Faceless

by Genni Gunn

In Faceless, Genni Gunn explores "the impulse for the edge," a magnetic field between the gloss of the topside world and the grit of the world beneath. Both these landscapes are fascinating and treacherous, haunted by faces that are obsessively worn and shed, torn off and replaced, where identity itself is arbitrary. Impersonation, even of oneself, is the rule. In a piano bar, the musician is a chameleon adapting to the faceless men who sit around her piano. The faceless cadavers in the notorious BodyWorlds exhibits stalk the rooms while, in Gunn's title poem, an ordinary French woman finds redemption in the world's first face transplant after being mauled in a strange accident by her pet dog. To be anonymous in today's urban places is to be free yet isolated, to be in a constant flux of longing for and fear of "the dead and beating heart," both in one's own breast and those faltering in the chests of others. The countless faces that Gunn confronts on the streets of the city or behind closed doors make this book a compelling read -- as does the "delicious anxiety" she sees hanging in ecstatic, sometimes terrifying suspense in the liminal spaces between.

96 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2007

About the author

Author of six works of fiction (3 novels and 3 short story collections), 1 book of creative nonfiction, 2 books of poetry, 3 collections of poetry translated from Italian, and an opera libretto -- the opera (music by John Oliver) was produced by Chants Libres in Montreal, 2007.

Her work has been translated into Italian, Dutch and Chinese. Her novel Tracing Iris was made into a film The Riverbank. Her last novel, Solitaria was longlisted for the Giller prize and published in Dutch and Italian. Her newest book, Permanent Tourists a collection of short stories, came out in October 2020.