There Are Doors by Gene Wolfe
"There Are Doors" is a narrative that follows the journey of Mr. There Are Doors Green, a young man who becomes enamored with the enigmatic Lara Morgan. The story begins in an unnamed city where Lara reveals that loving her brings death to her lovers, prompting Green to seek her out after she mysteriously vanishes. His search leads him through an unseen portal to an alternate universe dominated by women, governed by a female president who embodies the qualities of a mother goddess. Green's quest becomes intertwined with encounters that reveal Lara's true identity as this goddess, connected to various mythic figures.
As Green navigates this new world, he faces challenges, including being hospitalized and meeting characters like the journeyman boxer North and a hotel employee named Fanny, who becomes an ally. Despite the confusion surrounding his experiences, Green remains determined to reunite with Lara, whom he believes rules this alternate realm. Over time, he adjusts to the complexities of his original world, but longings for Lara persist, leading to a series of revelations and encounters. Ultimately, the narrative explores themes of love, loss, and the search for meaning across different realities, culminating in Green's decision to return to Lara's world in pursuit of a deeper connection and the promise of eternal life.
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Subject Terms
There Are Doors
First published: 1988
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Fantasy—mythological
Time of work: The late 1960’s and early 1970’s
Locale: An unnamed city and a resort hotel
The Plot
Mr. Green, a handsome young man who works for a large department store in an unnamed city, has found the great love of his life in the mysterious Lara Morgan. After Lara explains that love of her brings death for her lovers, he wakes up to learn that she has deserted him. When he attempts to find her, he wanders through an invisible “door” to an alternate world where women are dominant and society is ruled by a female president who is the incarnation of an archetypal mother goddess, an elusive woman of transcendent beauty. Green realizes that Lara is this mysterious goddess, an avatar of the mythic femininity embodied in Ishtar, Astarte, Venus, and the Celtic and Arthurian Morgan Le Fay. Green sets out on a quest to find her.
Evading some pursuers, he hides inside a float in a parade but injures his head in a fall while trying to escape. Taken to a private hospital, Green is admitted to the psychiatric ward as an alcoholic. Soon he meets a journeyman boxer and a revolutionary named North. Compelled to aid North in an escape, Green eventually finds refuge in a gigantic luxury hotel on an inland sea. There he meets a mysterious doctor and Fanny, a hotel employee who aids him apparently because she is attracted to him. Although Green remains puzzled by events, he becomes convinced that in this alternate Earth, Lara, under another name, is currently the reigning goddess.
Green becomes separated from North, whom he fears, and is aided by Fanny, who takes him back to the city. Dining in Capini’s restaurant, Green accidentally re-enters his original world.
Green returns to his job, and his absence is attributed to temporary amnesia, a seemingly credible explanation because he discovers he has been under treatment by a psychiatrist. Gradually, Green adjusts to his old reality, though he continues to grieve over Lara. Much to his surprise, he finds money from the other world in his coat, as well as a doll resembling Lara, whom he names Tina. He discovers that Tina can talk and provide companionship. Three years pass before he again encounters Lara.
Before meeting Lara again, Green becomes interested in an antique desk. Its owner, an elderly lady, gives it to him as a Christmas present. In it, Green finds a secret compartment containing a picture of Lara. This discovery presages his next encounter with Lara, at his psychiatrist’s office. On vacations into Green’s world, she worked as a receptionist there. After learning that her current name is Lora Masterman, Green invites her to a dinner at Capini’s, where she at first tries to persuade him that he is suffering from delusions. Finally acknowledging that they experienced a brief affair three years ago, Lara explains that she ended it to spare him emotional pain.
Green refuses to accept this commonplace explanation, telling her that he has read about the goddess who once loved Attis. Lara admits that she is the undying goddess who rules the alternate world. She leaves her mortal lovers after brief idylls to allow them to recover emotionally and to spare her from watching them age and die.
When she again abandons him, Green chooses to return through the “door” in Capini’s to Lara’s world. There he attends a boxing match at which he heroically frustrates an assassination attempt by North and his terrorists. Hospitalized with a broken nose, Green is questioned by Klamm, Lara’s head of secret police, and placed in the custody of Fanny, now revealed to be one of Klamm’s agents. Green escapes, determined to follow a mysterious map he has acquired that shows the way to Manea, a legendary earthly paradise, and to Overwood, a land beyond that is a realm of immortal life.