Out of Body and Mind: A Novel - Hardcover

Jean, Veronica

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1877946311 ISBN 13: 9781877946318

Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co, 1993

Synopsis

Book by Jean, Veronica

About this title

From Kirkus Reviews

A mentally deranged young woman explains how she came to commit murder--in this very fey first novel from a small-press veteran. Sentenced to 15 years for the premeditated murder of her art teacher, Adam Sault, Eve White protests from her jail cell that Adam's death by poisoned apple was merely an ``inversion'' and her crime only an innocent ``art attack.'' Stating her case in coy prose (regularly punctuated with ``I beg you...'' and ``I implore you...''), Eve tells of her traumatic childhood ruled first by an abusive father and then by an affectless stepfather; her dead-end job as oven operator at a cookie factory; the grim line of ``tall, dark, bearded, horny, and stupid'' boyfriends that led to Adam Sault; her affection for her misfit older brother, a rock musician; and her fluctuating passion for Dr. Marvin, her psychiatrist and the only nonirritating voice here. Urged by Marvin to try working through her anxiety by attending an art class, Eve instantly falls for married-but-unfaithful teacher Adam and takes to sending him unsigned poems in the mail. Finally snagging his attention one night in a bar, Eve allows herself to be invited to his studio, where he seduces her but then freaks when she reveals her unattractive webbed feet. Summarily rejected, a mortified Eve retreats to commune with the voice of her imaginary friend, The Sandman, who provides her with a basket of apples and advises her to give Adam a particular one. After Adam bites into it and dies, Eve is convicted of his murder--in spite of her flippant New Age pronouncements and ceaseless puns--insisting to the end that we are all in prison, really, but that true art has no boundaries and in any case, as a last resort, out-of-body experiences really do exist. Eve, Adam, and the tempting red apple are only a few of the in-your-face conceits in this heavy-handed fantasy. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly

Energetic writing and interesting background material are overshadowed in this first novel by the main character's annoying mysticism. Sentenced to 15 years in jail for killing her art teacher with a poisoned apple, Eve White spends her time writing her life story and boring fellow prisoner and lover Pup with New Age mumbo jumbo. When Eve's hometown psychiatrist, Dr. Marvin, complains about having had to listen to Eve "droning on and on like this for over a year," the reader is inclined to do likewise. Too much of the book recapitulates her sessions with Dr. Marvin, to whom Eve confides about her bizarre artistic theories, out-of-body experiences and the imaginary Sandman, who appears to her one night in a laundromat, proferring the fatal apple. Although obviously intended as satire, these meanderings sit heavily on the page. Better chapters flash back to Eve's childhood with alcoholic parents and subsequent love affairs with a string of tall, dark, bearded men, most of whom abuse her. These compelling sections describe the off-kilter lives of young people barely on the edges of the working class--high school dropouts who work low-paying jobs and play in rock bands at night. More of such grim but wacky material and less of Eve's convoluted mental meanderings might have made for an impressive debut.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Permanent Pr Pub Co
• Publication date: 1993
• ISBN 10: 1877946311
• ISBN 13: 9781877946318
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1