Miranda is a drama professor attempting to direct a production of All’s Well That Ends Well in Mona Awad’s latest novel, All’s Well. An acting instructor whose own acting career was cut short by a crippling fall from a stage, Miranda lives stewing in bitterness. She’s in constant pain due to a bad hip surgery from her fall and bad subsequent therapy. She’s been to several different doctors and therapists and none have helped — some actually worsened her pain.
To make matters worse, the kids in her acting class hate her. They’ve been petitioning to do a rendition of Macbeth instead, to which Miranda has refused — with a smile on her face, of course. Despite the chronic pain that barely allows her a moment’s rest, pain which has been suggested is all in her mind, Miranda still shows up to work every day and tries her best to be complacent — even if it is through gritted teeth. She knows her colleagues will have little to no sympathy for her pain.
Her students try to stage a mutiny of sorts. Brianna, the lead of All’s Well, whose heart is set on playing Lady M from Macbeth, reaches out to her parents for help. Her parents, generous donators to the school, in turn, reach out to the dean, who then passes the message on to Miranda: she must reconsider her choice for the play.
It’s after one strange night at a bar, after popping some pills and downing them with a drink known as “the golden remedy,” that three strange men, doctors, suddenly approach her. They seem to know things about her that no one else could possibly know. They give her cryptic advice — like the theory of transferring one’s pain to other people, for example. When the night is over, they disappear and Miranda wakes up the next morning in her home, with no more than a vague recollection of the three men and the previous night.
When she goes to work the next day, the students are all set up with Macbeth scripts, ready to begin rehearsal on the play Miranda has so adamantly rejected. In a moment of restrained fury, trying to confiscate the script from Brianna, Miranda seizes her by the wrist. In that same moment, the dean interrupts the scene to announce that three businessmen who claim to know Miranda have made a large donation asking to keep All’s Well on.
Miranda’s pain is suddenly gone and Brianna becomes mysteriously ill. Still, Miranda doesn’t stop to question what just happened. So thrilled to be able to walk erect on both legs without searing pain, she simply accepts it. From that moment on, everything in her life seems to take a turn toward the positive: Hugo, the set designer, and builder she’s had a crush on, reciprocates her feelings; Brianna, whom she hates, has to drop out of the play — Miranda’s finally able to replace her with her perfect choice, Ellie, a shy, quiet girl who sometimes makes her bath herb bags that are supposed to help with her pain.
Everything is working out, and Miranda is so full of energy and positivity she doesn’t even sleep. Awad takes us into a strange reverie as the narrative stops moving linearly, and instead, takes on a more abstract style, slipping into magical realism. Did Miranda really transfer her pain to Brianna by touching her? Did we miss something or is something strangely magical really taking place? From this point on, Awad takes us on a journey that keeps us guessing whether Miranda is simply on an endless drug trip, or whether she’s in some state of limbo where her mind is creating a perfect life for her.
Through prose deeply rooted in metaphors, Awad creates a narrative metaphorical in its grander scope for the way women’s pain is often minimized by society. Everyone judges Miranda for being late to her classes because she’s on her office floor with her feet up on a chair, trying to find what minimal relief is available to her. Her own best friend suggests it’s all in her mind, her doctors all stare at her blankly and refuse to acknowledge how much worse their dictated therapy makes her feel, and when she takes medication, she’s judged for that, too.
Awad is a genius as she puts together a satirical narrative that is actually dark and solemn at its core. Readers paying attention will be able to recognize a woman in Miranda who is asking for no more than an escape from the prison her body has become. Though Miranda’s neurotic traits may at times be laughable, All’s Well is a thought-provoking novel that will leave you like the sock and buskin symbol of drama, not quite sure if you should laugh or cry.