White Bird in a Blizzard: A NovelLaura Kasischke's first novel, SUSPICIOUS RIVER, was hailed as "extremely powerful" (The Los Angeles Times) and "amazing...beautifully written" (The Boston Globe). Now Kasischke follows up her auspicious debut with mesmerizing story of youthful passion and loss of innocence. When Katrina Connors' mother walks out on her family, Kat is surprised but not shocked; the whole year she has been "becoming sixteen" - falling in love with the boy next door, shedding her babyfat, discovering sex - her mother has been slowly withdrawing. As Kat and her impassive father pick up the pieces of their daily lives, she finds herself curiously unaffected by her mother's absence. But in dreams that become too real to ignore, she's haunted by her mother's cries for help. Finally, she must act on her instinct that something violent and evil has occurred - a realization that brings Kat to a chilling discovery. Like SUSPICIOUS RIVER, which The New Yorker described as "by turns terrifying and ravishingly lyrical," WHITE BIRD BLIZZARD evokes works of Kathryn Harrison and Joyce Carol Oates - and confirms Kasischke's arrival as a major literary talent. |
From inside the book
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... Phil glances back at the ceiling quickly and falls again into the pillow , shaking his head . " No , " he says . " I want ... Phil's mother spooning blindness into her own open mouth like devil's food cake . But without texture or weight ...
... Phil suggests . " It's probably the furnace , like Kat says . " 99 " Do you want some more coffee ? " I ask politely , try- ing to make up for Phil's unkindness - his tone , which is the tone of an angry youth , a disrespectful son ...
... Phil's crossing the shallow daffodil ditch between us : Nothing even close to blooming there . Maybe this year it won't . Maybe Phil's finally trudged through them so much , Mrs. Lefkowsky's bulbs have given up , gotten the word , heard ...