- Paperback: 156 pages
- Publisher: House of Anansi Press; Reissue edition (May 1 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0887846246
- ISBN-13: 978-0887846243
- Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.5 x 1.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 272 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #768,245 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Another oddly timely book (see above) that comes on the heels of recent headlines of teen violence, Canadian author Medved's debut novel provides an eerie glimpse of a raging adolescent psyche. Fifteen-year-old Tracey Berkowitz has been riding on a bus through a blizzard for two days, searching for her younger brother and wearing only a shower curtain. From the back seat she tells her story in a layered narration that shifts from first- to third-person, when Tracey talks about herself as "It," a girl tormented by her classmates and neglected by her parents: "When It went anywhere, It went alone. When It crept against school walls, people held their breath.... Boys pulled at It. Blew their snot on It. Yelled, `It's coming." Tracey's life at her "scary monster house" is no better, her parents alternately catatonically miserable and ruthlessly cruel; they warn Tracy that she'll wind up like her mentally unstable grandmother, who apparently walked the streets in search of abusive men. In her utter isolation Tracey often escapes into a fantasy world where a gorgeous boy, Billy Speed, loves her. The flip side of her psychic dislocation is that she vividly dreams of killing her family, strangers and herself. In fragmented prose mirroring Tracey's splintered identity, Medved gradually reveals her protagonist's devastating reality (that Billy Speed raped her) as well as her sources of hope, her 10-year-old vanished brother, Sonny, who thinks he's a dog, and the distorted memory of her grandmother. Medved skillfully blends Tracey's frenzied facts and fictions into a cohesive portrait of a teenager on the verge of imploding. Tracey's frantic speech, repetitive yet evasive, sometimes appears in capital letters; other times she manages a dry, deadpan voice, like when she's talking about her psychiatrist. Rivulets of hope somehow seep through this taut, harrowing narrative as Tracey examines the steps she's taken, like her grandmother, to search for a world beyond the "monster house." (Aug.)
Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Review
[Medved] mines the world of words for diamonds. They glitter on every page, casting mirrors, casting black light. (Border Crossings 20060901)
A high-octane jaunt through the remnants of a mind shattered by trauma. (Globe and Mail 20060901)
Medved brilliantly conveys the rage and frustration of a self-conscious young girl...The effect is like digging through a box full of broken stained glass and finding an exquisite shard every time. (Vancouver Magazine 20060901)
Medved's debut novel provides an eerie glimpse of a raging adolescent psyche...skillfully blends Tracey's frenzied facts and fictions into a cohesive portrait of a teenager on the verge of imploding...a taut, harrowing narrative. (Publishers Weekly )
Tracey's voice is acerbic, funny and totally convincing. Anyone who has been or has known a bitter and confused teenager will know where she's coming from. (Toronto Star ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
A high-octane jaunt through the remnants of a mind shattered by trauma. (Globe and Mail 20060901)
Medved brilliantly conveys the rage and frustration of a self-conscious young girl...The effect is like digging through a box full of broken stained glass and finding an exquisite shard every time. (Vancouver Magazine 20060901)
Medved's debut novel provides an eerie glimpse of a raging adolescent psyche...skillfully blends Tracey's frenzied facts and fictions into a cohesive portrait of a teenager on the verge of imploding...a taut, harrowing narrative. (Publishers Weekly )
Tracey's voice is acerbic, funny and totally convincing. Anyone who has been or has known a bitter and confused teenager will know where she's coming from. (Toronto Star ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Voyage into a 15-year old head,
By
This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (Paperback)
I was especially stunned by the way Medved tells the story. It is a world only existing in a girls head, but the way of telling makes it appear very realistic and understandable.The protagonist of the story is Tracey Berkowitz. She sits on the backseat of a bus dressed only with a shower curtain and explains the events that happened the past few days. But she does not tell it in linear order. Just like real thinking she swaps back and forth between different events. Very vividly Tracey displays her thoughts, emotions and memories. From Traceys innocent point of view the issue of a protective media-society is broached as well as its affect on todays youth (especially behavioral disorders). As the story goes by, Tracey seems to build her own reality, which is based on facts, but Tracey processes them to justify her behavior and to feel needed. That is the main point of the story. For everything that goes wrong she blames her parents (which is justified), also for hypnotising her little brother sonny. When he ran away she did too in order find him and take care of him. Her parents are the reason that she became an escapist. She is unhappy with everything going on around her, so she had to build an alternate