Brain Fever

by Valerie Sayers

Off his medication and slowly going mad, Timothy Rooney, aging boy wonder of the South Carolina lowlands, heads for New York City to search for Bernadette, an ex-wife from a six-day marriage, and to spend the fifteen thousand dollars he has hidden in his shoes. 12,000 first printing.

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Valerie Sayers was born and raised in Beaufort, South Carolina, which became the thinly disguised Due East of her fiction, and educated in New York, where she lived for many years. She is the author of a collection of stories, The Age of Infidelity, and six novels: The Powers; Brain Fever and Who Do You Love, which were named "Notable Books of the Year" by the New York Times; Due East, which also appeared in five foreign editions; and How I Got Him Back. A film based on her first two books, Due East, premiered on Showtime, and she has published many stories, essays, and reviews. Her literary awards include a National Endowment for the Arts literature fellowship and a Pushcart Prize. She is Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, where her students keep her hopping and experimenting with new ideas and new forms.

Reviews

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well written book, told through the eyes and ears of a man going through a mental crisis (brain fever) .His interactions with those who try to save him forms the basis for this book. While it's fast paced, and has well developed characters, I found the situations somewhat contrived.

[Margaret D'Anieri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love her writing, love the originality and quirkiness of the characters and the story itself - and how she makes a mentally ill guy who ends up a bum on the streets likable without invoking pity.