Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Pulitzer Prize finalist Lydia Millet's biting satire of American values tells the story of Estee Kraft, a young woman forced to indulge the loathsome caprices of her vacuous husband, megalomaniacal father, and terrible toddling son-- a "cannibal baby" who from birth consumes everything from tortilla chips to his own toenail. Navigating her world as a wife, daughter, and mother, Estee bears wide-eyed witness to the hideous voracity of the human animal. First published in 1996, Omnivores heralded the arrival of "one of the most acclaimed novelists of her generation" (Los Angeles Times). This extraordinary debut remains as original--and timely--as ever.
"Bizarre, wonderfully inventive."-- New York Times
"Omnivores reads like a cartoon with soul."-- Los Angeles Times
"All manner of voracious American appetites-- for sex, power, and possessions--are darkly lampooned in this strange, often very funny debut." -- Entertainment Weekly
Synopsis
In a claustrophobic, surreal California house, teenager Estee Kraft lives with her domineering father, whose obsession with insect taxonomy bleeds into sadism. As his schemes multiply, Estee's bedridden mother, entranced by the glow of the shopping channel, remains oblivious to the escalating chaos. Estee manages to escape her childhood home only to find new horrors awaiting her in marriage and motherhood. In a climactic twist, her traumas take form in flesh and blood--a legacy of the voracious male appetites that have haunted her life.
With acerbic wit, philosophical depth, and enthralling lyricism, Omnivores cuts to the core of America's hypocrisies and anxieties, and introduced Lydia Millet as one of the wildest satirists of our time.