What do you think?
Rate this book
HANGINGS: THREE NOVELLAS
Nina Shope's debut collection of three novellas demonstrate stunning range and intensity. In the title novella, a young woman learns that her mother is dying and finds herself stalked by nightmarish figures--the hideously transformed maiden, Arachne, an upside-down man in a Miro painting, and the spiders that hatch and haunt the text like tumors--all coinciding with the emergence of her own sexual awareness. With In Urbem, Shope imagines an archetypal ancient city, that city beneath the pavement of all modern cities, in fantastic prose reminiscent of Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Finally, Hagiographies explores two intense female friendships, both of which are suddenly and arbitrarily shattered, in a wildly inventive narrative proceeding by means of juxtaposed images rather than sequential events.
"The dazzling debut of an immensely talented and big-hearted writer"--George Saunders.
"The dazzling debut of an immensely talented and big-hearted writer"--George Saunders.
304 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 29, 2007
I posted this originally on my now defunct blog:
It’s not often one reads a book that leaves you gobsmacked – for non-British readers that means shocked, stupefied, amazed. And by this book so I am. Gobsmacked. It isn’t like ‘normal’ books – it takes risks, it tries different things, without being alienating. This is not about clever meta-fictional techniques but stories through lyricism. If you like your fiction literal and accessible and down to earth this isn’t for you. But that means you’ll be missing out a piece of miraculous inventive imaginative and quite beautiful prose. Nina Shope’s collection of novellas under the umbrella title of Hangings won the Starcherone prize last year and is a worthy winner of any literary prize. The book left me reeling with excitement – at the audacity, the risk, the beautiful prose, the rhythms, the lack of playing by the rules of Creative Writing 101 – those rules that straitjacket many writer’s imaginations and pocket. Shope has taken serious risks here and Stacherone Books has the foresight to see that this is a writer of quality and Hangings is a book of long-lasting literature. I can’t do her book justice in this brief review. I can only reveal my enthusiasm and love of this book, so be aware there is far more to this book that I can summarise as ‘plot’ details.
The first novella called 'Hangings' concerns a daughter whose mother is dying of breast cancer who is haunted by a painting by Miro that depicts a giant spider. The narrative becomes littered with spider imagery, stories told about the mythic Aradne, weaving her way in and out of stories. The story of the two women and the girl’s burgeoning sexuality is told through riveting imagistic prose.
“Her mother, reading, is entirely unaware. She is an atheist. A philosopher. A classicist. She reads mythology for the symbolism. For the psychology. For the pure lyric beauty of form and idea. She does not understand that her daughter actually believes in women who transforms into beasts and spiders. That she dreams of mythical creatures. That she dreams of bodies transforming.”
The second 'In Urbem' is a marvellous, in the true sense of the word, recreation of ancient Rome, an alternative version, taking up ideas and even characters from the differing periods of that city’s history and again through haunting prose takes a part that city’s creation built upon the bones of women and slaves. (the city is continually under construction) In one section the imagery is particularly outstanding: Verginia has been auctioned as a slave and all of the parts of her body have been bidden upon. Her father comes to rescue her but can only afford parts of her:
‘he is raising a knife above her breast and baring his teeth as if to defend her until she feels the knife inside her and her father above her trying to wipe her clean of marks and measures and numbers and names. And the crowd surrounding her – the bidders reaching desperately for the pieces they have bought.’
The novella is reminiscent of Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Angela Carter’s the Infernal Desire Machine of Dr Hoffman, but in its use of imagery and so on is even more beautiful.
I can only urge you to read this book for yourself. But I warn you if you’re looking for an easy read, work much like that you have perhaps read before, I can only say you’re in for a shock. This happens to be one of the best books I have read in years and it is so gratifying to know there are people out there writing original glorious prose AND getting it published. Thank god for Starcherone Books.
It’s not often one reads a book that leaves you gobsmacked – for non-British readers that means shocked, stupefied, amazed. And by this book so I am. Gobsmacked. It isn’t like ‘normal’ books – it takes risks, it tries different things, without being alienating. This is not about clever meta-fictional techniques but stories through lyricism. If you like your fiction literal and accessible and down to earth this isn’t for you. But that means you’ll be missing out a piece of miraculous inventive imaginative and quite beautiful prose. Nina Shope’s collection of novellas under the umbrella title of Hangings won the Starcherone prize last year and is a worthy winner of any literary prize. The book left me reeling with excitement – at the audacity, the risk, the beautiful prose, the rhythms, the lack of playing by the rules of Creative Writing 101 – those rules that straitjacket many writer’s imaginations and pocket. Shope has taken serious risks here and Stacherone Books has the foresight to see that this is a writer of quality and Hangings is a book of long-lasting literature. I can’t do her book justice in this brief review. I can only reveal my enthusiasm and love of this book, so be aware there is far more to this book that I can summarise as ‘plot’ details.
