Nicola Griffith Doesn’t Want to Inspire You: Breaking Out of Ableist Narratives

Whatever you do, don’t call Nicola Griffith’s new novel “inspiring.”

Though Mara Tagarelli, the protagonist of So Lucky (MCD x FSG Originals, May 2018), has multiple sclerosis, the book refuses to stoop to “inspiration porn.” Mara—the hot-tempered head of an HIV/AIDS organization—doesn’t do pity. In the wake of her MS diagnosis, she takes action, erects defenses, branches, and lashes out. Mara may even survive her own story, which would make her something of an anomaly among disabled characters in fiction.

Hardly any novels pass the Fries Test, which asks three questions:

• Does the book have more than one disabled character?
• Do the characters have their own narrative purposes?
• Do they make it to the end of the book without being cured or killed?

checks at least two of these three boxes. It bucks expectations, a tight page-turner on a shelf full of