From Publishers Weekly
Three novellas that are rambunctious, spirited chases through rough emotional territory comprise the latest offedring by this protean writer. Typically, his humor tests the borders of the socially acceptable and the extremes of what is tolerable to a character; and there is pleasure to be had in this recklessness. In the title novella, for instance, the 21-year-old Julip goes out on a limb to try to persuade her brother, Bobby, to confess that he's insane so that he can get out of prison, where he's residing for having shot three "older" men who have been Julip's lovers. The wallop of the piece owes something to plot but more to character: it's made up of righteous deviants whose next unseemly act or fancy can't be predicted. "The Seven-Ounce Man," about Harrison's familiar character, Brown Dog (previously seen in The Woman Lit by Fireflies ), is full of vitality but stretches the limits of plausibility as the narrative's contorted path becomes clogged with local color (a waitress who pines cartoonishly for sex; stereotypical lesbians). But Harrison is inherently refreshing, seeming to ditch due respect for civilization and to take off for strange parts. His energy appears unmitigated. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
From Library Journal
The protagonists in this collection of three novellas are spunky aberrants who remain appealing despite their sometimes reprehensible behavior. Julip, whose name suggests the blending of a spring flower with an alcoholic drink, is a fascinating mixture of waiflike innocence and jaded sexuality. Brown Dog, seen earlier in The Woman Lit by Fireflies ( LJ 6/1/90) and revived now in "The Seven Ounce Man," was born "not to cooperate with the world," and lurches unsteadily from barroom brawls to protests against the desecration of Indian burial grounds. In "The Beige Dolorosa" a politically incorrect college professor attacks an "ecocircus" mime but seeks personal salvation by renaming the birds of America. Richly allusive and wickedly funny, Harrison's book offers three delightful studies of unique individuals battling inventively against society's demands for conformity.
- Albert E. Wilhelm, Tennessee Technological Univ., CookevilleCopyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--Ce texte provient d'une édition qui n'est plus publiée ou qui est non diponible.
