Orphan, survivor, caffeine addict, Becky is on the verge of 30 and hoping to become famous with her first solo show of dismemberment collages in New York's East Village. Becky, Hugh, Dahlia, and Max are friends who have formed a dysfunctional but necessary surrogate family. For as long as they have known each other their common language has been Callie-past tense-the crisis-prone, vivid, manipulative chameleon whose friendship has damaged them all individually.Hugh, now a CPA in California, once was the most sophisticated undergrad and object of Becky's frustrated desire and rivalry with Callie. Max, all leather, brooding and disguise, the actor Callie left Hugh for, also had an affair with Dahlia, the big-hearted dancer struggling against being victimized. When Dahlia plots a revenge drama to be staged at Becky's gallery opening, she unwittingly revives their nostalgia for the outcast Callie's seductive charm and sets in motion a plan that forces Becky and Callie to play out their lethal emotional rivalry to the end. Told from the point of view of Becky, Narcissus Ascending is an unputdownable debut. Karen McKinnon's dissection of friendship and of the manipulative rivalry of two strong women is provocative and disturbing. Author Biography: Karen McKinnon was chosen by Francine Prose to receive the New Voice Fiction Award for her novel in progress. Narcissus Ascending is her first novel. She lives in New York.