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Loading... Generation Lossby Elizabeth Hand
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Oh wow, I loved this book. Cass Neary's voice is so compelling: damaged, perceptive, viewing the world with the vocabulary of a photographer. She's a difficult person, with her odd acts like hiding a stranger's keys or stealing photos, but Hand makes her utterly convincing, real and raw. Her fascination with death, her appreciation of Denny's photos certainly complicate her likeability. Nonetheless, she carried my interest right through to the end, and her final decision felt like a natural extension of her thoughts for the islands throughout the novel. "Happy ending" is too upbeat a phrase, but it's surprisingly optimistic. About the only criticisms I can make are the lack of surprise around the killer's identity and that she gets back the film from the turtle-shell too easily. Perhaps she deserves to be right, to have things go well, for once. Those issues did not detract much for me. The characters are all real (though only Denny and Aphrodite match Cass' odd layers), the setting evoked well, the voice absolutely perfect. (  )1   Alankria | Aug 5, 2009 |  Thirty years ago Cassandra Neary was a brilliant photog, the 'it' girl, whose pictures of dead women were the newest fad. Now a washed-up addict, Cass is startled when given the opportunity to interview Aphrodite Kemestos, the woman whose art propelled her to first pick up a camera. Cass hastens to the Maine coast, hoping her muse can rekindle the flame she once possessed. But soon she finds that her arrival is no mere stroke of luck. Someone has remembered her obsession with the dead and they have an all too similar hobby. Elizabeth Hand is an author I discovered several years ago. Her first few books just blew my mind but the last two or three have really disappointed me. Part of me wondered if I should just face the reality of her new mode and go my own way. But Hand is so hard for me to walk away from because I love her style. Her writing is so very evocative. It envelopes me like a fog and I am completely encased in her world. So, I picked up Generation Loss with hope. I was not disappointed! This book reminded me very much of early Hand. But, as they say, you never step into the same river twice. It's definitely an evolution and that's good. The setting and the characters felt right. The book also has excellent energy, the movement of the story is at a good pace. I'm so very pleased and I'm ready for the next one! (  ) VictoriaPL | Jun 20, 2009 | The premise: Cassandra Neary got her fifteen minutes of fame in the seventies by photographing the burgeoning punk movement, the dark side of life, and the dead. She got art galleries and a book deal, and then shortly thereafter, her life went to hell. Thirty years later, she's a nothing, a nobody, an addict who cares for no one. But when she gets a chance to interview the photographer who was her inspiration, Cass takes the job, hoping to jump start her career. What she finds instead is a very small town with a decades-old mystery that's still going strong, and if she's not careful, she's going to get lost in it. My Rating Buy the Paperback: my general rule of hardcovers is that unless you're a DIE-HARD FAN of the author and/or one of those book collectors that must have first editions of everything you read and/or one of those readers who think that anything that isn't published in hardcover isn't worth your time, unless you're one of these types, you're better off getting a cheaper copy. In this case, I would've been perfectly happy spending the cash on the trade, but I took advantage of the first edition hardcover because my husband falls in group two and tends to fall in group three and he was there when I made the purchase. ANYWAY: it's a good read, especially if you let the idea of dark, magical realism fuel the tension of the prose, because it keeps you from really guessing what's going on and why, and it adds an extra element of mystery to everything that happens. The book never really SAYS there's something supernatural involved, and in truth, reading it as straight, realistic fiction (that's got a mystery) is probably more legit than my dark, magical realism reading. At any rate, the prose is solid, and Cass Neary is a character that makes you work hard to like her, but in the end, the voice pulled me through, as well as Cass's unique perspective on the world. I love how the art of photography is used to describe Cass's world, even when she isn't talking about her trade. The ending was a little unsatisfying for me, but I enjoy Hand's writing very much (in fact, I really like how the setting really permeates the prose) and will definitely look for more of her work, both past and future (after all, I still have to get my hands on Waking the Moon). Review style: I'll be honest, I finished this book last weekend and I'm still trying to figure out how to review the sucker. I don't feel I have much to talk about, so I'm going to revert to my usual stream-of-conscious reaction to the text that usually ends up in spoilers. The full, spoilered review as well as cover art commentary, may be found in my LJ. As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. REVIEW: Elizabeth Hand's GENERATION LOSS Happy Reading! :) ( ) devilwrites | May 7, 2009 | There are generous people in the world and writers can be some of the more generous. Writers have opened up whole worlds for me to explore and without writers and their worlds, I probably would not have survived my childhood. I keep sort of harping on that when I write about books because I believe having reading skills gives you entree to so many thoughts, feelings, inspiration, and ways to think about the world, and to start thinking for yourself. I took Elizabeth Hand’s novel Generation Loss with me on my recent vacation (December '07) and finished it after I returned. It was not an easy read (you’ll see why below), much like Richard Beymer’s book Impostor was not an easy read (actually, a much harder read than Impostor), and oddly enough both in many ways about the photographer’s gaze and protagonists who struggle mightily, and both containing autobiographical elements. Elizabeth has a forum at Nightshade Books where she, again that word, generously, talks about her novels, her writing, even her life experiences, in a friendly and open way. I didn’t write a review of Generation Loss but I left her a short note with my impressions: I don’t know all the fancy words and meanings