Lithium for Medea

Lithium for Medea is as much a tale of addiction—to sex, drugs, and dysfunctional family chains—as it is one of mothers and daughters, their mutual rebellion and unconscious mimicry. Here is the story according to Rose—the daughter of a narcissistic, emotionally crippled mother and a father who shadowboxes with death in hospital corridors—as she slips deeply and dangerously into the lair of a cocaine-fed artist in the bohemian squalor of Venice. Lithium for Medea sears us with Rose’s breathless, fierce, visceral flight—like a drug that leaves one’s perceptions forever altered.

KATE BRAVERMAN is a native of Los Angeles who grew up surrounded by the counterculture of San Francisco. She has published several novels, including The Incantation of Frida K. (2002), Wonders of the West (1993), Palm Latitudes (1988), and Lithium for Medea (1979), books of poetry—Postcards from August (1990), Hurricane Warnings (1987), Lullaby for Sinners (1980), and Milkrun (1977)—and a collection of stories, Squandering the Blue (1990). She won the O. Henry Award in 1992.