There’s a unique vulnerability involved in sharing art of any kind with the world, a self-evisceration of sorts, which Ella Baxter demonstrates in her sophomore novel. Based on Baxter’s own experience of being stalked, Woo Woo is a journey through the mind of its protagonist, Sabine.
Sabine is an artist whose work straddles the line between groundbreaking creativity and disturbing eccentricity.
As a character, Sabine is annoying and selfish and exceedingly egotistical. It’s a testament to Baxter’s skill that she can craft a compelling plot and beautiful sentences around a character about whom readers may struggle to care. As an artist, Sabine is relatable. Her anxieties are those of artists of any type, at any stage – is the work “good”, whatever that means? Will people care about it?
Sabine hallucinates the ghost of one of her favourite artists, among other things. Her unperturbed reaction to the presence of a dead person in her house leads the reader to question the legitimacy of everything else we’re reading, particularly in scenes where there are no other witnesses. She livestreams herself in all kinds of situations (including defecating in her garden) as a means of promoting her art – her actions embodying the pressure of trying to find and create an audience in the time of social media. That audience at times acts as a reality check, echoing the unhinged nature of Sabine’s behaviour.
To take one of the most disempowering possible experiences – being stalked – and use it to create such an evocative piece of work is the ultimate triumph.
Baxter seems to have positioned Sabine’s husband, Constantine, as a comforting, dependable presence, juxtaposed with the threat of the stalker. The single chapter from his perspective affirms this, revealing his relationship with her to be an imperfect, “wild” one, but one to which they are both wholly committed. Constantine cleans up her messes – literal and figurative. He “adores” her, and she could not live this unpredictable artistic life without him, or without the friends who sustain her.
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Art may be made in isolation, but an artistic life – for Sabine, at least – is sustained through connection. Woo Woo deserves all the praise it’s getting, as does Baxter. Full of profound questions about the price of creativity, Woo Woo gives no clear answers, leaving it up to readers to decide is the work worth what it takes from us?
Woo Woo, Ella Baxter
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
ISBN: 9781761470691
Format: Paperback
Pages: 288pp
Release date: 30 July 2024
RRP: $32.99
