Synopses & Reviews
When a college graduate with a history of hapless jobs (ice cream scooper; gift wrapper; laziest ever part-time clerk at The Pet Library) reads Robert Louis Stevenson's novel
Treasure Island, she is dumbstruck by the timid design of her life. When had she ever dreamed a scheme? When had she ever done a foolish, overbold act? When had she ever, like Jim Hawkins, broke from her friends, raced for the beach, stolen a boat, killed a man, and eliminated an obstacle that stood in the way of her getting a hunk of gold?
Convinced that Stevenson's book is cosmically intended for her, she redesigns her life according to its Core Values: boldness, resolution, independence and horn-blowing. Accompanied by her mother, her sister, and a hostile Amazon parrot that refuses to follow the script, our heroine embarks on a domestic adventure more frightening than anything she'd originally planned.
Treasure Island!!! is the story of a ferocious obsession, told by an original voice — intelligent, perverse, relentlessly self-extricating, and funny.
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"Levine is a wonderful storyteller with a vibrant voice. Treasure Island!!! is a rollicking tale, shameless, funny and intelligent." New York Times Book Review
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"[An] irreverent comic novel of self-empowerment." O, The Oprah Magazine
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"An absurdist comedy of suburbia." The New York Times
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"Levine sports an original, brutally witty voice." The Washington Post
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"I laughed my way through...this addictive little pageturner." The Boston Bibliophile
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"This highly original, farcical novel will keep you entertained." Library Journal
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"A sassy first novel....You can't go wrong." Library Journal Prepub Alert
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"Levine's subtle insight about the egocentric nature of our society is knife-sharp." Minneapolis Star Tribune
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"Levine...is a tremendously funny writer." Time Out Chicago
About the Author
Sara Levine teaches at the Art Institute of Chicago. Her stories have appeared in The Iowa Review, Nerve, Conjunctions, Necessary Fiction, Sonora Review, and other magazines. She won a 2008 Bridport Prize for Fiction, a Special Mention in The Pushcart Anthology, and three citations in The Best American Essays. Her writing has been anthologized in Best of Fence: The First Nine Years and The Touchstone Anthology of Creative Nonfiction: 1970 to the Present.