Madeleine Watt’s Elegy, Southwest takes place in 2018, at the time of the Camp Fire, which destroyed communities and covered California in smoke. This threat remains ever present, with the recent 2025 fires having a similar devastating effect.
And yet, water is referenced heavily in this novel; from places like the Hoover Dam to the Grand Canyon. The novel follows Eloise and her husband Lewis on a road trip that spans California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona.
In this setting, two worlds collide – the American desert and the Australian girl. The disconnection also separates Eloise and Lewis, who has lived there all his life. He’s blasé towards the desert, yet Eloise is full of curiosity and adoration for it.
This distance expands over the course of the book, with Eloise growing increasingly uncomfortable by Lewis’ habitual weed addiction, and her own concern about the possibility of being pregnant.
Their motivation for the road trip lies in their work; with Eloise and her dissertation on the Colorado River – and Lewis at an organisation for desert-based art installations.
While this is a story ostensibly about a road trip, it is more about grief: about disappearance and death.
Towards the end, Eloise says, “The grapefruit segments from the tree facing David Lynch’s house are still frozen”, and somehow, unintentionally, this sentence is full of this profound sadness. Lynch is gone now, but his death was so recent that Watts would not have had time to factor it in during the writing of her book.
Elegy, Southwest is a book that feels as vast and open as the US desert. You’re uncomfortably aware of the heat just as often as the characters are, and yet you keep ignoring it to follow the love story, just as they do.
Read: Book review: We Speak of Flowers, Eileen Chong
At points, the narrative does drag on, but then again so does the desert. It’s not a book you can’t put down, but it’s not a leisurely read either. You’ll still find yourself emotionally moved by it – which is testament to a great book.
Elegy, Southwest, Madeleine Watts
Publisher: Ultimo Press
ISBN: 9781761153136
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288 pp
Publication: March 2025
RRP: $34.99
