Rat Medicine & Other Unlikely Curatives - Softcover

Lauren B. Davis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0889626901 ISBN 13: 9780889626904

Publisher: Mosaic Pr, 2000

Synopsis

The stories in this, Lauren B. Davis's first collection, have been called audacious, extraordinary, and an amalgam of deep intuitive perception, sly wit and candor that could strip paint by the Globe and Mail. Recognized as the work of an important new writer, this is where Lauren's career began.

In this audacious and extraordinary debut collection, figurative rats abound. Like the real ones, they can be revolting or charming, vicious and greedy, or sweetly innocent-looking as they plot to ravage all that sustains you. Lauren B. Davis's human rats come in varying colors and degrees of domestication, and are as touching as their victims. The range of human psyches portrayed here is striking and encompassing, and recalls a phrase of Timothy Findley's, that real writers "don't appropriate voices, they hear them." Davis hears clearly and listens carefully, and fearlessly records what she knows about men, women, the very young and very old, the bloom and whither of love.

A teenage girl, the sensible wallflower at a house party seething with hormones and boozy bravado, saves a comatose girl's life by forcing her to vomit, only to be mocked in a spew of cigarette smoke days later by the girl she saved: "You just don't get it, do you." A six-year-old is falsely accused of smashing a precious object by a mother who is lying to hide her own guilt: "Becky fell into a great rushing cyclone of sound . . . a terrible deep tearing. Her head shook and her arms and legs . . . as though she was being blown up, blown apart. She couldn't stop shrieking at her dry-eyed, coffee-sipping mother." A boxer falls in love and re-invents himself as a responsible cop and husband, until the job's horrors and dire temptations trigger his disintegration, driving his wife from him and rendering him a dangerous alcoholic ruin. (Booze is Davis's recurring scourge. If you've ever felt the need for a shot before noon, you'll find stunningly sobering tales here.)

About this title

From the Inside Flap

Put this book on your literary map and circle it in gold, for here lies buried treasure. Dig into its pages and discover a new voice, one that can be tender, tough and - in the best and most adventurous sense - dangerous. Read at your own risk, for in Lauren Daviss stories, you may find yourself. -Timothy Findley author of Pilgrim, Not Wanted on the Voyage, Last of the Crazy People, The Piano Mans Daughter, and The Wars among others..... An astonishing variety of voices male, female, young, old narrate these 20 diverse stories, through which alcohol flows like an unholy river of destruction and despair. Perceptive and compassionate, Lauren Davis gives us lives distorted by loneliness and fear, betrayal and anger, and draws us into situations where we have to look more closely at ourselves. An inventive new writer. - Isabel Huggan author of The Elizabeth Stories and You Never Know The stories of Lauren Davis are proof-positive that the best fiction comes from that thrilling combination of experience (good and not-so) and a vivid imagination. If you like your hammer-blows wrapped in velvet, RAT MEDICINE should be on your bookshelf. - Marnie Woodrow, author of In the Spice House and Why We Close Our Eyes When We Kiss

About the Author

Lauren Davis was born in Montreal and now lives in Paris with her husband, Ron. She studied writing at Indiana University and at the Humber School of Creative Writing. A contributing editor at WRITE MAGAZINE, her work has appeared in a number of literary magazines.

About this edition

• Publisher: Mosaic Pr
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0889626901
• ISBN 13: 9780889626904
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 193