Chemistry - Softcover

Wilkins, Damien

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0864734271 ISBN 13: 9780864734273

Publisher: Victoria University Press, 2002

Synopsis

The Webb family seem genetically disposed towards medicine. Don, the eldest brother, runs a small town pharmacy. Penny, the abused wife, neglectful mother and firebrand sister, is a doctor. And Jamie, the youngest son, has been self-medicating with heroin for longer than seems physically possible. When Jamie decides to move back to his native small town in New Zealand after a twenty year absence, he sets off a reaction in his dysfunctional family which has disastrous consequences.

About this title

About the Author

Damien Wilkins was born in 1963. He has published three novels: The Miserables, which won the New Zealand Book Award, Little Masters, and Nineteen Windows Under Ash. He lives in Wellington with his wife and two daughters.

From Booklist

In a disjointed narrative relayed in laconic prose thick with Briticisms, New Zealand author Wilkins explores the dynamics of the Webb family. Longtime junkie Jamie returns to his hometown after a 20-year absence. Popping up first at his mother's house, then his sister's (a doctor recently revealed to be the victim of domestic abuse), he is in the habit of provoking crises and then disappearing, either emotionally or physically. His brother, Don, is so deeply frustrated at being unable to help Jamie that he has practically adopted a client from his pharmacy's methadone program, a coping mechanism that is proving increasingly ineffective. Their mother, Ruth, driven to distraction over her troubled children, has abandoned her usual cold logic for the inane prescriptions of an herbalist--and they're helping. Wilkins explores the faces behind hot-button social issues, giving them complexity, a sense of humor, and real dignity. Once readers acclimate to his offbeat storytelling technique, they will be surprised by a novel that slowly, almost unobtrusively, gains emotional weight and heft right up to its stunning conclusion. Joanne Wilkinson
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About this edition

• Publisher: Victoria University Press
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0864734271
• ISBN 13: 9780864734273
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 302