reality for her to flee from all that. She believes her duty is to take care of her brother, because her parents do not. As a result of Tracey being only 15, important details are difficult to see which makes it difficult to create "the whole picture". Every details is important to understand why Tracey turned out the way she is, why she is sitting almost naked on a bus and why her parents think she is crazy. I believe there is not just one right answer. Although it may sound a bit difficult to read let me say that the novel is incredibly enthralling due to the unchronological way of of telling you only get "fragments" before flipping to another memory. So you read more and more just to get the next piece to the big puzzle. The person to write the other review was not exactly thrilled by the novel. I believe the reason is Tracey herself. Not everybody can identify or put oneself in the position of a 15 year old girl. "The Tracey Fragments" is a novel with turns a lot of attention to the psyche of a teenager and the circumstances leading to behavioral disorders. I would recommend it to anyone who is able to completely engage with a persons mind, maybe to even find out some things about oneself. I apologize for any mistakes regarding the language, but since I am from Germany I believe that I am entitled to at least some mistakes =)
3.0 out of 5 stars
neat way to tell a story, but..,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Tracey fragments (Paperback)
perhaps my expectations for this book was a little high, since it has been called a "Catcher in the Rye" for the 90's. However, the book didn't live up to those expectations. there are similarities between "catcher" and "tracey fragments": both protagonists are young, lost, misunderstood, and lonely teenagers, and nothing really physically happens in the book. But while Holden Caulfield was a most likeable hero for me (i love you holden caulfield), i find Tracey Berkowitz to be much too whiny. I had little sympathy for her. I realized Tracey's mind games as I read further along in the book, and felt almost betrayed. In the end, Medved's unique way of telling the story (which makes the reader feel as if he/she was in tracey's mind) kept the book fresh and urged me to read on. An ok read; it is short so it's worth picking up if you are into depressing/angst stories.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
3.7 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews) 3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read for a "late teenager",
By C. S. Usler - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (Paperback)
i really liked this book. i never read much before this but this book sparked something in me. I never understood how people could get involved with a book but while reading this i wanted to actually jump in it and save tracey from her life. Its a very sad story but i could relate to it and it seemed a little too real. Everyone, especially just out of high school and starting college, should read it.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
neat way to tell a story, but..,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Tracey fragments (Paperback)
perhaps my expectations for this book was a little high, since it has been called a "Catcher in the Rye" for the 90's. However, the book didn't live up to those expectations. there are similarities between "catcher" and "tracey fragments": both protagonists are young, lost, misunderstood, and lonely teenagers, and nothing really physically happens in the book. But while Holden Caulfield was a most likeable hero for me (i love you holden caulfield), i find Tracey Berkowitz to be much too whiny. I had little sympathy for her. I realized Tracey's mind games as I read further along in the book, and felt almost betrayed. In the end, Medved's unique way of telling the story (which makes the reader feel as if he/she was in tracey's mind) kept the book fresh and urged me to read on. An ok read; it is short so it's worth picking up if you are into depressing/angst stories.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Dysfunctional.......,
By BJ "Brett Starr" - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (Paperback)
.... is what best describes "The Tracey Fragments"!Tracey Berkowitz's life is confusing, yet very interesting! The book is Tracey's mind racing from story to story, situation to situation, all the fragments of her so called life! The book is full crazy rants and unforgettable prose, these two were my favorites- "When a horse falls, foam comes out of its mouth. When it falls, the legs of the horse thrash and the horse is no good, so somebody shoots the horse. The horse turns into glue. A machine puts the glue into bottles. Some of the bottles have nipples and children squeeze the nipples to get the glue out and stick bits of paper onto cards. Glue gets on the children's hands and the children eat the glue. The children become the horse" "I don't like the country. Creeps me out. In the country, dead bodies lie in swamps, ditches, shallow graves. A man dumps the body of a girl in a ditch. The body rots and melts into slime. Flowers pop up where the body lies. Seeds fly out of the flowers. A bee sucks the flowers and makes honey. The family of the girl buys the honey from the store. The family eats the girl." Quick and short book, very easy to read, the dvd is out now, the movie should explain things a little better then the book! |
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