Life Form
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $12.99
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Life Form, Amélie Nothomb's nineteenth novel is a smart, singular, surreal novel about personality and philosophy, trauma and healing, solitude and human connection from one of the most widely read and beloved authors working today.
One morning, the heroine of this book, a famous author named Amélie Nothomb, receives a letter from a fan, Melvin Mapple, an American soldier stationed in Iraq. Horrified by the endless violence around him, he takes comfort in eating. He eats and eats until his ever-growing bulk starts to suffocate him and he can barely fit into his oversized clothes. Disgusted with himself, but unable to control his eating, he labels his excess self Scheherazade as a type of coping mechanism.
Repulsed but also fascinated by Mapple's story, Nothomb begins to exchange letters with him. She opens up to Melvin about the challenges of being in the public spotlight and about her artistic processes. An epistolary friendship of sorts develops, one that delves into universal questions about human relationships. The bond between Mapple and Nothomb will undergo a sea of change when the novelist discovers bizarre facts lurking behind Mapple's complex personal story.
Life Form is a riveting and topical novel by an author who never fails both to delight and to surprise her readers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Belgian author Nothomb receives a letter from 400 pound US Army private Melvin Mapple in December 2008. Normally she would ignore it, but something makes her respond. This ordinary beginning to Nothomb's first English release since Tokyo Fianc e quickly becomes a deep look at war, what it means to depend on another human being, and the nature of writing. Amelie hates long letters and hides from fan requests, but agrees to help Melvin commit weight-gaining "body art" as a protest to the war America is fighting. Over two years the two grow to depend on each other's letters to create a shared reality. All is well until Melvin disappears. Amelie worriedly searches and what she finds is a despairing man who has nothing "left to live for." Through an epistolary exchange punctuated by brief commentary, Nothomb presents two lonely figures enveloped in a world of letters. By the time Amelie, filled with self-doubt, ends up on a flight to Baltimore to meet Melvin in person, the reader joins her in asking what it is she's doing. Nothomb's story expands with Melvin's weight gain, taking on American military policy and even reality itself; but her greatest, most tragic creation is herself, and you will get on that plane with her.
