Synopses & Reviews
Becky, Hugh, Dahlia, and Max. Friends who have formed a dysfunctional but necessary surrogate family. And then there is Callie, the crisis-prone, vivid, manipulative chameleon whose friendship has damaged them all individually but who still haunts their waking and sleeping dreams.
Set in the art-world of New Yorks East Village, Karen McKinnons dissection of Becky and Callies lethal emotional rivalry and manipulation of all those around them is as disturbing as it is gripping. A provocative and edgy first novel by a writer whose characters in the words of Andrea Barrett are “acid-etched” and “unforgettable.”
Review
“
Narcissus Ascending stages a sly face-off between artworld ethics and aesthetics while entertaining with juicy plot twists. A hearty welcome, then, to Karen McKinnon, also plainly on the rise.” —
The Philadelphia Inquirer“Compulsively readable.” —Marie Claire
“Raw and knowing.” —The New York Times
“[A] tongue-in-cheek send-up of the disaffected, over- privileged, solipsistic, apolitical, anti-intellectual, urban twentysomething crowd.”—The Washington Post
“[Narcissus Ascending] draws readers in and dares us to accept the challenge of sympathizing with characters that arent especially sympathetic, and care about the ways in which their lives will be altered.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Taut and fast-paced, McKinnons first novel offers both insight into an artists mind and an insightful portrait of the dynamics of a group of friends.” —Booklist
“A gripping, revealing, entertaining debut.” —Kirkus Reviews
About the Author
Karen McKinnon lives in New York City.