by Heidi Julavits
This is an engaging comic novel about psychics, artsy filmmakers who make porn as art, motherless daughters, and Barcelona chairs. Julavits sweeps the narrative along with such deftness that the randomness she employs never seems random. Towards the end, though, she rushes us along a little too hurr...
I really tried to get into The Vanishers. I started the audiobook 3 times. On the last try, I finished the first CD and I realized I had no idea what was going on or what the author was talking about. I was never able to orient myself to the world the author was trying to create. I may at some ...
I tried but the prose irritated me no end. Didn't/couldn't finish reading it.
Imagine a world where psychic behavior is not only believed but admired and encouraged. There is formal training for those who show the aptitude, and those with the most talent are considered the rock stars of the industry. This is the world in which the curtains first open on to Julia Severn's life...
"Open The Vanishers to any page and you'll find some of the snappiest dialogue going. Stylish and fiercely funny, Heidi Julavits' fourth novel explores the imagined dangers and dizzying thrills of being a career psychic....Julavits is a fearlessly inventive writer, a risk-taker who never shies away ...
I must admit, the bright pinkish, floral cover of this novel, as well as the description about mother-daughter psychic damage, gave me pause, as I generally don't like touch-feely fiction unless I'm in a particular mood, but Knopf often publishes books I like, and I decided to give this strange soun...