Visits From The Drowned Girl by Steven Sherrill
Benny Poteat is the only witness to a young woman's suicide. After setting up a video camera on the bank of a river, she undresses, walks into the water and disappears. Should Benny go to the police? Or keep this terrible information to himself? When Benny decides to find out who the woman was, what began as a blackly humorous tale peopled by misfits and loners, gradually descends into darkness and obsession. With heart-breaking honesty and touches of surrealism, Visits From the Drowned Girl uncovers the secret longings that dwell beneath the surface of everyday lives.
The bizarreness of human actions fascinates Sherrill, and this novel generates an emotional suspense beyond its simple plot because of Benny's ambiguous, destructive impulseBenny becomes a monster but, in a curious way, is still beloved. * * Independent * *
Inventive, wryly perceptive and remarkably skilful in its fusion of tragic and comic elements . . . it undoubtedly deserves our attention. -- Jem Poster * * Guardian * *
Steven Sherrill has a striking ear for a phrase and the novel is often very funny. The last 100 pages are compelling and desperately sad. * * Daily Telegraph * *
Sherrill's prose is clean as a hungry man's palate and calculatedly prosaic, yet it shimmers with a lyrical grace and sensitivity than can be traced to his years as a poet. * * Herald * *
Inventive, wryly perceptive and remarkably skilful in its fusion of tragic and comic elements . . . it undoubtedly deserves our attention. -- Jem Poster * * Guardian * *
Steven Sherrill has a striking ear for a phrase and the novel is often very funny. The last 100 pages are compelling and desperately sad. * * Daily Telegraph * *
Sherrill's prose is clean as a hungry man's palate and calculatedly prosaic, yet it shimmers with a lyrical grace and sensitivity than can be traced to his years as a poet. * * Herald * *
STEVEN SHERRILL is an Assistant Professor of English at Penn State, Altoona, earned an MFA in Poetry from Iowa Writers' Workshop and was the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for Fiction in 2002. His work has appeared in Best American Poetry, The Kenyon Review and The Georgia Review. He lives in Pennsylvania.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781841955995 |
| ISBN 10 | 184195599X |
| Title | Visits From The Drowned Girl |
| Author | Steven Sherrill |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Canongate Books |
| Year published | 2005-04-07 |
| Number of pages | 336 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |