Bone Truth - Softcover

Finger, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566890284 ISBN 13: 9781566890281

Publisher: Coffee House Press, 1994

Synopsis

Unplanned pregnancy causes Elizabeth, a 33-year-old disabled activist and feminist artist, to confront her history. "Finger's debut novel is marked by lyrical, searing prose that evokes the strength, influence, and fragility of memory. Funny, stirring, tender, true."--Kirkus¶"Finger's first novel cuts to the bone and deeper."--Booklist

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Engaging and entertaining, Bone Truth is the story of a woman about to start a new life. But Elizabeth Etters' present is filled with complex choices and her past with even more persistent questions. Whether about the McCarthy era of her Communist Party parents or her contemporary relationship with a young artist, Bone Truth is a novel of reconciliation, failure, love, courage, compromise, and passion.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Politics, art, memories, and dreams forge a potent identity as one woman tries to make sense of her life. An unplanned pregnancy gives Elizabeth, a 33-year-old disabled activist and feminist artist, the impetus finally to confront her history. She takes inventory of her current lifestyle, which involves teaching art on a grant at the San Francisco Independent Living Center, mounting an exhibit of photographs of naked disabled women, and working for better health care for the women of Nicaragua. And all the while she is thankful for the small miracles that enable her to live as she does--doing Real Work (her art) instead of Work Work (night-shift word-processing at a law firm)- -like the kosher Cuban black beans and rice recipe at 20 cents a serving that she eats a few nights a week, and the student who finds linen tunics and velvet smoking jackets for her at the Salvation Army and hides them under the used sheets until he can bring her back to try them on. But a baby could change everything. She wonders if her four-month-old relationship with a 24-year-old photographer can last. She looks back at a nervous breakdown and suicide attempt and remembers that she wasn't always as strong as she now seems. Most important, she tries to understand her own upbringing in the home of Communist parents who suffered in the McCarthy era. But while no amount of digging can fully explain how these white-bread children turned into fascist-fighting Reds and then became vacant (in the case of her mother) or abusive (in the case of her father) alcoholics, Elizabeth's journey finally brings a sense of acceptance and peace. Finger's debut novel is marked by lyrical, searing prose that evokes the strength, influence, and fragility of memory. Funny, stirring, tender, true. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 1566890284
• ISBN 13: 9781566890281
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192