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Searching... Monmouth Public Library | Fic Gray, A. 2012 | Searching... Unknown |
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Summary
Summary
David's wife is dead. At least, he thinks she's dead. But he can't figure out what killed her or why she had to die, and his efforts to sort out what's happened have been interrupted by his discovery of a series of elaborate and escalating threats hidden in strange places around his home--one buried in the sugar bag, another carved into the side of his television. These disturbing threats may be the best clues to his wife's death:
CURL UP ON MY LAP. LET ME BRUSH YOUR HAIR WITH MY FINGERS. I AM SINGING YOU A LULLABY. I AM TESTING FOR STRUCTURAL WEAKNESS IN YOUR SKULL.
Detective Chico is also on the case, and is intent on asking David questions he doesn't know the answers to and introducing him to people who don't appear to have David's or his wife's best interests in mind. With no one to trust, David is forced to rely on his own memories and faculties--but they too are proving unreliable.
In THREATS , Amelia Gray builds a world that is bizarre yet familiar, violent yet tender. It is an electrifying story of love and loss that grabs you on the first page and never loosens its grip.
Author Notes
AMELIA GRAY grew up in Tucson, Arizona. Her first collection of stories, AM/PM , was published in 2009. Her second collection, Museum of the Weird , was awarded the Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Prize. She lives in Los Angeles. THREATS is her first novel.
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Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
David, a former dentist, receives a package containing the ashes of an unknown individual; later in the book, he encounters his wife, Franny, covered in blood, and he passes out. Thinking Franny has been murdered, afraid to leave his house and unable to piece together what is happening in his ruined life, David begins to lose his mind, a deterioration helped along by mysterious scraps of paper found throughout his house and the neighborhood bearing bizarre messages ("MY TRUTH WILL CAUSE ATOMIC SNOW UPON YOUR SWEET-SMELLING LAMBS AND CHILDREN"). In time, friends and strangers arrive, at random, with what David presumes to be nefarious intentions, and the unannounced comings and goings of ominous Det. Reginald Chico further unsettle David. David's life becomes increasingly weird as he wanders his now unfamiliar home, struggling to tease out the details of his past life and whether his wife is dead with what little is left of his fractured mind. The book is a series of short, disjointed, and unchronological chapters. The story can seem labyrinthine at times, but the narrative arc acts as a clever reflection of David's own developing mental illness. Gradually, as with any good detective novel, the pieces come together. What would have seemed gimmicky in the hands of a less skilled writer becomes a cunning whodunit with Gray (Museum of the Weird) at the reins. This is an innovative debut novel featuring a most unreliable (and compelling) narrator. Agent: Claudia Ballard, WME Entertainment. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
In two unconventional story collections (AM/PM, 2009; Museum of the Weird, 2010), Gray established herself as a chronicler of the bizarre and the banal, and her first novel proves she has stamina for the long form. David, a former dentist, believes his beautician wife, Franny, has died, though he's not sure how and can't quite process his feelings. To do so, he performs a series of menial tasks, such as applying Franny's skincare products, making coffee, and obsessing over the possibility that his doorknob might be electrically charged. When relentless detective Chico turns up, asking David questions he can't answer and introducing ineffectual officers and a suggestive shrink who only exacerbate David's confusion, David begins questioning his memories and reality itself. The only things that seem real to him are the vaguely terrifying, anonymous threats he finds around the house, which force him to reconfigure everything he knows about loss and marital love. Written in 77 brief, anecdotal chapters that accentuate Gray's wry, punchline humor, Threats is a comic success, part metaphysical detective story, part comedy of errors.--Fullmer, Jonathan Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
David finds clues about his wife's death-and intensifying threats-in this debut from a winner of the Ronald Sukenick/American Book Review Innovative Fiction Prize. (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.