About this item
Highlights
- The lyrical, feminist novel that exploded onto the Romanian literary scene: a 21st-century Scheherazade recounts her life to a man from whom she is ready to part ways forever.
- About the Author: Magda Carneci is a widely acclaimed writer, translator and art critic in Romania, where she has become a leading voice among the gifted group of poets who began their careers under the waning influence of Communism in Eastern Europe.
- 232 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Women
Description
About the Book
The lyrical, feminist novel that exploded onto the Romanian literary scene: a 21st-century Scheherazade recounts her life to a man from whom she is ready to part ways forever.Book Synopsis
The lyrical, feminist novel that exploded onto the Romanian literary scene: a 21st-century Scheherazade recounts her life to a man from whom she is ready to part ways forever.Review Quotes
"What poetry does in FEM is the opposite of over intellectualizing. Cârneci charts how birth, something every mammal undergoes, has transformed and transcended to accompany so much meaning that it can barely be contained by sound or language." --Sarah McEachern, BOMB Magazine
"You know the saying in film studies, "Every frame a painting"? In this book, almost every sentence is a poem." --Travel Through Stories
"Like the north ends of two magnets, the two storytellers' refusal to meet tantalizes, inviting the reader into the no-man's land, in which they may question--or even participate in this exchange of identities. Cârneci's own active approach to living in a body, in fact, is exactly what she begs her listener/reader to adopt, and her appeal is so breathtaking, it's a wonder anyone could refuse." --Lindsay Semel, Asymptote
"Poet Cârneci's rich English-language debut records a woman's dreamlike ecstatic experiences and revelations...Full of strong imagery, this heavily symbolic work is a notable entry in international feminist literature." -Publishers Weekly
"...Cârneci is, in the end, an original writer and a masterful stylist, whose mastery of language comes vividly across through Sean Cotter's dexterous translation. Her stylistic ingenuity is felicitously rendered by her translator...Her novel transgresses feminist ideology, proposing a vision that implies a change in human perception, a vision attempting to unify the outside and the inside, the object and the subject of all human experience..." -Los Angeles Review of Books, Alta Ifland
"This novel is not about plot or character, it is about impressions, images, the beauties of nature, the female body and strange visions." -The Modern Novel
"FEM is a protest novel, a feminist text written with the fervor of a true poet, a book that registers the pain of women in a still male-dominated world. Beyond its feminist radicalism, this novel's readers will discover an impressive quality of mind and artistic refinement that attract our empathy." -Mircea Cărtărescu
"Magda Carneci is a leading international literary figure. So this searchingly philosophical, psychological and yet also brilliantly visceral fiction should come as no surprise. Yet its sustained and virtuoso interrogation of identity, gender and the struggle to become is astonishing. Brilliant, sensual yet also intellectually and politically charged, this is the sort of book that can change lives. -Fiona Sampson
"Profound, mysterious, emotional and gripping, FEM is a luminous and inspiring work of literature by one of the world's most valuable authors." -Deborah Levy, author of The Man Who Saw Everything, Hot Milk, and Swimming Home
"An author with a strong personality, whose voice has always been distinct within the '80s generation [of Romanian writers]." -Octavian Soviant, Observator Cultural "Magda Carneci is not only a distinguished poet, translator, and art critic but a first-rate novelist, who uses her storytelling gifts in FEM to open new worlds for the silent auditor of her strange visions. The narrator describes herself as "a tamer Scheherazade," but she is fierce in her quest to charm, instruct, and awaken readers to the particular challenges of a woman picking her way through the maze of modern life. These tales, spun from seemingly inconsequential moments into existential reflections on the nature of everything under the sun, will haunt your
About the Author
Magda Carneci is a widely acclaimed writer, translator and art critic in Romania, where she has become a leading voice among the gifted group of poets who began their careers under the waning influence of Communism in Eastern Europe. She is the recipient of prizes and grants from the Fulbright Foundation, Getty Trust, European Union, and more; in 2013, she won the "Opera Omnia" career prize from the Romanian Writers' Union. her poems have been translated into thirteen languages and included in numerous anthologies.
Sean Cotter has translated many works of Romanian literature, including Mircea Cărtărescu's Blinding (Archipelago Books, 2013) and Wheel with a Single Spoke, a selection from Nichita Stănescu (Archipelago Books, 2012), winner of the Best Translated Book Award for poetry. He is Professor of Literature and Translation Studies at the University of Texas at Dallas, where he is part of the Center for Translation Studies. He is currently working on a translation of Mircea Cărtărescu's Solenoid.