Customer Reviews

Exposure

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4 star:		(5)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

Outwardly, Ann Rogers seems to be a young woman who has much to be happy about. She is extremely intelligent and perceptive, artistically talented, and if overly thin, she is still quite attractive with her waist-long red gold hair and chiseled features. She has a wonderful husband, Carl, who loves her very much, despite her sometimes bizarre behavior. And she co-owns a successful videotaping business, recording and editing the life celebrations of others - turning them into perfect events in her workshop.

In reality, Ann Rogers is seriously ill, both physically and mentally. As a girl she was diagnosed as having diabetes mellitus. She never followed doctors' instructions properly, behaving irresponsibly about eating regularly, testing blood sugar and injecting insulin. It was if she had a death wish. She certainly learned early on the consequences of her behavior. Her guardians, her father and maternal aunt, didn't monitor her as they should have. They were deemed negligent by Ann's doctor, causing an investigation by Child Protection Services when the adolescent girl was rushed to the hospital with severe insulin shock. It was not the first time such an emergency occurred. As an adult, Ann, if anything, has become even less responsible about caring for herself. Along with her potentially lethal carelessness, she exacerbates her poor health with an addiction to crystal meth - speed. She has been warned about the dangers of diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes which occurs when small blood vessels in the retina become swollen, or tiny new blood vessels start to grow and block the retina causing the complete loss of sight. Taking drugs, especially speed, is part of a continuing pattern demonstrating Ann's lack of concern for her life. She also steals compulsively from New York City's most expensive department stores. Usually, there is no need or desire to possess the stolen items, so they are often disposed of quickly.

Ann's great grandfather was a photographer who lived and worked in Mexico for many years. The most lucrative aspect of his business was photographing the dead, especially children. Back in the late 1800's young children died frequently. They were often carried off by childhood illnesses, and there was a severe meningitis epidemic in his area in 1886. People, even the poorest, wanted memorial photographs of their "angelitos," (little angels). When Ann's father, the famous photographic artist, Edgar Evens Rogers, discovered a portfolio of his forefather's work he was fascinated. He began to photograph young Ann in the nude, in poses of death. She became his primary, in fact, his only subject.

Virginia Crane Rogers died giving birth to Ann. Mariette Crane, Virginia's sister, came to care for the infant and never left, becoming like a mother to the girl. The only interest her father showed in his daughter was as a model - her development as a human being ignored. And when her teen body began to fill out, although still quite thin and immature, he lost interest in her altogether. Edgar Rogers committed suicide in 1979, and photographed his own death from a camera set on a tripod with a timer attached. Needless to say, the resulting pictures scarred Ann terribly, not that these were her first scars.

New York's Museum of Modern Art has long been planning a retrospective of Edgar Rogers' work. As the exhibit's inauguration date approaches, Ann becomes extremely stressed which causes her to behave more erratically than usual. Many of Rogers' photographs will be on display for the first time. These are the most graphic, where prepubescent Ann is posed as if dead, or in sexually explicit situations. Some of the photos even show self-mutilation as art - art which violated the girl's, and then the woman's life.

Katheryn Harrison writes brilliantly, elegantly. Her narrative approaches poetry at times. However, "Exposure" is much more than a novel of psychological suspense. The storyline is devastatingly painful to read. Ann is most certainly over exposed. She was abused - her life, her very privacy invaded from childhood and made public. She was treated like an object by her only living parent. While reading, I often felt as if I were rubbernecking at the site of a horrendous automobile accident. I knew I would be sickened by what I saw, but I could not turn away. I became a voyeur. The characters and the read are so compelling, however, it is almost impossible to put the book down.

Since the publication of her memoir, "The Kiss" in 1997, Ms. Harrison and her work have elicited much public attention - of the wrong kind, I think. She wrote about the incestuous affair she had with her father when she was in her 20's. Unfortunately, the autobiographical account probably receives all the scrutiny because of the taboo subject matter, rather than because the prose and the story are of literary merit - which they are. Much of her writing has pathological narcissism, violation, physical suffering and sexual taboo as central themes. Potential readers may find these topics too distasteful to deal with. This is a shame because the author is extremely talented and writes about much that is relevant in today's world. I recommend "Exposure," but suggest that for an initial experience one should begin with another Harrison novel. I am reading "Envy" right now, and find it excellent.

