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Famine
A detective finds the emaciated corpse of a young man, dead of starvation, in an upscale Manhattan neighborhood and tries to recover the young man's history, in a tale of emotional and physical longing by the author of Free. Tour.
- GenresFiction
256 pages, Hardcover
First published January 6, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 26, 2022
“Fame” di Todd Komarnicki pag. 288
Il romanzo è ambientato a New York, non quella patinata ma quella multietnica e vagamente borderline.
Un cadavere viene trovato in un appartamento e a prima vista sembra morto per cause naturali, precisamente sembra morto per denutrizione…ha il classico ventre gonfio e chiari segni di inedia.
Un detective, di cui si scopre il nome solo a metà inoltrata del libro, è convinto sia omicidio e inizia ad indagare. A breve un secondo cadavere viene ritrovato nelle stesse condizioni. Nell’inchiesta si interseca il racconto della storia passata del cadavere, il primo, e della storia attuale del detective.
Si scopre così, da una parte, l’esistenza difficile di due ragazzi, l’ospedale, l’incontro, la vita ed il suo epilogo, dall’altra un matrimonio fallito, l’insoddisfazione, la perdita della ragione, la ricerca di qualcosa o qualcuno che non c’è.
La disperazione scorre lungo molte pagine del libro ed è strettamente connessa a traumi adolescenziali, ma quello che emerge maggiormente è la delusione di non essere riconosciuti, di essere invisibili anche a chi ci è vicino, la negazione della propria esistenza unita al voler tacere per non ricordare.
Sì potrebbe pensare che la Fame del titolo sia una fame di umanità.
Ho fatto veramente fatica a leggere questo libro, l'avevo iniziato mesi fa e l’avevo mollato dopo poche pagine. Ho ricominciato la lettura cercando un senso, uno spunto su cui riflettere, ma alla fine non ho trovato nulla.
È un romanzo triste che mi ha lasciata interdetta, non ho capito il perché di questa storia, il senso di raccontarla cosi…non è un giallo, non è un noir, non è….nulla!
Eppure vengono toccati temi importanti durante la ricostruzione della vita di Daniel.
Il romanzo è ambientato a New York, non quella patinata ma quella multietnica e vagamente borderline.
Un cadavere viene trovato in un appartamento e a prima vista sembra morto per cause naturali, precisamente sembra morto per denutrizione…ha il classico ventre gonfio e chiari segni di inedia.
Un detective, di cui si scopre il nome solo a metà inoltrata del libro, è convinto sia omicidio e inizia ad indagare. A breve un secondo cadavere viene ritrovato nelle stesse condizioni. Nell’inchiesta si interseca il racconto della storia passata del cadavere, il primo, e della storia attuale del detective.
Si scopre così, da una parte, l’esistenza difficile di due ragazzi, l’ospedale, l’incontro, la vita ed il suo epilogo, dall’altra un matrimonio fallito, l’insoddisfazione, la perdita della ragione, la ricerca di qualcosa o qualcuno che non c’è.
La disperazione scorre lungo molte pagine del libro ed è strettamente connessa a traumi adolescenziali, ma quello che emerge maggiormente è la delusione di non essere riconosciuti, di essere invisibili anche a chi ci è vicino, la negazione della propria esistenza unita al voler tacere per non ricordare.
Sì potrebbe pensare che la Fame del titolo sia una fame di umanità.
Ho fatto veramente fatica a leggere questo libro, l'avevo iniziato mesi fa e l’avevo mollato dopo poche pagine. Ho ricominciato la lettura cercando un senso, uno spunto su cui riflettere, ma alla fine non ho trovato nulla.
È un romanzo triste che mi ha lasciata interdetta, non ho capito il perché di questa storia, il senso di raccontarla cosi…non è un giallo, non è un noir, non è….nulla!
Eppure vengono toccati temi importanti durante la ricostruzione della vita di Daniel.
July 12, 2012
I owe an apology to the author. There I was, standing in the dollar store, confronted with a new display—a whole rack of books for only a dollar. I know these are remnants from bookstores and the author does not make anything on them but what scribophile could resist? Like an addict I attacked the books and took home ten. For a dollar, I did not have great expectations of any of them, a light read as I nodded off to sleep. I was wrong.
Komarnicki’s spare, poignant prose drove this psychological thriller deep into my heart. The desolation of a life unloved are palpable in his words. The slow creep of madness clouding the mind and the pain the protagonists endure before succumbing, leave one wonder who really is sane.
