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You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

by Alexandra Kleeman
You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine

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  • Synopses & Reviews

ISBN13: 9780062388674
ISBN10: 0062388673



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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments

An intelligent and madly entertaining debut novel reminiscent of The Crying of Lot 49, White Noise, and City of Glass that is at once a missing-person mystery, an exorcism of modern culture, and a wholly singular vision of contemporary womanhood from a terrifying and often funny voice of a new generation.

A woman known only by the letter A lives in an unnamed American city with her roommate, B, and boyfriend, C, who wants her to join him on a reality show called That's My Partner! A eats (or doesn't) the right things, watches endless amounts of television, often just for the commercials — particularly the recurring cartoon escapades of Kandy Kat, the mascot for an entirely chemical dessert — and models herself on a standard of beauty that only exists in such advertising. She fixates on the fifteen minutes of fame a news-celebrity named Michael has earned after buying up his local Wally Supermarkets entire, and increasingly ample, supply of veal.

Meanwhile B is attempting to make herself a twin of A, who hungers for something to give meaning to her life, something aside from C's pornography addiction, and becomes indoctrinated by a new religion spread throughout a web of corporate franchises, which moves her closer to the decoys that populate her television world, but no closer to her true nature.

Review

“Kleeman's debut novel is a fever dream of modern alienation. . . . not really like any other, but could be described as a blend of the nightmarish disassociation of DeLillo's White Noise and the phantasmagoria of Bergman's Persona. A challenging novel, but undoubtedly one with something to say.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Review

“The smartest, strangest novel Ive read in a while.” Paris Review, Staff Pick

Review

“Her darkly satirical debut lays bare the ravages of advertising-fueled culture and consumerism, through a purposefully distorted version of our reality. Fans of DeLillo, Pynchon and Shteyngart are advised to take note.” Huffington Post

Review

“At once eerie and strange and beautiful, Alexandra Kleeman's brilliant debut novel You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine immediately distinguishes itself with its originality and unique voice.” Buzzfeed

Review

“A satirical and searing critique of modern-day womanhood.” Chicago Tribune

Review

“Kleeman is, clearly, writing in a postmodernist mode. Her ambition is huge, and, at the level of the sentence, she's amazing.” Kirkus Reviews

Review

“Alexandra Kleeman's debut novel is brilliant, incisive, and exactly how to send off summer with a bang. Written masterfully, You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine is a biting cultural indictment on what we see, think, do, and eat — especially while being a woman.” Bustle

Review

“This debut novel by future superstar Alexandra Kleeman will be the thing to be seen reading this summer. Pick it up if you want to up your summer cool factor . . . . .Very funny, perfectly weird, a hyperintelligent commentary on a culture obsessed with you and fame.” Vanity Fair

Review

“Kleeman serves up a clever satire of our culture's ever intensifying obsession with health, diet, and body image.” Los Angeles Magazine

Synopsis

An intelligent and madly entertaining debut novel reminiscent of The Crying of Lot 49, White Noise, and City of Glass that is at once a missing-person mystery, an exorcism of modern culture, and a wholly singular vision of contemporary womanhood from a terrifying and often funny voice of a new generation.

A woman known only by the letter A lives in an unnamed American city with her roommate, B, and boyfriend, C, who wants her to join him on a reality show called That's My Partner A eats (or doesn't) the right things, watches endless amounts of television, often just for the commercials--particularly the recurring cartoon escapades of Kandy Kat, the mascot for an entirely chemical dessert--and models herself on a standard of beauty that only exists in such advertising. She fixates on the fifteen minutes of fame a news-celebrity named Michael has earned after buying up his local Wally Supermarket's entire, and increasingly ample, supply of veal.

Meanwhile B is attempting to make herself a twin of A, who hungers for something to give meaning to her life, something aside from C's pornography addiction, and becomes indoctrinated by a new religion spread throughout a web of corporate franchises, which moves her closer to the decoys that populate her television world, but no closer to her true nature.


About the Author

Alexandra Kleeman has written for publications including the Paris Review, Zoetrope, Guernica, Tin House, and n+1. She received her MFA in fiction from Columbia University and has received grants and scholarships from the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. She is currently completing a PhD in Rhetoric at UC Berkeley. She lives in New York City.

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Average customer rating 5 (1 comments)

`
sduff222 , October 10, 2015 (view all comments by sduff222)
This book is everything I ever wanted. It's been described as "fight club for girls" and that's not too far off. Everything about these characters and purposefully vague, I think so the reader is encouraged to see herself or her friends in these roles. A and B are roommates in a big city, and they do typically early 20s things: eat Popsicles for every meal, obsess over previous boyfriends, makeovers, single white female each other...eat the other's hair... Trust me, it's amazing. Interspersed throughout are descriptions of commercials for "kandy kakes" that feature a hapless, Wylie coyoteesque creature. The whole thing is a treatise on body dysmorphia, in way, but it is so wry and clever it never veers into after school special territory at all. This book is perfect. And I haven't even mentioned the weird food cult!

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Product Details

ISBN:
9780062388674
Binding:
Hardcover
Publication date:
08/25/2015
Publisher:
HARPER
Pages:
304
Height:
1.10IN
Width:
6.10IN
Thickness:
1.25
Author:
Alexandra Kleeman
Subject:
Literature-A to Z

Ships free on qualified orders.
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This title in other editions

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