Motion Sickness

Description

From Publishers Weekly The nameless narrator of Tillman's second novel (after Haunted Houses ) is a young American traveling through Europe--from Istanbul to London to Amsterdam to Crete to Paris and back again. She lives in the travelers' void where identities are amorphous and friendships fleeting and often explosive. Her stream-of-consciousness non-record of her trips (since she writes only postcards, which are often not sent) reveals only indirect clues about her. Instead we hear her experiences and reflections, and meet her travel buddies: Jessica, an American whose English husband has left her; the English brothers Alfred and Paul; ex-New York City policeman Sal; and Clara, an older German lesbian living in Barcelona. Our tour guide's father has died recently, the probable cause of what at times seems a search, at other times, a running away. Her locales change seemingly on whims and her narrative follows in the same vein--if something reminds her of London, that's the next remembrance. Everything we hear is filtered through her mind: "One remembers even the recent past so imperfectly and so much in relation to oneself that every object is skewered upon one's own identity, like a kind of shish kebab." She's living in a world of very little structure, which is successfully-- almost too well--reflected in writing that, although often lyrical and at times poetic, also lacks a focus. The result produces a frustrated reader, detached from a distant narrator who won't reveal herself--or let us empathize. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more From Library Journal By the author of Haunted Houses (LJ 3/1/87), this novel is a loose chronicle of a single woman's months of wandering in the cities of contemporary Europe. The unnamed American protagonist is vaguely bohemian, although her past life is nebulous. She collects hundreds of postcards on her trip, "which she often writes on but may not always send." The book itself is like these cards: a series of scenes, ordered by their relationships to each other rather than chronologically. Filmmaker Tillman focuses on the process of the trip rather than on any destination, giving us an intense and personal narrative. People and events are approached obliquely and never fully explained, as if we might know them already. This lean book is a welcome change after the baroque excesses of much contemporary fiction. Recommended for sophisticated readers. Literary Guild alternate.- Gwen Gregory, U . S . Courts Lib., PhoenixCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Read more

Features:

Product Details:

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (April 15, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671730282
• ISBN-13: 84
• Package Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• #432036 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States

Handling

We will ship all orders within 1 business days of payment.

Delivery

We do not ship outside of the USA, **except** via Global Shipping Program. [however, for postcards and other lightweight paper items, we DO ship internationally ourselves.]

Feedback

We take our reputation seriously, we buy and sell online, so we understand the value of trust. If you are unsatisfied with your order, please contact us and we will work with you to resolve it to your satisfaction.