A young man has died. The body is the last of a long day of corpses for Detective Bell. But something is different about this young man. No stab wound in the heart or exit wound in the back. The swollen belly names the killer. Daniel has staved to death in the richest nation on Earth.
Bell can not believe the starvation is self-inflicted, and he becomes increasingly obsessed with the quest for the killer. Daniel’s haunting wife weaves in and out of the shadows, carrying their young daughter, but she always slips away before Bell can find out what she knows. Bell’s unauthorized investigation drags him deep into the dark crevices of his own psyche as he discovers his life is intimately intertwined with Daniel’s.
The detective’s world unravels as he sinks into obsession over Daniel’s death. Counter point to Bell’s slow ride into oblivion is the tale of a boy longing for nurturing from a family as barren as the Dust Bowl. The boy’s despair manifests as physical self starvation until he is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. There, he meets Emma, the girl he will cherish for the rest of his life. Together, they battle their inner demons into adulthood.
Not satisfied with drilling us down into the darkness of a tortured soul, the author makes subtle, almost imperceptible, commentary on the bleak landscape of our isolated modern existence. The real famine is not in an unstable man’s head, but in the unfed hunger of each person in our society.
The story left me famished and I sought out Komarnicki’s next work, which I bought for full price...hard cover edition.
Novel will be featured on Fictional Friday in Dec.
Komarnicki’s spare, poignant prose drove this psychological thriller deep into my heart. The desolation of a life unloved are palpable in his words. The slow creep of madness clouding the mind and the pain the protagonists endure before succumbing, leave one wonder who really is sane.
A young man has died. The body is the last of a long day of corpses for Detective Bell. But something is different about this young man. No stab wound in the heart or exit wound in the back. The swollen belly names the killer. Daniel has staved to death in the richest nation on Earth.
Bell can not believe the starvation is self-inflicted, and he becomes increasingly obsessed with the quest for the killer. Daniel’s haunting wife weaves in and out of the shadows, carrying their young daughter, but she always slips away before Bell can find out what she knows. Bell’s unauthorized investigation drags him deep into the dark crevices of his own psyche as he discovers his life is intimately intertwined with Daniel’s.
The detective’s world unravels as he sinks into obsession over Daniel’s death. Counter point to Bell’s slow ride into oblivion is the tale of a boy longing for nurturing from a family as barren as the Dust Bowl. The boy’s despair manifests as physical self starvation until he is admitted to a psychiatric hospital. There, he meets Emma, the girl he will cherish for the rest of his life. Together, they battle their inner demons into adulthood.
Not satisfied with drilling us down into the darkness of a tortured soul, the author makes subtle, almost imperceptible, commentary on the bleak landscape of our isolated modern existence. The real famine is not in an unstable man’s head, but in the unfed hunger of each person in our society.
The story left me famished and I sought out Komarnicki’s next work, which I bought for full price...hard cover edition.
Novel will be featured on Fictional Friday in Dec.
November 12, 2024
And for all that we had shared, we never shared a death.
I wanted the room dark, so we couldn't see how things looked, only how they felt.
I had the patience to wait for innumerable secrets, and the faith to believe they would do us no harm, but they refused to come out to play. They hid inside her crooked frame, doing the damage from within, where I could not make them yield.
I wanted the room dark, so we couldn't see how things looked, only how they felt.
I had the patience to wait for innumerable secrets, and the faith to believe they would do us no harm, but they refused to come out to play. They hid inside her crooked frame, doing the damage from within, where I could not make them yield.
January 7, 2012
Picked this up thinking it sounded like a nice literary mystery. I could not even get to 100 pages. Pretention to the point where the main character is called Detective. Flashbacks more disorienting than informative. Cannot recommend this.
August 9, 2007
strange twisty surreal mystery story about the starvation of the spirit and body. again, another book that i randomly found as a teenager and loved very much.
April 5, 2008
Disturbing, and not in a good way.
March 9, 2011
This book confused the crap out of me...
May 13, 2011
confusing..... why do the two characters have the same name?
February 26, 2014
I loved this book. Yes, it is confusing but that is part of the appeal. I prefer the word "ambiguous".
Stick with it and I bet you will come out the other end feeling glad you did.
Stick with it and I bet you will come out the other end feeling glad you did.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews