Search History, By Amy Taylor
Latent Book Club Review #2307
Australian debut novelist Amy Taylor’s Search History is a wonderful book that by turns conveys a compelling story and provides intelligent insights into questions that pervade contemporary popular culture.
Search History is the breakout work of Australian novelist Amy Taylor. It is a gossipy, but intelligent, palpably feminist, but surprisingly balanced, funny but subtly penetrating page-turner that charts the anxieties faced by many young people finding their way in the modern world and workplace. And, although Search History is set in Melbourne, Australia (it is always gratifying to see Australia portrayed on the world stage) this compelling novel could easily have been set in any contemporary global city from Manhattan to London, as its themes - the search for love; the anxiety and disappointments of youth; and the encroachment of technology into those spheres touch us all in the modern world.
This is a book aimed squarely at the millennial bracket, where the narrator Ana, our protagonist resides. Ana is in her late 20s and a ‘user experience designer’ for a startup, Gro, that turns out to be little more than a meretricious hedge fund with a glitzy app. Ana has fled Perth, Western Australia, for a new job in Melbourne, Victoria following a recent break-up. The ghost of her previous relationship, and her obsession regarding her unnamed ex’s new partner chases Ana around for most of the novel, and in a subtle way reflects the main theme to come.
As a digital native, Ana is affixed to her phone – to Instagram, Facebook, Messaging apps, podcasts, and YouTube. She cannot resist the urge to research everyone online – from her ex, to her prospective dates in the quest for endorphins. The anxiety evinced by Ana’s private internet research is in some ways a product of her own circumstances: an absent and punitive mother, a father who left when Ana was a child and now lives in Indonesia have, we feel, created in their child a neurotic person who hungers to know people’s inner motivations – so she can see abandonment coming, presumably. Ana sees this as a weakness, but the reality is, it might be a strength.
Ana meets Evan at a bar one night and begins a burgeoning relationship with him which forms the narrative arc of the novel. But, she discovers, she is standing in the shadows of Emily, Evan’s own ex. Ana’s internet serarches reveal a fact that she has to confront: Emily is deceased. How she deals with this knowledge, how she attempts to console and latterly confront Evan regarding it, and how she moves past her own preconceived notions that she gets from this one dimensional knowledge of Emily is the story. After all, knowing Emily is dead tells us very little about her, and we are unlikely to know more. And furthermore, comparing yourself to the socially curated life of a deceased person can (and does) lead to all kinds of negative spirals, which the novel charts.
There are some third and fifth act twists that really should be read for oneself. Suffice to say, Ana is spared the indignity of having to confront her own bizarre behaviour (visiting Emily’s brother, who is a hairdresser, and getting her hair done by him in a quest for more information) by these plot devices. However, they do extricate Ana from doing some personal development, which is slightly disappointing – and they are a very slightly contrived way of rounding out the story whose structure (ex-girlfriend is dead, how do we deal with it?) might otherwise be constraining, and fail to provide resolution.
What is extremely clever about Search History is that it very much reminds us how subtle the truth can be, and how it is rarely (if ever) one thing.
What is extremely clever about Search History is that it very much reminds us how subtle the truth can be, and how it is rarely (if ever) one thing. There are at least two sides to any view. For instance, Ana has her opinion as to why she acts one way, we assume rationally, since the book is told from her point of view. It is confronting as a reader then, to hear Evan list the very things we like about Ana, but by his interpretation, these are flaws, and major ones – and when put from his point of view, they do sound quite compelling.
Another aspect in which the book reveals its intelligence in its levels of subtle analysis is the topic of feminism. This is a feminist novel, make no mistake. However, it pushes us to confront why it is this way, and accept that feminism is not, by itself, a perfect paradigm for the world. For instance, The news carries a story about a girl being sexually assaulted when returning home from work early on in the book – this topic is the subject of discussion amongst the characters. Ana is naturally scared by this; she lives close to where the incident occurred. When out for a run, therefore, she is in a state of heightened anxiety and becomes frightened by a runner seemingly following close behind her, gaining on her, following her every turn - until she screams – and the runner benignly passes her by, mid-workout. Ana then questions at length what happened to her, and in a rather disturbing way: by recreating the same experience herself, featuring an unwitting male participant, and this time Ana as the antagonist, to discover whether this was intentional, or not.
In a further example, a bisexual female character, Hannah, chastises another, Lauren, who is plying her own brand of misandry by declaring all boys schools as ‘misogynistic arsehole factories’ with the following rebuttal:
‘I think a lot of heterosexual women romanticise the  idea of other women. Like, when it comes to dating, men are the worst and women are all un-appreciated saints, but I have to say, the two worst relationships I’ve ever been in were with women. Dating someone who is both highly emotionally intelligent and incredibly manipulative is terrifying.’
The appreciation of nuance in this area is welcoming, comforting and refreshing: neither side is entirely right, and this is something we should strive to remember. The book deals with the Janus-faced nature of the truth intelligently, and respectfully. It was a delight to read from that perspective alone. It is an invigorating reminder that the truth really does exist in opposition.
The gossipy nature of Search History is only enhanced by the fact it is told in a confessional, first-person mode. It sets the scene with barely any preamble, then you are into a straight forward, chronological narrative, with no interpositions. Despite being contemporary it is slightly dated already: one can detect it was written in the pre-pandemic world, and at a time that Australia wasn’t plagued by its current housing crisis (rents are evidently still cheap in Melbourne in the Search History world). In this way it keeps your attention to the end, and even delivers a slightly pleasing moral for both you and its protagonist.
If Search History is anything, it is a paean to sincere and direct communication. Ana comes to appreciate why this is necessary in her relationships, in both love and with her mother and father. Philip Larkin warned us memorably in ‘The Life With a Hole In It’ what happens to those who don’t communicate, and act as they know they should. They are destined to be unfulfilled, as their refusal to become architects of their own life means they become a passenger in someone else’s. As Larkin says:
Life is an immobile, locked, Three-handed struggle between Your wants, the world's for you, and (worse) The unbeatable slow machine That brings what you'll get. Blocked, They strain round a hollow stasis Of havings-to, fear, faces.
Clearly articulating your own position, and listening to those who have a counterpoint to it is vital, we don’t need Search History to convince us of that. But we do need works like this to remind us. The alternative is simple: we will get, as Ana almost does, something we do not want on every level.
Search History is, then, a wonderful book that by turns conveys a compelling story and leaves with intelligent insights into questions that pervade contemporary popular culture. If we are prepared to look, it also gives us some of the tools to navigate them: with curiosity, empathy, and clearer communication.
Really loved this book. Great review!