JANA

This was the first book by Kathryn Harrison that I read. It blew me away. She does things with words that most people can only do with paints. Reading her books is like being pulled into someone else's dream. I love the way she writes. I found the novel a little shaky toward the end, but it's definitely something I would recommend.

"Exposure" is a magnificent novel about a woman who is headed on a downward spiral of self-destruction. On the outside, Ann Rogers appears to have it all. At the age of 33, she co-owns a successful video production company. She has plenty of money, a wonderful husband, and strikingly good looks. On the inside, however, Ann is a mess. She's a diabetic and frequently fails to follow her strict insulin regimen, causing herself to go into insulin shock. Ann's secret addiction to crystal meth only makes matters worse, causing more severe symptoms of the diabetes and even forcing Ann to undergo several frightening eye surgeries. On top of all that, every time Ann does crystal meth, she has the urge to shoplift. All in all, she's a mess.

There's much more to Ann's story than what meets the eye. She is the daughter of Edgar Rogers, a famous photographer who committed suicide 15 years ago. Edgar frequently used Ann as his model, and many of the photographs featured his pre-adolescent daughter in sexually explicit poses. The story behind these photos isn't what the reader might be inclined to assume at first, but the images do have a powerful affect on Ann. As a large exhibit of her father's work prepares to open, Ann becomes overwhelmed with memories of her childhood, and her self-destructive behavior escalates as a result.

I absolutely loved this book. Author Kathryn Harrison spares no expense when exposing the dark undercurrents of Ann's fragile existence. In addition to being a brutally honest and detailed account of this character's life and emotions, Harrison's prose are elegant and beautiful to read. "Exposure" chronicles the way Ann's personality was shaped as a result of her being a work of art, but this book is truly an amazing work of art all on its own. It's a must-read.

Kathryn Harrison is a lovely, compelling writer but someone should have helped her with this one. Plot points intriguingly dropped are never addressed again (a mysterious self-imolating nineteen year old girl is dangled in front of us, then abandoned; the protagonist's father has an affair with a highly unlikely woman for whom there is never an explanation). In addition, the self destructive 'heroine' herself is a frustration. Watching her downward spiral is wearing, she never comes to the slightest bit of self-knowledge and we are left with no hope for her or her marriage to her faithful, eminently more sympathetic husband. Yes, it's interesting to note that our culture is hyper-obsessed with voyeurism, that lives are sacrificed in the process and no one seems to care. But by the end, I was close to not caring myself, which I'm sure was not Ms. Harrison's intention. She's a very talented writer, and I read the first half with alacrity, sure there would be some break in the endless self-destruction that would make slogging through it worthwhile. For some, perhaps watching a train wreck is fascination enough in itself. As for myself, I wanted more.

You almost feel like you're driving down the road and are passing a car wreck. You know you shouldn't slow down and look, but you just can't resist. "Exposure" by Kathryn Harrison is just like that. You feel so guilty watching, but just can't tear yourself away. This alluring but, lurid book about a women's mental unraveling is brilliant and powerful. Ann Rogers grew up as the muse for her father's revealing photographs and when the museum plans on a show of his work, it opens up a whole world of issues she never knew would happen. It causes a tremendous amount of anguish and provocative reactions. This psychological thriller is simply fascinating and very worth of your time.

It's not an easy read. And, it contains very mature subject matter, but very powerful.

What drew me to this book the most was its cover. As interesting as the plot-line seemed, I think the cover was incredibly well-done. The woman has this blunt, wistful stare and yet seems so carefully posed as to be unexposed. She is veiled in that we cannot see anything (her clothes, hair, body) except her face. Because of the cover, I was really excited about this book, and my expectations were met... somewhat.

