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Profoundly hypnotic and deeply disturbing, this astonishing literary debut is destined to be one of the most controversial novels of the year. 'I could never predict what was going to ruin me and what was going to rescue me.' says Ilyana Meyerovitch, a self-confessed suicidal, strung-out Jew. Into her life, and her flat, walks her opposite - Susie Lyons - blonde, artistic, optimistic and above all, innocent. LIKE BEING KILLED is about the devastating effects the two women have on each other show more as they start to share more than a flat. Simultaneously drawn to Susie's wholesome values and repelled, Ilyana's desire for what Susie has will take her into the grip of a downward spiral whose only outcome is oblivion. LIKE BEING KILLED is the 90s brat-pack gone wrong. A novel of drugs, dependency and the myth of sisterhood, it takes the trust implicit in flat-sharing to its ultimate conclusion..... show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I first read this book in the early 2000's (published in 1998) and was horrified and amazed. Over the years I would check to see if Miller had written another book to no avail. When I picked this up nearly 20 years later to read again, I did further searching and found that the author has been dead since 2008. The book was just as wonderful, funny, sad and horrifying but sadder somehow knowing that her next book would never be written.
This is my favorite book of all time. I've read it so many times that I don't have to read it anymore to know exactly what is going to happen on each page. It is well written and profound. There are parts of it that connect to life every day. You'll definitely never look at cucumbers the same way again. It's intense, but worth getting through. I've lent it to people that read it and could only say, "wow." Ellen Miller became my favorite author by writing one book, that's how good it was. It was a great disappointment when the second novel that was supposedly in the works never came.
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Author Information
1+ Work 138 Members
Series
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Like Being Killed
- Original publication date
- 1998
- People/Characters
- Illyana, Susana
- Important places
- New York, New York, USA
- Epigraph
- Swimming
I've learned to swim on dry land. It turns out to be more practical than doing it in the water. There is no fear of sinking, for one is already on the bottom, and by the same token, one is drowned beforehand. I... (show all)t also avoids having to be fished out by the light of a lantern or in the dazzling clarity of a beautiful day. Finally, the absence of water keeps one from swelling up.
I won't deny that swimming on dry land is somewhat agonizing. At first sight one would be reminded of death throes. Nevertheless, this is different: at the same time one is agonizing, one is quite alive, quite alert, listening to the music entering through the window and watching the worm crawl across the floor.
At first my friends criticized this decision. They fled from my glances and sobbed in the corners. Happily, the crisis is past. Now they know that I am comfortable swimming on dry land. Once in a while I sink my hands into the marble tiles and offer them a tiny fish that I catch in the submarine depths.
~Virgilio Pinera - Dedication
- For my friends
- First words
- We crowded around the rickety kitchen table, predicting how each of us would die.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And we sat there like that--each holding the other's hand in the air between our chairs, loosely, like a rickety footbridge of flesh suspended over a ravine--for a very long time.
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Statistics
- Members
- 138
- Popularity
- 236,252
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 4
