The stories in
Original Bliss are concerned, appropriately, with the complexities
of sex and the lack of it. Whether in Copenhagen or New York City,
in the close confines of a TV
wardrobe department or in weightless
outer space, A.L.Kennedy's characters are
engaged in possibly fruitless
attempts to close down emotional distances and fill a physical void.
In the long novella that gives the book its title, Helen Brindle thinks she
has lost God- but it is simply love that she's missing. She can't find
it at home, with the violent, deadly Mr Brindle,; but will she find it
in Stuttgart when she meets the enigmatic Edward E. Gluck, with his Process
and his paraphilia? And what happens when her father confessor starts
to confess? A beautiful and terrifying examination
of passion and pornography, of the aching need for completion and healing,
'Original Bliss' is a huge achievement.
Taken together, the work in this book is testament to a unique and extraordinary talent. The rare combination of exquisite writing, profound thought and an electrifying grasp of our most intimate desires makes this book of real importance.
German ("Gleissendes Gluck") and French ("Volupté Singuliére") editions were published in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
Reviews
Good:
"Kennedy delivers
these bittersweet truths with imagery that is often arresting"
Stephen Amidon
- The Sunday Times
"Kennedy depicts
the complex workings of love and desire with rare honesty and humour."
Sunday Times
"What is really
worth observing about "Original Bliss"is that it is like no other book,
and that its author deserves to be compared to no one but her own fiercely
talented self."
Daphne Merkin
ALK: Kind review, unfortunate second name.
"A compelling story
about sex and the need for love, it is a tremendous performance, black
and brutal as well as eccentric, touching and funny."
Selina Hastings - Evening Standard
"Subtle, erotic
and never silly, Kennedy's physicists convince as Winterson's do not
- even when jerking off in space."
Amanda Craig - New Statesman and Society
ALK: Not that I've ever actually written about physicists.
Bad:
"Kennedy's prose
is too stodgy for mass appeal and the effect is one of gloom and despair."
Judith Rice and
Daniel Britten - Daily Telegraph
ALK: Well, the knowledge that I don't have mass appeal would render me prone to gloom and despair, I'm sure.
"At
150 pages, it seems over-freighted, unable to keep all its balls in the
air."
Steven Poole - Independent on Sunday
Silly:
"love is a many spendoured
thing, unless you're a character in an A.L.Kennedy short story, in which
case it twists you, shakes you, throws you around the room and gives you
a kick in the stomach, just to make sure." "...her crystal-sharp prose
rewards the reader on every page."
Andrew Johnston
- The Observer
"Even at her dullest,
she's startlingly sharp..."
Robert Hanks -
Independent on Sunday
"Very much a woman's
book"
Brian Case - Time
Out
ALK: And, given the number of errors in his factual descriptions, a woman's book he didn't bother to read.
