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On the night of April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky's twenty-one-year-old
sister Kim came home from a bar in downtown Cleveland. She argued
with her boyfriend on the phone. Then she took her mother's car
keys, went into the garage, and closed the garage door. Her body
was found the next morning. Those are the simple facts, but the act
of suicide is far from simple. For twenty years, Bialosky has lived
with the grief, guilt, questions, and confusion unleashed by Kim's
suicide. Now, in a remarkable work of literary non-fiction, she
recreates with unsparing honesty her sister's inner life, and the
events and emotions that led her to take her life on this
particular night. In doing so, she opens a window on the nature of
suicide itself, our own reactions and responses to it - especially
the impact a suicide has on those who remain behind. Drawing on the
works of doctors and psychologists as well as a range of writers
from Herman Melville and Emily Dickinson to Sylvia Plath and
Wallace Stevens, Bialosky gives us a haunting exploration of human
fragility and strength. She juxtaposes the story of Kim's death
with the challenge of becoming a mother and her own experience of
raising a son. This is a book that explores the families we are
born into, the families circumstances give us, and the tender and
enduring bonds that keep us connected to the people we love, even
after they have left us.
Edward Darby has everything a man could hope for: meaningful work,
a loving wife, and a beloved daughter. With a rising career as a
partner at an esteemed gallery he strives not to let ambition,
money, power, and his dark past corrode the sanctuary of his
domestic and private life. Influenced by his father, a brilliant
Romantics scholar, Edward has always been more of a purist than an
opportunist. But when a celebrated artist controlled by her
insecurities betrays him, and another very different artist awakens
his heart and stirs up secrets from his past, Edward will find
himself unmoored from his marriage, his work, and the memory of his
beloved father. And when the finalists of an important prize are
announced, and the desperate artists maneuver to seek its
validation, Edward soon learns that betrayal comes in many forms,
and that he may be hurtling toward an act that challenges his own
notions about what comprises a life worth living. A compelling
odyssey of a man unhinged by his ideals, The Prize is as well an
unflinching portrait of a marriage struggling against the corroding
tide of time and the proximity to the treacherous fault line
between art and money. Inspired by her work as a poet and the need
to preserve a private space for the creation of art, and with
language that pierces with longing, passion, and intelligence,
The Prize by Jill Bialosky is her most evocative and moving
novel yet.
""It is so nice to be happy. It always gives me a good feeling to
see other people happy...It is so easy to achieve." "--Kim's
journal entry, May 3, 1988
On the night of April 15, 1990, Jill Bialosky's twenty-one-year-old
sister Kim came home from a bar in downtown Cleveland. She argued
with her boyfriend on the phone. Then she took her mother's car
keys, went into the garage, closed the garage door. She climbed
into the car, turned on the ignition, and fell asleep. Her body was
found the next morning by the neighborhood boy her mother hired to
cut the grass.
Those are the simple facts, but the act of suicide is anything but
simple. For twenty years, Bialosky has lived with the grief, guilt,
questions, and confusion unleashed by Kim's suicide. Now, in a
remarkable work of literary nonfiction, she re-creates with
unsparing honesty her sister's inner life, the events and emotions
that led her to take her life on this particular night. In doing
so, she opens a window on the nature of suicide itself, our own
reactions and responses to it--especially the impact a suicide has
on those who remain behind.
Combining Kim's diaries with family history and memoir, drawing on
the works of doctors and psychologists as well as writers from
Melville and Dickinson to Sylvia Plath and Wallace Stevens,
Bialosky gives us a stunning exploration of human fragility and
strength. She juxtaposes the story of Kim's death with the
challenges of becoming a mother and her own exuberant experience of
raising a son. This is a book that explores all aspects of our
familial relationships--between mothers and sons, fathers and
daughters--but particularly the tender and enduring bonds between
sisters.
"History of a Suicide "brings a crucial and all too rarely
discussed subject out of the shadows, and in doing so gives readers
the courage to face their own losses, no matter what those may be.
This searing and compassionate work reminds us of the preciousness
of life and of the ways in which those we love are inextricably
bound to us.
"""[A] suspenseful tale ... Bialosky explores the idea that needy
people are often the most powerful and destabilizing. We're not
sure why Eleanor wants to have an affair ... but we believe she
does--and with a kind of reckless illogic that would do Tolstoy
proud."--"The New York Times" Eleanor Cahn, a professor of
literature, wife of a preeminent surgeon, and devoted mother of
two, is in Paris to present a paper on "Anna Karenina," A chance
encounter brings to the surface passions she has suppressed for
years. As "The Life Room "unfolds, we learn the secrets of her
erotic past: ethereal William, her high school boyfriend; her role
as muse to troubled painter Adam; her marriage to loyal, steady
Michael. On her return to New York, Eleanor's charged attraction to
another man takes on a life of its own, threatening to destroy
everything she has. Jill Bialosky has created a fresh, piercingly
real heroine who must choose between responsibility and desire.
"Bialosky creates a character brave enough to look back and try to
regenerate all the emotional intensity of her younger self. Eleanor
Cahn's journey is not just a reawakening, but a reclamation of a
vital part of herself long buried under domestic minutiae and the
travails of balancing family and career."--"The Boston Globe"""
"[Eleanor's] resolute self-destruction, with love the prime weapon,
gives this novel the feel of an oncoming train.--"The Los Angeles
Times""" A "Chicago Tribune "Favorite Book of 2007 jillbialosky.com
JILL BIALOSKY is the author of the acclaimed novel "House Under
Snow" and three collections of poetry, "The End of Desire,
Subterranean, "and "Intruder. "She is an editor at W. W. Norton
& Company and lives in NewYork City.
This first novel by a celebrated American poet is a story of
mothers and daughters, of sexual identity, and of a family
disintegrating after the premature death of its patriarch. Anna
Crane, soon to be married, reflects on her childhood in Ohio during
the 1960s and '70s with her two sisters and Lilly, her charismatic,
self-destructing mother. Lilly is consumed by memories of her late
husband and spends her days dreamily creating paper menageries or
preparing for dates with a stream of suitors. Evoking the
claustrophobia of small-town life, the novel races toward a
chilling conclusion when Anna is betrayed by the two most important
figures in her young life.
Not since Alice McDermott's "That Night" has there been such a
telling portrait of first love. And not since Mona Simpson's
"Anywhere But Here" have we witnessed the destructive, seductive
nature of a mother who insists on competing with her
children.
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