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Amphisbaena
A sober disinterest in relationships causes Bill Sherman, failing calendarist, to abandon dating for many years. When pressured into a dating event by his brother, Bill meets Amy and decides to attempt a relationmship again. He learns quickly, however that Amy is two people: The inseperable Amy and Janine. These two women design to date Bill in tandem, both to his confusion and enjoyment. Where Amy holds Bill dear to her heart, janine is unable to function outside of physical pleasure. Bill soon discovers that this strange predicament is only the beginning of a much larger system of rules and interaction, and the relationship changes more when Bill realises that the two women happen to be each one half of an ancient, two-headed snake. Amy is the Alpha head and has subjugated her poison in an attempt to understand human notions of beauty. Bill is not allowed to touch her. Janine is the enticer head and may not be in league with Amy where Bill is concerned. Can a man love if there is only appetite? Will he care more deeply for the woman he can never touch? What happens when monagomy becomes taboo and a fine-tuned machine of murder learns the human consequence of going against one's nature for a greater meaning? Laden with whimsical depiction and a foraging exposition on gender, occupation, and dating in modern society, Amphispaena is the story of three people trapped somewhere between nature and culture, through a humourous adventure into the biological mess of love and romance.
374 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 6, 2009
I totally enjoyed this novel! I was captured in the opening scene where Bill dreams himself as escaping from a shark attack by tangoing with the shark while sea creatures gather round!
The novel focuses on Bill, a disillusioned maker of calendars, who strives to break with the picture postcard niceness of the calendar industry by putting together a calendar of car wrecks. However at the same time he finds himself dreaming of flying with geese through the cloud themed calendars put together by his arch rival.
Bill lives with his divorced brother and looks after his children.
“Yep, ribbit. Frogs don’t eat crayons, right?” Bill said, approaching the wondrous lecture from a more fantastical and child-like highway of thought. Jessica closed her eyes and frowned, beginning to cry. This, in her mind, was because red, which tasted better than the other colors (for she had dined a bit on each), was the color of pretty, like flowers, and flowers were for big bunnies and little girls, and Uncle Bill had called her a frog, which was a sad and sinister creature, no good to any color but green, the worst color, and then Uncle Bill had shown her, with his loud boy-ribbit, that she was no good, and a bad frog that did not get to have big bunnies or wonderful red ever again.
Meanwhile, Bill has started dating Amy and finds himself inextricably involved also with her close flatmate Janine. This leads to much confusion and emotional heartache for Bill, while offering lots of opportunity to explore gender relations and the internal split between people's emotions and their physicality.
This is a totally entertaining novel that blends Greek mythology with dreamlike fantasy and romance while offering loads of insight into the modern human condition.
The novel focuses on Bill, a disillusioned maker of calendars, who strives to break with the picture postcard niceness of the calendar industry by putting together a calendar of car wrecks. However at the same time he finds himself dreaming of flying with geese through the cloud themed calendars put together by his arch rival.
Bill lives with his divorced brother and looks after his children.
“Yep, ribbit. Frogs don’t eat crayons, right?” Bill said, approaching the wondrous lecture from a more fantastical and child-like highway of thought. Jessica closed her eyes and frowned, beginning to cry. This, in her mind, was because red, which tasted better than the other colors (for she had dined a bit on each), was the color of pretty, like flowers, and flowers were for big bunnies and little girls, and Uncle Bill had called her a frog, which was a sad and sinister creature, no good to any color but green, the worst color, and then Uncle Bill had shown her, with his loud boy-ribbit, that she was no good, and a bad frog that did not get to have big bunnies or wonderful red ever again.
Meanwhile, Bill has started dating Amy and finds himself inextricably involved also with her close flatmate Janine. This leads to much confusion and emotional heartache for Bill, while offering lots of opportunity to explore gender relations and the internal split between people's emotions and their physicality.
This is a totally entertaining novel that blends Greek mythology with dreamlike fantasy and romance while offering loads of insight into the modern human condition.
December 8, 2009
Great characters, great dynamics between the characters, humor, really human and touching and musical dialogue. I am totally impressed. Succre has a great gift for whimsy. I laughed in places, but, more importantly I was engaged, completely.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews