The Baudelaire Fractal is promoted as the first novel by poet Lisa Robertson. But this "novel" is just as genre-bending as much of Robertson's prior work in poetry, essays, and creative non-fiction.
It's a coming of age novel. It's a "portrait of the artist as a young woman." It's a selected biography of Charles Baudelaire. It's a sci-fi/fantasy novel. It's an ekphrastic exploration of various paintings made by contemporaries of Baudelaire, many of those paintings of Baudelaire himself, his partner Jeanne Duval, or others in their various circles of friends. It's an examination of some of the influences on Baudelaire, such as Edgar Allan Poe. And, ultimately, it isn't really about Baudelaire at all, but rather the fictional character Hazel Brown, who feels as though a stand-in at times for Lisa Robertson. So, perhaps it's also a thinly veiled autobiography in some sense.
I also know that it was a fantastic and welcome read. I found myself slowing down and savoring the text. I read deliberately and methodically. I used the internet to search for the many paintings referenced in the book, in order that I could connect the words on the page with the paint on the canvases.
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