Asa, as I Knew Him

3.5 5Writing this is my last effort at transubstantiation From his long, pale limbs I will make, by words, the body and blood of a human If I fail, it can t be done.Asa and Dinah s affair is over Yet Dinah is still obsessed with her former lover s soullessness Kaysen s Asa, as I Knew Him is not a love story, though the affair does set the scene It s a book within a book It is Dinah s last attempt to give Asa a soul To do this Dinah writes about teenage Asa an incident in his youth, half assemble [...]

An interesting book that sidesteps the usual pitfalls of the doomed love affair story by simply not telling it at all What we get instead is much interesting Dinah and Asa s affair is over Dinah is a Jewish woman raised by not particularly religious parents and Asa is a pedigreed Boston WASP , handsome and charming and soulless It was part of Dinah s obsession that she find Asa s inner quality, his dormant spirit and bring it out into the open But she failed The bulk of this book is her last at [...]

I think I found this at a garage sale a long time ago for a quarter I was pleasantly surprised I really liked it except for the long backstory of Asa s life Clever, yes, but it just didn t work for me The love story and crumbling of the relationship is so good, I would have rather read that for the full 150 pages If you are tired of the same old same old books, read this.

I have to admit if it weren t for Girl, Interrupted, I would ve never picked this up But I m glad I did It s a very nontraditional and unorthodox book a breath of fresh air after all the formulaic novels And Kaysen writes absolutely beautifully There were some paragraphs that I just had to copy down because I loved them so much.

Here is an affair portrayed creatively, at once sexy and scientific my favorite combination It s pleasing to get your dose of trashy romance whilst being amused by an author s wit Kaysen s memoir,Girl, Interrupted,sat at the back of my mind the entire time I read this book The nonfiction account of mental illness and patriarchy in the 60 s highlights sacrifice of societal acceptance for self expression and freedom, and not allowing the authorities in one s life to stifle one into normality Kayse [...]

A less well known book by the author of Girl InterruptedWorth your time

Ahhh

Now this one, I love It s terse, but somehow still dreamy A beautiful work on memory and obsession.

I really enjoy anything by this author The language she uses keeps you compelled long after you ve put down the book.

Beautiful.

Kaysen s language is precise and spare, and though her story is not suspenseful or riveting, it holds the imagination She carries the reader along in a gentle tale.