Synopses & Reviews
A brilliant American debut from one of Scotland's most acclaimed writers, named by
Granta as one of the "Twenty Best Young British Novelists."
Emotionally numb, crippled with insomnia, and caught in a frightening, abusive marriage, Helen Brindle believes that God has recently left her. She spends her days performing banal domestic chores in front of a blaring television. On the BBC one day she watches a self-help guru expound on, among other things, the "rules" of masturbation and the importance of "interior lives." Edward G. Gluck, she discovers has developed a program that guides lost souls toward contentment. Helen seeks him out, hoping to find an answer. Instead she discovers Gluck's own sadomasochistic obsession, and his profound shame and disgust. And what they both encounter, painfully, is the love each fears and both yearn to embrace.
Review
"Kennedy is a world class writer." The New York Times Book Review
Review
"A darkly comic tale....[that] is hilariously funny about sexual obsession and brilliantly perceptive about the dynamics of human relationships." The Baltimore Sun
Review
"From its opening paragraph, the writer's quirky, tender voice makes you listen up....It is like no other book....Kennedy deserves to be compared to no one but her own fiercely talented self." New Yorker
Review
"The Scots regard [Kennedy] as a national treasure....Kennedy's telling [of Mrs. Brindle's story] a balance brokered among character and narrative and voice makes Original Bliss the kind of Full Monty experience that will leave readers hungering for more." New York Times Book Review
Synopsis
"Kennedy is a world class writer."--
The New York Times Book Review A brilliant American debut from one of Scotland's most acclaimed writers, named by Granta as one of the Twenty Best Young British Novelists.
Emotionally numb, crippled with insomnia, and caught in a frightening, abusive marriage, Helen Brindle believes that God has recently left her. She spends her days performing banal domestic chores in front of a blaring television. On the BBC one day she watches a self-help guru expound on, among other things, the "rules" of masturbation and the importance of "interior lives." Edward G. Gluck, she discovers has developed a program that guides lost souls toward contentment. Helen seeks him out, hoping to find an answer. Instead she discovers Gluck's own sadomasochistic obsession, and his profound shame and disgust. And what they both encounter, painfully, is the love each fears and both yearn to embrace.
"A darkly comic tale.... that] is hilariously funny about sexual obsession and brilliantly perceptive about the dynamics of human relationships."--The Baltimore Sun
About the Author
A. L. Kennedy's next book, So I am Glad, will be published by Knopf in January 2000. She lives in Glasgow, Scotland.