The first novella called 'Hangings' concerns a daughter whose mother is dying of breast cancer who is haunted by a painting by Miro that depicts a giant spider. The narrative becomes littered with spider imagery, stories told about the mythic Aradne, weaving her way in and out of stories. The story of the two women and the girl’s burgeoning sexuality is told through riveting imagistic prose.
“Her mother, reading, is entirely unaware. She is an atheist. A philosopher. A classicist. She reads mythology for the symbolism. For the psychology. For the pure lyric beauty of form and idea. She does not understand that her daughter actually believes in women who transforms into beasts and spiders. That she dreams of mythical creatures. That she dreams of bodies transforming.”
The second 'In Urbem' is a marvellous, in the true sense of the word, recreation of ancient Rome, an alternative version, taking up ideas and even characters from the differing periods of that city’s history and again through haunting prose takes a part that city’s creation built upon the bones of women and slaves. (the city is continually under construction) In one section the imagery is particularly outstanding: Verginia has been auctioned as a slave and all of the parts of her body have been bidden upon. Her father comes to rescue her but can only afford parts of her:
‘he is raising a knife above her breast and baring his teeth as if to defend her until she feels the knife inside her and her father above her trying to wipe her clean of marks and measures and numbers and names. And the crowd surrounding her – the bidders reaching desperately for the pieces they have bought.’
The novella is reminiscent of Calvino’s Invisible Cities and Angela Carter’s the Infernal Desire Machine of Dr Hoffman, but in its use of imagery and so on is even more beautiful.
I can only urge you to read this book for yourself. But I warn you if you’re looking for an easy read, work much like that you have perhaps read before, I can only say you’re in for a shock. This happens to be one of the best books I have read in years and it is so gratifying to know there are people out there writing original glorious prose AND getting it published. Thank god for Starcherone Books.
February 21, 2017
Postmodernist fiction is about surfaces, but those surfaces are often opaque and impenetrable. Nina Shope's amazing trilogy of novellas, Hangings, propels the reader well beneath the narrative surface. The Shope reader is not merely drawn into her fictional reality but wriggles below the surface to view a splintered, prismatic universe. It is a startling and unforgettable experience.
The first and the third of the three novellas, "Hangings" and "Hagiographies," present a world of anonymous intimacy, in which the reader clings to the wavelike language like a log in the sea. The characters are nameless. This namelessness spawns an intimacy in which the reader is trapped in the dimension of words. The principle characters in "Hagiographies," we are told, "begin a series of fictions from which neither one is sure they'll emerge," and the protagonist "feels she will vanish amongst the pages."
"In Urbem," the second of the three novellas, presents an ancient urbs, a shattered Rome, which is alternately devoured and disgorged by the characters: "the room fills with the nearly undigested remains of the city." Archimedes' house is suspended a mile in the sky. Roofs "stand without the need of walls." Archimedes, drowned, displaces the sea, performing posthumous calculus, "the water surging against the city walls, propelled in waves all the way to the shoreline from the weight of the body dropping to the bottom."
In the process of reading fiction, like the process of eating, one takes novel, external elements and reshapes them into something personal and nourishing. In Hangings, you seem to become what is digested--and you end up nourished in the process.
The first and the third of the three novellas, "Hangings" and "Hagiographies," present a world of anonymous intimacy, in which the reader clings to the wavelike language like a log in the sea. The characters are nameless. This namelessness spawns an intimacy in which the reader is trapped in the dimension of words. The principle characters in "Hagiographies," we are told, "begin a series of fictions from which neither one is sure they'll emerge," and the protagonist "feels she will vanish amongst the pages."
"In Urbem," the second of the three novellas, presents an ancient urbs, a shattered Rome, which is alternately devoured and disgorged by the characters: "the room fills with the nearly undigested remains of the city." Archimedes' house is suspended a mile in the sky. Roofs "stand without the need of walls." Archimedes, drowned, displaces the sea, performing posthumous calculus, "the water surging against the city walls, propelled in waves all the way to the shoreline from the weight of the body dropping to the bottom."
In the process of reading fiction, like the process of eating, one takes novel, external elements and reshapes them into something personal and nourishing. In Hangings, you seem to become what is digested--and you end up nourished in the process.
January 13, 2008
I was startled awake when I first saw this book, particularly by the different approaches seen in each novella. Starcherone Books had about 250 entries the year that this one won our contest, and Hangings was clearly the best. A number of our runners-up have since also been published, but I still stand by Nina. It's also Starcherone's best selling title to date, and for good reason.
August 7, 2025
One of the best short story collections I’ve ever read. Such a unique voice. Visceral and at times nauseating.
Read
March 12, 2018Interesting approach to writing, much like the prose of Kenneth Patchen but in its own original way. Stories through a kaleidoscope of emotions, events, sensations, impressions rather than linear with its own rhythm and movement. It reads almost like a prose tone poem if that makes any sense. This is not a book for people who like a straight forward plot but rather for those who can tolerate order coming out of and sometimes fusing back into chaos. There are three short novels, each with its own feel and own pacing. The emotional content is deep and can be intense at times but never over bearing.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews