Pretend I'm Dead: A Novel
A debut novel that tracks cleaning work, addiction, and a shifting self-image with strange lightness and humor.
Work Information
A chaotic life is rendered with dry humor and warm observation.
Mona's life is unstable, and so are her relationships, her work, and her sense of self. Even so, the novel keeps its humor and tenderness while watching her work toward a shape she can live in.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Published
- 2018-05-15
- Pages
- 240 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 2.29 x 21.27 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781501183935
- ISBN-10
- 1501183931
- Price
- 8931 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Literature & Fiction/United States/Humor
NAMED A BEST BOOK of the YEAR by O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE, REFINERY 29, and KIRKUS REVIEWS SHORTLISTED FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION FIRST NOVEL PRIZE Miranda July meets Mary Karr in this brilliant debut novel from Jen Beagin, Whiting Award winner and “one of the freshest voices I've read in years—funny, wise, whip-smart and compassionate” (Jami Attenberg, author of The Middlesteins ), about a cleaning lady on a quest for self-acceptance after her relationship with a loveable junkie goes awry. Jen Beagin’s quirky, moving, “frank and unflinching” (Josh Ferris) debut novel introduces an unforgettable character, Mona—almost twenty-four, emotionally adrift, and cleaning houses to get by. Handing out clean needles to drug addicts, she falls for a recipient she calls Mr. Disgusting, who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways. In search of healing, Mona decamps to Taos, New Mexico, for a fresh start, where she finds a community of seekers and cast-offs, all of whom have one or two things to teach her—the pajama-wearing, blissed-out New Agers, the slightly creepy client with peculiar tastes in controlled substances, the psychic who might really be psychic. But always lurking just beneath the surface are her memories of growing up in a chaotic, destructive family from which she’s trying to disentangle herself, and the larger legacy of the past she left behind. The story of Mona’s journey to find her place in this working-class American world is at once hilarious and wonderfully strange, true to life and boldly human, and introduces a stunningly one-of-a-kind new voice in American fiction.
Jen Beagin holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of California, Irvine, and is a recipient of a 2017 Whiting Award in fiction. She is the author of Pretend I ’m Dead and Vacuum in the Dark. A former cleaning lady, she lives in Hudson, New York.
Reviews
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As someone who read to the end.....
Not for everyone, this is a brave piece of work. It's not exactly 'boy meets girl'. It's more a multidimensional portrait of violation, with quite an accomplished sense for humour. Don't belief the one star reviews. This is smart work from a real writer. The pages don't turn themselves right to the end, though with an open mind, you'll be pleasantly pleased you made the effort.
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Hilarious atory
Excellent book, very funny. Quick delivery
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You'll laugh and laugh
Absolutely loved this book. Mona cleans houses and sometimes go through people's things. She makes up names for everyone she meets. She loves vacuums and she's wacky and you never know what's going to happen next
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Good story with abrupt ending
A well written book with a compelling story line: A young woman cleans homes and wrestles with her inner demons as she snoops and speculates about her client's lives. Mona is a satisfyingly complex character with a difficult upbringing which includes abandonment and incest. The characters she comes across are diverse.....drug addicted, new agey, psychic, gay, cancer-ridden, etc. Believable settings and dialogue. Ending was abrupt however, as if the author never had even thought about how it might end.
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Hilarious medical insight
Absolutely laugh out loud funny. I loved this book (and listened to most of it via the author’s voice on audible). A wonderful insight into the overworked, underpaid and challenged lives of a young doctor and his patients. Hilariously funny until the closing chapters which are also moving, resonant and so essential to be told. It is unsurprising the author is now a TV script writer - and I have no doubt that many of the book’s scenarios will be popping up in the latest TV medico drama.
Related Literary Awards
- Whiting Awards Edition 32 (2017) ・Winner