Synopses & Reviews
Lithium for Medea is as much a tale of addiction to sex, drugs, and dysfunctional family chains as it is one of mothers and daughters, their mutual rebellion and unconscious mimicry. Here is the story according to Rose the daughter of a narcissistic, emotionally crippled mother and a father who shadowboxes with death in hospital corridors as she slips deeply and dangerously into the lair of a cocaine-fed artist in the bohemian squalor of Venice. Lithium for Medea sears us with Rose's breathless, fierce, visceral flight like a drug that leaves one's perceptions forever altered.
Review
"Kate Braverman has the ability to write a great tragedy." The New York Times
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"[Lithium for Medea] lays bare the dark side of the family while ironically affirming the primacy of familial allegiance....The vividness of poetic image is present from the first page." Miami Herald
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"Braverman's dialogue is cruelly brilliant, her style a pounding, jumpy staccato of accuracy, fierce and glittering and relentless." Arkansas Gazette
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"[Lithium for Medea] has the power and intensity you dont see much outside of rock and roll." Rolling Stone
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"Lithium for Medea is jumpy, kinetic, and finally very powerful, a deeply felt piece of work by a very gifted writer." Joan Didion
About the Author
Kate Braverman is a native of Los Angeles. She has published three other novels, Lithium for Medea, The Incantation of Frida K, and Wonders of the West; four books of poetry, Lullaby for Sinners, Milkrun, Hurricane Warnings, and Postcards from August; and a collection of stories, Squandering the Blue. She was a 1992 O. Henry Award winner for her short story, "Tall Tales from the Mekong Delta." Braverman lives in San Francisco with her husband, biologist Alan Goldstein.