| Second Skin Contributor(s): Hawkes, John (Author) |
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ISBN: 0811216446 ISBN-13: 9780811216449 Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation OUR PRICE: $15.26 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: November 2005 Annotation: Skipper, an ex-World War II naval Lieutenant and the narrator of "Second Skin," interweaves past and present--what he refers to as his "naked history"--in a series of episodes that tell the story of a volatile life marked by pitiful losses, as well as a more elusive, overwhelming, joy. The past: the suicides of his father, wife and daughter, the murder of his son-in-law, a brutal rape, and subsequent mutiny at sea. The present: caring for his granddaughter on a "northern" island where he works as an artificial inseminator of cows, and attempts to reclaim the innocence with which he faced the tragedies of his earlier life. Combining unflinching descriptions of suffering with his sense of beauty, Hawkes is a master of nimble and sensuous prose who makes the awful and mundane fantastic, and occasionally makes the fantastic surreal. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Fiction | Literary - Fiction | Classics - Fiction | Psychological |
| Dewey: FIC |
| LCCN: 2005021516 |
| Lexile Measure: 1310 |
| Physical Information: 0.56" H x 5.34" W x 7.94" (0.54 lbs) 240 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Skipper, an ex-World War II naval Lieutenant and the narrator of Second Skin, interweaves past and present--what he refers to as his naked history--in a series of episodes that tell the story of a volatile life marked by pitiful losses, as well as a more elusive, overwhelming, joy. The past: the suicides of his father, wife and daughter, the murder of his son-in-law, a brutal rape, and subsequent mutiny at sea. The present: caring for his granddaughter on a northern island where he works as an artificial inseminator of cows, and attempts to reclaim the innocence with which he faced the tragedies of his earlier life. Combining unflinching descriptions of suffering with his sense of beauty, Hawkes is a master of nimble and sensuous prose who makes the awful and mundane fantastic, and occasionally makes the fantastic surreal. |
Contributor Bio(s): Hawkes, John: - John Hawkes (1925-1998) was a postmodern novelist born in Stamford, Connecticut, and educated at Harvard University. He was noted for his unconventional style and views on the creation of literature and was admired by Flannery O'Connor, Robert Penn Warren, Saul Bellow, Anthony Burgess, Jeffrey Eugenides, and Donald Barthelme. |