behind what writers do with their own prose style, but I believe this novel might be called “stripped bare.” I finished the book a few days ago and have had to let it sit awhile with me. Never have I read, at least that I can remember, a tale so grim and unrelenting in terms of a protagonist I sort of loathed, while at the same time, I rooted for. And every time Cass screwed up again or did something unethical or dishonest, that cycle of loathing and rooting for would repeat. Well, all art is a journey and this book took me someplace wild, weird and different. And touching. The imagery evoked is not lush like Waking the Moon, but it has its own elegant beauty within the harsh landscape of nature, and human being. This is why I read your work, Elizabeth. Because I love not only the places it takes me but how it makes me examine my own humanity. I high recommend anything Elizabeth Hand writes. ( ) TonyaJ | Sep 5, 2008 | My husband asked if I'd heard of Elizabeth Hand--apparently there'd been a lot of buzz about her books lately "on the blogs." Thank goodness I didn't buy this book--short, but not to the point. If one writes a thriller, shouldn't one try for a compelling plot early in the book, especially a short book? A character's anger and angst are plot points, perhaps, but do not count as actual plot. Alas. Has some surprise gory stuff, but whatever--I just didn't care. (  ) hairball | Jul 21, 2008 |  no reviews | add a review
Amazon.com Book Description (ISBN 0156031345, Paperback)Praise for Elizabeth Hand's previous novels: "Inhabits a world between reason and insanity-it's a delightful waking dream."--People "One of the most sheerly impressive, not to mention overwhelmingly beautiful books I have read in a long time."--Peter Straub Cass Neary made her name in the 1970s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures of the musicians and hangers on, the infamous, the damned, and the dead, got her into art galleries and a book deal. But 30 years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out. Then an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Downeast, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and into one final shot at redemption. Questions for Elizabeth Hand Jeff VanderMeer for Amazon.com: Your novel Generation Loss introduces readers to a very eccentric and sometimes selfish photographer named Cass. Are all artists inherently selfish? Hand: Yes. You can't be an artist without being inherently self-involved, without believing that the world owes you a living, and that everything you do--anything, matter how sick or twisted or feeble or pathetic--is worthy of attention. This is the secret behind the success of stuff like American Idol and YouTube. This is the world Andy Warhol bequeathed to us. Amazon.com: Isn't it partially that selfishness that results in great fiction? Isn't the antagonist of your novel in a way driven by selfishness? Hand: I don't think I'd call it selfishness, to be truthful. I think creating any real art depends on an intense amount of focus¬--of filtering out the rest of the world as much as you can, to sustain and then impart your own vision or secondary world--what John Gardner called "the vivid and continuous dream." I think the antagonist of Generation Loss sees himself as being impelled by love--romantic love, carnal love, the pure love of artistic creation--not selfishness. Whereas Cass's motivation is something far darker and more sinister than love. She's seen the abyss; she lives there. Amazon.com: Is Cass Neary a prototypical "bad girl"? Hand: Well, she's your prototypical amoral speedfreak crankhead kleptomaniac murderous rage-filled alcoholic bisexual heavily-tattooed American female photographer. So, yeah. Amazon.com: So this is definitely not what you'd call "chick lit"? Hand: Umm, probably not. If it were a movie, it would have a NC-17 rating. Or maybe NR. Is Lolita considered chick lit? That book had a huge influence on me, especially with this novel. I always wanted to create a narrator like Humbert Humbert, someone utterly reprehensible and unsympathetic who still manages to command a reader's attention and even an uneasy sympathy. I loved the idea of making a reader complicit with the crimes committed by a protagonist. The simple act of continuing to turn the pages makes you guilty by association. Amazon.com: Did you have a particular artist in mind as the inspiration for the foul-smelling but visionary paintings in the novel? Hand: No. That part I made up. Amazon.com: C'mon. You're not allowed to just make things up. Spill the beans. Hand: No, I really didn't have anyone in mind. There are elements of the work of photographers I admire--Robert Mapplethorpe, Cindy Sherman, Sally Man, Joel-Peter Witkin--and of outsider artists like Henry Darger or Richard Dadd or Roky Erickson. But the whole concept of an artist creating his own emulsion paper--I thought of that, then researched it and learned that, indeed, some photographers work that way. I also consulted a photographic conservator who's an acquaintance and asked him, Is this possible? He said yes, and I took it from there. Amazon.com: Are people in Maine as mean toward tourists as you describe? Hand: No. Just me. Though folks who work at the general store three doors down from me really do sometimes wear a T-shirt that reads THEY CALL IT TOURIST SEASON, WHY CAN'T WE SHOOT THEM? So, okay, me and them. Amazon.com: Have you ever driven a tourist off your property with a shovel? Hand: Not yet. But I would. A few years ago friend said he pictured me up on the Laurentian shield, threatening outsiders with a pitchfork. That's pretty accurate. Amazon.com: Weren't you once a tourist? Hand: Never. I lived in DC for 13 years, and worked for a long time at the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum--Tourist Central. That effectively killed any sympathy I might ever have had towards them. Amazon.com: What's coming up for you? Hand: Well, I'll be doing some touring and readings for this book, and I hope to record the entire novel as a podcast/audio book--I'm very excited to be performing again. I'm presently at work on a YA novel about Arthur Rimbaud called Wonderwall, to be published by Viking, and am brooding on another novel that might be something along the lines of Generation Loss, or not. I get restless and like to shift gears a lot. So we'll see. (retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:11 -0400) The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details. |
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