PJ Harvey's Rid of Me: A Story (33 1/3) - Softcover

Schatz, Kate

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0826427782 ISBN 13: 9780826427786

Publisher: Continuum, 2007

Synopsis

Rid of Me joins Music From Big Pink by John Niven and Meat is Murder by Joe Pernice as one of three fictional titles in the 33 1/3 Series, and tells the story of Kathleen and Mary, two women who find themselves alone in a house in the middle of the dark, forbidden forest that borders their depressed valley town. Amidst a dramatic natural setting, they negotiate their freedom, their pasts, their survival, and each other. Rid of Me is a story of escape and desire, violence and gender, landscape, family, and memory. It's a twisted fairy tale, a queer dystopia/utopia, and a lyrical exploration of kidnapping, dreams, murder, sex, revenge, and love.

Kate Schatz's Rid of Me is at once a wholly original work of fiction and an innovative meditation on one writer's relationship to an album. The album in question is PJ Harvey's 1993 recording Rid of Me, a release noted again and again for its raw sound, dark lyrics, and unabashed presentation of female sexuality, desire, and rage. In her prologue, Schatz states that the book is "not about Rid of Me, but because of it" and the book's 14 chapters (one for each song on the album) use the lyrics, moods, images, and characters to create something entirely different, yet intimately connected to the music.

About this title

About the Author

Kate Schatz is a writer, editor, and teacher. She is one of the founding
editors of The Encyclopedia Project, an ongoing hardcover book series that
combines the reference book and literary journal in the service of contemporary
fiction. She's an award-winning writer of short fiction, and she lives in
Oakland, California.

From the Back Cover

"Tie yourself to me," she whispered, without turning around, as I snuck up from behind. My boots scraping slightly in the dirt, sweat running into my eye, the salt stinging me, my heart thudding, my dry mouth hanging open, tasting the electricity between us. "No on else." She said it again: "Tie yourself to me." It was no longer a whisper: the words were sure, though slightly slurred....I stared down at the shining top of her black silk head and wanted to howl with joy. She had come.

Rid of Me: A Story is, in the author's words, "not about the album, but because of it." The story concerns Kathleen and Mary, two women who end up in a strange, abandoned cabin in the dark forest that borders their depressed valley town. Through fourteen short chapters that mirror the songs on the album, Kathleen and Mary negotiate their freedom, their pasts, their survival, and each other. The result is a twisted, gripping fairy tale of kidnapping, dreams, murder, sex, revenge, and love.

Edition details

• Publisher: Continuum
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826427782
• ISBN 13: 9780826427786
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 128