Jesus Saves - Softcover

Steinke, Darcey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0965052648 ISBN 13: 9780965052641

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1997

Synopsis

From one of the most daring young writers in America, Jesus Saves, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, is a suburban gothic that explores the sources of evil, confronts the dynamic shifts within theology, and traces the consequences of suburban alienation. Set in the modern launch pads of adolescent ritual, the strip malls and duplexes on the back side of suburbia, it's the story of two girls: Ginger, a troubled minister's daughter; and Sandy Patrick, who has been abducted from summer camp and now smiles from missing-child posters all over town. Layering the dreamscapes of Alice in Wonderland with the subculture of River's Edge, Darcey Steinke's Jesus Saves is an unforgettable passage through the depths of the literary imagination.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"The most ferocious and chilling portrait of suburbia in years . . .Imagine a goth-rock, literary lovechild of Cormac McCarthy and Flannery O'Connor."-The Village Voice

From one of the most daring and sensuous young writers in America, Jesus Saves, a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, is a suburban gothic that explores the sources of evil, confronts the dynamic shifts within theology, and traces the consequences of suburban alienation. Set in the modern launch pads of adolescent ritual, the strip malls and duplexes on the back side of suburbia, it's the story of two girls: Ginger, a troubled minister's daughter; and Sandy Patrick, who has been abducted from summer camp and now smiles from missing-child posters all over town.

Layering the dreamscapes of Alice in Wonderland with the subculture of River's Edge, Darcey Steinke's Jesus Saves is an unforgettable passage through the depths of the literary imagination.

"A disturbing and beautiful novel from one of America's most interesting young female writers."-Details

"A disturbingly beautiful piece of writing. Darcey Steinke has found a trashy and intensely spiritual poetry in the suburban malls and backwoods of the South, and she has set them before us in gorgeous, unsettling prose."-The New York Times Book Review

"Steinke writes with an admirable level of attention to sensual detail. As in David Lynch's films . . . it seems characters will ignite their combustible surroundings."-L.A. Weekly Literary Supplement

Darcey Steinke is also the author of the novels Up Through the Water and Suicide Blonde. Her journalism has appeared in Spin, George, The Guardian (London), Artforum, and The Village Voice.

From Kirkus Reviews:

A grim and often persuasive view of modern suburbia as the outer circle of hell. Steinke (Suicide Blonde, 1992, etc.) clearly knows the terrain well. Her portrait of a northeastern suburb, in which the well- ordered housing developments and antiseptic malls can't quite suppress the disorder lurking close by, is precise and convincing. Adolescent Ginger, the protagonist, is uneasily caught between those worlds. Her father is a minister, a sign of order and continuity in the community. But Ginger, who has watched her mother die slowly of cancer, senses that life is willful and violent. Even the remnants of the natural world around her--garbage-strewn lots and contaminated streams--seem to suggest decay. Meanwhile, her boyfriend, horribly scarred in an accident, is obsessed with death. (When they strike and kill a deer on a dark road, he cuts off the head as a trophy, and carefully describes to her the stages of its decomposition.) The clearest sign of disorder, though, is the disappearance of a local girl, Sandy Patrick, who's been kidnapped from summer camp by a child molester. Invisible to authorities, he drives his nondescript van, with Sandy tied up inside, aimlessly from one town to the next, smuggling the terrified and abused child into one seedy motel room after another. Ginger, desperate to find some purpose to life, becomes obsessed with Sandy's disappearance, and begins trying to puzzle out who the child was. Several chapters follow Sandy's horrific existence with ``the troll,'' the deranged figure who's keeping her captive. Ginger's wayward investigation finally brings her to an unexpected, violent confrontation with him. Charting suburban despair and ennui is not new terrain, but Steinke brings to her portrait a powerful dark lyricism, a sharp eye for character, and a seemingly natural gift for metaphor. This is angry, painful, disturbing fiction, its impact only slightly lessened by the occasional rhapsodic outbursts of some of the characters. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0965052648
• ISBN 13: 9780965052641
• Binding: Paperback