The Magic Touch
A Novel
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
This wild, magic-realist ride of a novel, originally published in 1994, is funny, sexy, satirical, linguistically exuberant, and utterly unique. Written as a fictional biography, it tells the life story of a woman with magical sexual powers that she uses to heal people. The story follows our heroine from her miraculous birth through her childhood in a magical orphanage to adulthood, when she uncovers sinister conspiracies among political and well-hidden foes. Woven into The Magic Touch is that of her grandmother, whose mysterious background propels the story forward in ways that begin as Faustian and end up as spiritual. The story culminates in a spectacular—and hilarious—showdown between the forces of good and evil.
This ebook re-release of The Magic Touch includes a new introduction that should be a must-read for fans of this book and aspiring writers everywhere. It reveals how Rachel stumbled on the idea for the heart of the story, the long journey she took in producing the book, and the kind words given by a respected professor that inspired her, at her lowest moment, to pick herself up and keep going.
The Magic Touch was Rachel Simon’s second book and first novel. It was a 1994 selection of the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers program, which highlights books of exceptional literary quality from authors at the starts of their careers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This playful, bawdy first novel is presented as a biography of ``sexual healer'' Celeste Kipplebaum Runetoon Kelley, whose convoluted moniker characterizes the overall goofy spirit. Simon imaginatively combines a young woman's coming-of-age story with the concept of deities in human form and pure evil infiltrating homes through TV sets. From day one, Celeste performs miracles, delivering herself from her dead mother's womb, then reviving her. Celeste grows up able to see colored patterns in people's shadows, and she can heal by drawing out the negative colors. During puberty, she begins to use sex to cure the sick. Ailing people turn her on; even criminals are helpless against her, for she exerts superhuman strength in dangerous situations. The down side is that villains intend to end her altruistic ways, and Celeste herself fears that her unquenchable lust is a tool of the devil. If suspension of disbelief is well-nigh impossible to come by--Celeste's hometown is the Bullwinklesque Fossilfink Falls, Pa., the venal U.S. vice president's name is Stinkweed and Celeste motors around in a Dodge Royal that talks--Simon ( Little Nightmares, Little Dreams , a collection of stories) deserves credit for unpredictability, inventiveness and a slam-bang finish. Easy-going readers with a high tolerance for sexy, often raunchy escapades are in for a wild ride.
