Amanda Lohrey’s ‘Capture’ probes the limits of empirical understanding
Published by Text Publishing, the new work frames its narrative as a fable, exploring how individuals make meaning when faced with the unknowable.
Amanda Lohrey, the 2021 Miles Franklin Award winner, has released her new novel, Capture, through Text Publishing in Australia. Priced at $34.99, the book centres on Dr James Mather, a psychiatrist in his 60s who conducts research into individuals claiming to have been abducted by aliens. The narrative is explicitly framed by an authorial disclaimer as a fable, stating it is not intended to portray actual psychiatric research or therapeutic practice.
Narrated by Dr Mather, the story follows his reluctant engagement with the project after completing a decade-long study on suicide. His mentor, Helena, proposes the alien abduction research as a reprieve from the misery of his previous work. Dr Mather, a diligent observer alert to subtexts, initially views the venture as a bizarre and marginal project but agrees, hoping its potential silliness might offer a break from his prior focus on the despair of young men.
Dr Mather does not conduct his sessions alone. His research assistant is Lucy Cheng, a social historian who documents non-verbal cues such as posture, gestures, and mannerisms during meetings with the 'experiencers'. The novel explores the tension between Dr Mather’s scepticism and the subjective experiences of those he studies, who describe an electricity and vibration in the room that defies conventional categorisation.
Lohrey, known for challenging techno-rationalism in works such as The Labyrinth and A Short History of Richard Kline, uses Dr Mather’s journey to examine the limits of empirical understanding. Like protagonists in her previous novels, Dr Mather encounters boundaries to his scepticism that dismantle his worldview. He ultimately abandons the project, citing a "cul de sac of unknowing," and is later chastised by Helena for a dereliction of scholarly obligation.
The novel does not resolve questions regarding the truth of alien encounters, instead focusing on the conflicting metaphors and ideas that proliferate within Dr Mather’s narrative. It is a work that demands submission to an order of thinking beyond the literal, exploring how individuals make sense of embodied knowledge that challenges established institutions of contemporary life.