Ann Rogers appears to have it all: beautiful, successful photographer, married. She seems to have everything under-control. Yet secretly her life is in shambles as a museum sets up an exhibit of her father's sexually explicit, masochistic, disturbing, and very, very controversial photographs, for which Ann was his model. Ostensibly, Ann is fine with the exhibit, and as controller of his estate (her father committed suicide when she was nineteen) she even participates in it. However, she has also turned to crystal-meth and compulsive shop-lifting as a buttress, and mismanagement of her severe diabetes as an escape.

Overall, this book was pretty good, not overly exploitative, and well-written. It was very dramatic I really liked the inserts which described the photographs of Ann as a girl. While some reviewers complained that it wasn't fair of the author to give us an anonymous nineteen year-old protestor of the exhibit who sets herself on fire, I felt the anonymity worked in that it embodies the destructive impulses Ann's father's work led to in Ann herself, and shows the way people can have an effect on us without our knowing it. At the same time, I felt this book could have been better had it been narrated by Ann's point-of-view. I couldn't really tell what she was feeling and this put me at a distance from her as the central character. The inserts that were narrated by Ann seemed too dramatic, italicized and supposing to be passioonate, while they really revealed very little at all. I wish I could have gotten more of a feel for how Ann felt about her fame as a model, and perhaps the feelings of humiliation at being so exposed so young. I also didn't like the conclusion. We have no idea where the story is going and what is happening to Ann. The connection with charity work was a poor one.

On the whole though, I admire Kathryn Harrison for attempting to tell a story of what amounts to incest when it is not blatantly so, therefore leaving the victim in dire confusion, with only a desire to self-destruct. At times this may seem like another "beautiful-talented-destructive-young-woman tale", but you can't blame Ann after what she's been through.

There was a kind of woman who was very fashionable throughout the nineties - intellectual, talented, beautiful, damaged in some vague and unspoken way. These women made a performance of their damage and of their self-destruction and took us all along for the ride. Kathryn Harrison, with her memoir of incest with her father The Kiss was certainly one of them. I think also of Elizabeth Wurtzel (Prozac Nation) and to a certain extent Kay Redfield Jamison (An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness), although I honestly think Jamison is ultimately more scholarly and less transgressive than the other two (and ultimately more successful). Ann Rogers, the main character in Exposure: A Novel is definitely one of them.

Harrison's prose is razor-sharp and her characterizations are clear and unmuddied, but there's something dishonest at the heart of this novel and I can't quite put my finger on what it is. Perhaps it is the way that sickness and misery are romanticized through this character. Perhaps it is the cold and enabling nature of the people around her. Maybe it's the refusal to truly examine the relationship between father and daughter that is at the center of all of this misery.

Does Harrison capture what it feels like to begin spinning out of control in this way? Yes and no. Yes, in that Ann is certainly spinning out of control and no, in that her wealth privilege ultimately cushion her in a way that takes the reader and all of the characters in the novel out of the story. Depression and suicidal self-destruction are neither glamorous nor pretty - Harrison spends too much time on and just past the edge of pretty to make this book truly work.

This is a readable book that is holds to a mirror to society and its sometimes neurotic behavior, particularly in regards to voyeurism and drug use. On the surface the main woman in the story is hghly successful, but her stability ultimately ends up an illusion. One guesses the ending to this book pretty quickly, yet one can't seem to turn away as the author marches to its inevitable conclusion.

On the downside, this could have used a little more editing - there are several minor plot points, particularly about the protagonist's father, that are brought up then dropped.

Worth reading!

The reader gets the feeling this author is speaking perhaps too close for comfort. Self destructing woman becomes even more unglued as her famous father's photographs are heading for display at a museum. Her father's camera was his shield against feeling while the daughter was the recipient of only the camera's eye. Psychologists would have a field day with this character. Riveting story.

I was a little disappointed in this book. The plot is good, but the characters never really invoked any emotion in me. They were all just names on the page. The main character certainly got my pity, but there was no depth to this book. I wanted to read it to the end, to find out what happened, but after a while, reading it got to be a chore. The story had a great idea behind it, and several strong moments, but overall, I found it to be lacking just a bit.