Helen Keller Really Lived

A Novel

Fiction & Literature, Literary
Cover of the book Helen Keller Really Lived by Elisabeth Sheffield, University of Alabama Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Elisabeth Sheffield ISBN: 9781573668484
Publisher: University of Alabama Press Publication: September 30, 2014
Imprint: Fiction Collective 2 Language: English
Author: Elisabeth Sheffield
ISBN: 9781573668484
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Publication: September 30, 2014
Imprint: Fiction Collective 2
Language: English

What does it mean to really live? Or not?
 
Set in eastern, upstate New York, Helen Keller Really Lived features a fortyish former barfly and grifter who must make a living in the wake of her wealthy husband’s death, and who finds work in a clinic helping women seeking reproductive assistance. The other main character is the grifter’s dead ex-husband, a Ukrainian hooker-to-healer success story, who prior to his demise was a gynecologist and after, an amateur folklorist, or ghostlorist, who collected and provided scholarly commentary on the stories of his fellow “revenants.”
 
Their intertwined stories explore the mistakes, miscarriages, inadequacies, and defeats that may have led to their divorce, including his failure (according to her) to “fully live.”
 
As it investigates the theme of what it means to “really live” or not, Elisabeth Sheffield’s brilliant new novel is also an exploration of virtual reality in the sense of the experience provided by literature. It is a novel awash in a multitude of voices, from the obscenity-laced, Nabokovian soliloquys of the dead Ukrainian doctor, to the trade-school / midcentury-romance-novel-constrained style of his dead mother-in-law.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

What does it mean to really live? Or not?
 
Set in eastern, upstate New York, Helen Keller Really Lived features a fortyish former barfly and grifter who must make a living in the wake of her wealthy husband’s death, and who finds work in a clinic helping women seeking reproductive assistance. The other main character is the grifter’s dead ex-husband, a Ukrainian hooker-to-healer success story, who prior to his demise was a gynecologist and after, an amateur folklorist, or ghostlorist, who collected and provided scholarly commentary on the stories of his fellow “revenants.”
 
Their intertwined stories explore the mistakes, miscarriages, inadequacies, and defeats that may have led to their divorce, including his failure (according to her) to “fully live.”
 
As it investigates the theme of what it means to “really live” or not, Elisabeth Sheffield’s brilliant new novel is also an exploration of virtual reality in the sense of the experience provided by literature. It is a novel awash in a multitude of voices, from the obscenity-laced, Nabokovian soliloquys of the dead Ukrainian doctor, to the trade-school / midcentury-romance-novel-constrained style of his dead mother-in-law.

More books from University of Alabama Press

Cover of the book Mark Twain and the Spiritual Crisis of His Age by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book For Decades I Was Silent by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Thirteen Alabama Ghosts and Jeffrey by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book The Ace of Lightning by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book John Steinbeck Goes to War by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Wolfhounds and Polar Bears by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Con Thien by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book The Trouble with Being Born by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Another South by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Light on the Path by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book The Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Popular Stories and Promised Lands by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Moundville by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Beautiful Politics of Music by Elisabeth Sheffield
Cover of the book Montgomery in the Good War by Elisabeth Sheffield
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy