The Illustrated Version of Things
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- $24.99
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
The Illustrated Version of Things is the tale of a young woman, raised in foster homes, juvenile halls, and a mental hospital, on a quest to reunite her disparate family and track down her missing mother. There are her grandparents, Holocaust survivors who reckon with history by staying in bed with their cowboy boots on; her father, a nurse who makes vitamins as a hobby; and her half-brother, an overachiever who doesn’t know whether his name is Moses or Miguel, but is certain that his sister isn’t capable of leading a steady life. More than these, she longs for her mother, and she embarks on a search that leads her into the company of pedophiles, vagrant gamblers, fortune tellers, and musical ghosts. Enchantment and conjured memories become her only hope for finding her mother, until she undertakes a last-chance gambit—voluntary incarceration in the jail that might hold her mother—that will either set her free or follow her for life. Konar’s characters, incredible, tragic, and sympathetic, keep us in a state of deranged rapture, making The Illustrated Version of Things an original and irresistible fiction debut.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Emotionally raw and curiously disjointed, this first novel follows the increasing alienation of a mentally unstable young woman in pursuit of her mother. The unnamed narrator and her younger half-brother, Miguel, were taken from their addict mother and grew up in numerous foster homes. Over the last year the narrator has been institutionalized, then placed with her dotty grandparents, while Miguel has been living with a more conventional family and attending high school. Though the narrator wants to be part of Miguel's clean-cut new life, her ill-fated attempts at fitting in cheating, selling her meds only embarrass him. For a while, she is reunited with her biological father, but she begins to wander from one bizarre adventure to another, in and out of jobs, then returns to the hospital, hoping to be readmitted. The search for her mother begins to consume her, perilously, as she turns delusional, all the while grasping for scraps of information that win her more derision than sympathy. Konar's daffy coming-of-age novel isn't entirely convincing, but the moments of bold, vivid prose show promise.
