Salena Godden is an acclaimed poet, activist and broadcaster born in the UK. Mrs Death Misses Death is her debut novel. She opens her book with a disclaimer for the reader, akin trigger warnings that precede many social media posts these days. This disclaimer is both thoughtful and ironic as the word death features twice in the title already. But then again, knowing about death does not mean we are ready for her.
“Disclaimer:
This book contains dead people.
This book cannot see the future. This book is dabbling in the past. This book is not about funerals although funerals are mentioned. You do not have to wear black to read this work. You do not have to bring flowers.
Caution: This work contains traces of eulogy.
Warning: This work contains violent deaths.
Spoiler alert: We will all die in the end. ”
— Mrs Death Misses Death: (2021 page: vii)
This is one of those books where I am reluctant to describe any details of the plot, as I would like readers to experience it for themselves. But spoiler alert: it is about death. This book is poetic, political and profound. If you are like me, you will read the title on a cover of a book and create a feeling or idea of what you think a book will be about. What I will say next will reveal I am not always the most careful reader, as I initially read the title as Mrs Death Missus Death and envisioned death to have a wonderful lesbian love affair. But perhaps this is scope for a sequel. Or subtext that I did not pick up on during my first reading of this book (and yes there will be a second reading if not a third, fourth).
Mrs Death Misses Death offers the perfect metaphor for Death Studies, as the grim reaper has notoriously been depicted as a white man. To cast the character of Death as black AND a woman seems highly controversial as discussions on who will play the next 007 often allude that those categories are mutually exclusive.
“I am here. Death is a woman. Surely by erasing me we have erased this power? By never portraying a woman as the representative of Death, the boss of Death, the figure of Death itself, one could debate that an important and fundamental disempowerment takes place. Perhaps this is what erasure looks like.”
— Mrs Death Misses Death: 163
Envisioning death as a black woman is the type of intersectionality that the academic discipline of Death Studies craves for as well. Death Studies like many, if not all, academic disciplines works from a set of theories that have been developed by white men (and if there has been involvement of other parties this involvement will likely have been erased). The communities studied to underpin those theories have predominantly been white middle class communities as well (and yes, in my own research I have been guilty of this too).
Various groups are trying to widen the scope of research in Death Studies. For example, The Collective for Radical Death studies (CRDS) states their “mission is to interrogate the field of Death Studies to decolonize and de-center whiteness while calling to radicalize death practices, all in theory and in practice from a variety of angles.” In many ways Godden’s work falls within the remit of Radical Death Studies. Her novel is a social critique on whose lives are acknowledged in death, which lives and deaths are marginalized, unmarked, or seemingly unremarkable. Godden also shows one does not need a university degree to deeply understand the mechanisms and systems that repress some people whilst lifting other people up.
Mrs Death Misses Death was my introduction to Salena Godden and I am grateful I have a backlog of poetry to move on to, but am also impatiently waiting for whatever Godden writes next.
For more info about Salena Godden visit her website.
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