harm, but it also wasn’t doing any good. I knew it    was not one of the main things I should be worried about, but it was still there, sitting on my hand, making everything a little bit worse. (The Wart, p. 43)

A mercurial mind and spirit, one capable of understanding and conveying simultaneity, that is the and/or rather than the either/or of things. There is depth of feeling too. And Marra is funny, so bloody funny. I laughed where I might otherwise have cried.

            She told me that before she decided to leave, someone sent her a          screenshot from a group chat with all our guy friends where they talked about    how big her tits were and which one of them would get to fuck her first.  I had        no idea it had happened and why no one had invited me to the chat.     (Three Pizzas, p.151)

This writer shows us the depth of the superficial and the tragedy of the absurd, and does it in a brilliantly direct yet discreet way. This is an intelligent and interesting book by a truly interested writer.