The Body Spoken [Hardcover]

Janice Deaner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 1999

What if I was going to write a story about you and me, what would I call us? The man and the woman she said. That's what we are. The man and the woman on the train... Two strangers meet on a train bound for Los Angeles. Each is brimming with secrets; each is fleeing a life in ruins. No names are exchanged, but intimacy grows as the gentle hills of Ohio and the stark desert plains of the Southwest fly by the window, and the man and the woman begin to reveal themselves to each other. The man understands that the woman has recently returned from the far side of human experience, and he desperately craves the deeper knowledge he believes her story will impart. Consenting to speak of her former life, the woman's tale unfolds like a rich tapestry of image and emotion. Victim, fighter, lover, healer-- she has been all these things. Hers is a pilgrim's quest for the truth hidden inside herself. The essence revealed. The body spoken. Sexy and profound, Janice Deaner's new novel is a provocative exploration of the nature of male and female identity and an unforgettable portrait of a woman for whom love is the only law.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Filmmaker and novelist Deaner (Where Blue Begins) skillfully evokes the framework and dreamy pacing of film in this affecting novel about two strangers who meet on a train. At Manhattan's Penn Station, Hemy Lourde (the apt French name means "heavy") boards an Amtrak liner bound for L.A. She sits next to a male passenger and begins their dialogue with the cryptic remark that she's been living as a man, under her beloved brother's name, for five years. As the train makes its way over the American landscape, Hemy recounts the story of her life to the fascinated stranger, who becomes her lover en route. Born in the 1970s in upstate New York to a playwright father and a fervently imaginative mother, Hemy, sister Zellie and brother Oscar grow up working in the family business?a nightclub/bar located in their living room, serving illegal homemade liquor. Hemy's early sexual confusion is exacerbated when she tries to save a man from a racist attack and accidentally shoots off part of the assailant's genitals. Although Hemy and her victim, Mr. Antonovsky, a Russian survivor of Stalinist-era terror, develop a strangely beautiful and healing relationship, Hemy can't escape the persistent rumors of the town gossips, and she begins a tormented period of her life. During the four-day journey, Hemy engages her lover, who is fleeing phantoms of his own, in the story of her failed marriage, her work (as a man) in a prison, speculations on lesbianism and the violent recovery of her sense of womanhood. Told alternately in the first- and third-person, the narrative is lyrically written and urgently paced, a fluid American odyssey that combines the cinematic glamour of Body Heat and Murder on the Orient Express with the black-and-white film verite of a Death Row prison documentary. Through Hemy's gender crisis, Deaner offers a provocative exploration of identity, transforming the young woman's nightmarish past into a bittersweet trajectory toward her unique sexual truths.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Move over, Scheherazade, and make room for Hemy Lourde. Hemy, a young woman returning to the world from an all-but-ruined life, has an astonishing story to relate to the man she meets on a long rail journey west. Warned by her eccentric mother early on that she may either love a man or change the world, she attempts to control her destiny after nearly insurmountable sorrows and finds a bottomless spiritual reserve at her core. In the hands of a less talented and creative storyteller, this story could collapse under the weight of such an ambitious theme. Yet it's nearly impossible to resist Hemy's story, told sparingly as it is to the man she meets, a man with his own demons to exorcise. Readers wandering into Deaner's second novel (after Where Blue Begins, LJ 2/1/93) for a few pages will want to stay till the end.?Margaret A. Smith, Grace A. Dow Memorial Lib., Midland, MI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Dutton Adult; First Edition edition (March 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0525944141
• ISBN-13: 978-0525944140
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,256,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lyric story of a woman searching for her soul., April 10, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body Spoken (Hardcover)

Jannice Deaner has once again as she did in "Where Blue Begins" gotten to the very soul of a womans' existance. As the story of Hemy Lourde unravels on a train trip across the country the reader is thrlled by the elegant prose of this astonishing writer. This book is one to savor . Thank goodness for the fresh voice of Ms. Deaner. A MUST READ!!!!!!!!!!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spellbinding mystery of a truth-seeker, March 29, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body Spoken (Hardcover)

Janice Deaner has done it again. Like the superlative "Where Blue Begins", The Body Spoken is a spellbinding mystery combining individual truths with the broader social issues such as sexism and racism. It takes the reader on a fast-paced journey of Hemy Lourde's life as she begins a quest for revenge after her family is decimated by an explosion and ends with frightening self-discoveries which change her life forever. Written as two separate, yet interwoven stories, the novel unfolds over a cross-country train journey. A brilliant piece of literature which will haunt the reader for a long time!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mysteriously compelling...beautifully composed..., April 12, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Body Spoken (Hardcover)

This novel was captivating from the start and consistently kept me wondering. Hemy Lourde is a sensual, intelligent, unique character and her story is one that lingers in your mind. I highly recommend this book for those searching for the extraordinary.