Salvage

by Jane F. Kotapish

Calling to mind The Lovely Bones, this original, electrifying debut explores the collision point of memory, family secrets, and forgiveness. After witnessing a horrific accident, our unnamed thirty-seven-year-old narrator flees her hectic Manhattan life and buys a rambling, Victorian house in rural Virginia to recover in solitude. Yet in the uncomfortable quiet of her own company, she finds herself facing questions and obsessions from life's tangled, and often distrubed past. Meanwhile, she watches her mother, Lois - an eccentric, flamboyant woman who begins dating a series of men all named after saints - grow increasingly unhinged, perhaps poised on the cusp of madness. And as a charming new neighbor slowly moves into her carefully guarded privacy, the narrator discovers the impossibility of hiding from her isolated childhood in 1970s suburbia and talking to the ghost of her dead sister Nancy. Darkly funny, deeply imaginative, and fueled by unexpected, poetic prose, Salvage captures the challenge of finding a home that can withstand all that haunts us and the subtle and disastrous ways in which mothers and daughters lose and find one another, time and again.

Genres: Fiction

307 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2008

Reviews

[Sharon Elin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Some authors are magicians with words, casting spells that leave readers almost lovesick. In Salvage, I fell in love with Kotapish's stylish, lyrical phrasing and imagery. Take, for example, this description of roses on a fence: "... the roses have completed a magnificent bloom and linger like drunk women at the end of a party, voluptuous past repair, faded, sick with their own perfume." The book's plot weaves like a stage whisper throughout the novel -- the character's first-person musings and point of view reveal much more than any action, and the main theme of the novel emerges as a loose, lyrical, haunting thread that reticulates her emotional quest: the redemption of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. The unnamed main character moves to Virginia to recover from witnessing a tragic accident in New York, rekindling her relationship with her often emotionally vacant parent. We see everyone and everything through this main character's eyes and emotions, with fragmented, unclear revelations of what actually happened or what is going on; for example, she frequently converses with the spirit of a stillborn sister in a closet, a puzzling derangement that reveals the extent of the character's fragile mental state. In contrast, she enjoys happy rapport with a neighbor, Edith, who is the "normal" antithesis to her own injured persona. The main character explores herself and her mother through a ruthless, probing lens, yet her descriptions remain richly sensitive, expressive, and endearing. "Time brings a terrible revealing light to the murk. In the happy ignorance of the moment, things are what they are... Shame arrives later, a rude guest stomping in during dessert with no explanation, dripping weather onto the carpet." This is Jane Kotapish's first novel, and as an entranced reader, I consider myself a new fan.

[M · Rating 2 out of 5]

At times the writing in this weird, freakish novel is worthy of a lot more than two stars and it often falls into the category of 'I hated this but how could I give it less than three with such beautiful sentences?' Well hate won out.
THis is the story of. Um. Actually I have no idea. WHile Kotapish can go on for pages about the earthy smell emanating from her mother's womb as her unborn sister germinates, she seems to not want to waste too many words on an actual plot. After a lot of heavy prose and piecemeal snippets it APPEARS that the protagonist (name? escaping me, never a good sign though it would be super typical if she was never given one) had witnessed some awful subway incident and left her ill described hectic Manhattan life to park herself in Virginia suburbia. She has a crazy mom, Lois, whose flirtation with deluded insanity is all the more confused by the author's confusing prose, but insanity makes sense if its hereditary since as it happens the unborn child never got born and so protagonist talks to this phantom baby in her closet. Well into her adulthood.
Phantom baby, named Nancy, is the absolutely most disturbing character and seems to only want to set fire to things. She speaks in weird poetic fragments and contributes nothing to the story.
More often than not this seemed to be about the author and not the prot, since she wasn't developed, anyway, and the author was so obviously in love with her own writing. IE she (prot) mentions how at age eight she loved her friend's dad because of the beautiful sentences he composed. I felt like saying, get over yourself and write a book when you're ready to think outside your weird little world.
Anyway other than being rather beautifully composed, as a long poem, this book totally stank.

[C.J. Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

This appears to be a story about an unhinged thirty-something female who is trying to come to terms with a recent tragedy she witnessed, and her entire childhood. I say 'appears to be' as there is really very little plot development here. Any 'story' is well hidden behind the writing which constantly takes center-stage. However, the elegant but often flowery prose does not make up for the constant leaps forward and back in time - which happen within chapters and without warning or reason most of the time - and the very limited interest you develop for the main character. Her friend across the street or her mother hold your attention more.

[Karyn]

I loved this book! Her use of words paints such calming pictures in my mind. I found it very soothing, yet stimulating at the same time. This is her first novel but I'd love to read more of her work. I loved the mother-daughter relationship and also the next-door neighbor friends relationship as well. I loved the main character, and how self-sufficient she is and comfortable with being alone. I could really relate to this character.

[secret]

this book took me from october till march to read.it was confusing and i only finished it because i started it. i read other books inbetween this one b/c i didnt like it

[Carolyn Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book can be read as about an imaginative child who grows into an imaginative adult. But I choose to see it as a book of actual supernatural events. First of all though, the part about the unnamed protagonist's childhood was enviously neglectful. Dropping kids off at the pool to be unattended for six hours straight, allowing children to roam through their day completely unscheduled. Sounds great to me! One of the questions of the book is whether this neglect is an intentional parenting style or due to lack of interest on the parent's part. Either way, it reminded me a bit of the style of upbringing in Practical Magic, and supports my theory that these women are witches and don't know it.

Key events of the book:
* Mom (Lois) loses her pregnancy at 10 weeks, who then becomes a spectral inhabitant of the narrator's bedroom closet. Is this a supernatural event or a child's way of coping with loss? Could be either, really. But obviously I think it is the later.
* Stepdad (Charlie) suddenly departs. It is hinted that Charlie might have been abusing the narrator, who was around ten years old. Calling her "Ticklepants" and being creepy when Lois was holed up in the bedroom for so long, recovering. I think though that Lois ejects him not because of any physical abuse, but because he makes a bad joke about the narrator not wanting the baby and making her mom lose it. Even if he was joking, he might have been right. The narrator was jealous of the baby, and if a dead girl could manifest in her closet then it is totally probably that the narrator could kill just through negative feelings.
* NYC subway incident. Apparently a crazy homeless guy picked the narrator (now an adult) at random, tried to throw her in front of the train, and tossed another girl instead when the narrator managed to shake him off. Why did he really pick her? Did she shake him off intentionally or as a reflex? Did her supernatural reflexes also provide him with an alternative target? Was this target chosen because of connections to the "throwing Charlie out" memory in her youth - the raspberries, the torn newspaper? Did seeing the raspberries and the newspaper call to mind that incident, and the negative vibes stirred up by it propel the homeless man to his feet and toward her?
* Narrator moves away from NYC to within 60 miles from home, and buys a beautiful green house. Fixing up the house (and herself) is emphasized in the title and reminded me of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, but the important part is that it is a GREEN house. Green is a really important color in this book. When dead sister Nancy describes where she is, "green" is the most frequent description. The dead girl in the subway had a green coat. The narrator was hiding behind a green curtain when Charlie heard her muttering jealously. The book ends with the narrator emerging her hands in green paint.
* Lois's saintly friends, which begin to appear soon after the narrator moves back. Are they actual saints? The narrator eventually learns that they are real people. But they could be both. The parallels between their lives and their saintly lives are too great. Lois attracted them or made them with powers of her own.

These women apparently do nothing for a living and are completely self-sufficient. They have no use for society's norms. This is further justification for a supernatural reading of this book.

[Jood · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has to be the best book I have read this year. Full of quirky characters and the most gorgeous, deliciously descriptive writing, I was totally immersed in it from page one.

Having been involved in a violent incident on the New York subway, the narrator, a single woman in her thirties moves to small town Virginia where she buys an old rambling house. From here we learn the story of her strange childhoood which is haunted by an unborn (miscarried) sister with whom she has conversations in her closet; she has a strained but not unaffectionate relationship with her mother, who is always referred to by her first name of Lois. I suppose the term "dysfunctional" could be used to describe this relationship, but I found it somewhat eccentric rather than actually damaging. The incident on the subway is described toward the middle of the book, and is shocking but not in a "take your breath away" way, as the author doesn't linger on it, and it is hardly referred to at later stages. Obviously this has had a profound effect on the narrator, but it does not overshadow the story. We never learn the name of the narrator, which I think adds to its charm. I found all the characters, and there aren't that many really, totally believable, and the writing is so good it conjured up memories of places, smells, attitudes that I experienced during the several years I lived in small town Canada.

I hope Ms Kotapish is working on another book, and that it will be as enjoyable as this. It's rare for me to think about characters once I've finished a book, but I find myself wondering how they all are!

[Lois · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Contains SPOILERS***
This is a very intense book. Switching between the main character's childhood and the present, with occasional forays into the dramatic events that occurred during her adult years in New York, the novel builds a study of relations between daughter and mother.

I have questions. Is Nancy real, or an aspect of the main character's personality? ***SPOILER*** Who burned the closet in the main character's childhood bedroom?

Magical realism by a new author.

[Jennifer Schillinger · Rating 1 out of 5]

Started off strong and had me laughing but I quickly grew tired of the authors incessant need to over describe pretty much everything and everyone. Others have praised this as some incredible prose, but for me it was tiresome. I stuck it out and finished the book but....eh. Maybe I was hoping for more of a resolution....

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was lacking in the whole 'beginning, middle and end' arena. It was more like 'middle, middle and it's over'. I enjoyed the second middle, but would have liked an accompanying beginning and end.

[Rose Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written book by first time author. Explores the fragile relationship between a mother and daughter, both battling their own emotional scars. Very real, raw in parts but with enough humour to stop it from being too dark. Loved it, couldn't put it down.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a story about a mother and her adult daughter. There's not much of a plot except for their very eccentric relationship. The authors very unique style of writing makes for a very enjoyable read.

[Russell]

Not sure what made me pick this one up but it looks interesting.

[Tammy]

This author is a friend of McCealaig O'Clishams...

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too bad for a first book. I will read this ine again over the summer. The characters are worth deeper study and reflection.

[Abby Peck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book, held my interest throughout despite not a whole lot happening, I have a high tolerance for stories going back and forth through time, if you don't you probably won't like this one.

[Erin14 · Rating 4 out of 5]

To really appreciate this book, you've got to have an open mind. Talking to a dead half-sister in a closet for years is only ONE of the interesting plot points in this book!

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing in this book is gorgeous. Truly unique phrases and descriptions, and so much subtlety. I didn't feel as strongly about the plot and the characters as the writing. But a worthwhile read.

[Lynnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I kept waiting for something to happen.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to talk about this book without being spoiler-ish, I think. Pretty good, a great library check out, might have been better after discussion with others.

[Ellen]

Hated this book. Left it at the cottage I was staying at while I read it. That was a first for me!

[Cynthia]

Can't remember anything about this book, sounds interesting!

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was no high point in this book. I am still having a hard time figuring out the purpose.