Losing Clementine: A Novel [Kindle Edition]

Ashley Ream (Author)

Book Description

A fresh, fun, totally addictive debut—by turns hilarious and tragic—by a gifted new writer, Losing Clementine follows a famous artist as she attempts to get her messy affairs in order en route to her eventual planned suicide a month later. First time author Ashley Ream takes a usually macabre subject and makes it accessible, relatable, and funny, and, in Clementine, has created one of the most endearing and unforgettable characters in recent fiction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“[LOSING CLEMENTINE] is poignant and insightful and also surprisingly funny, thanks to its nasty, charming narrator.” (Gillian Flynn, New York Times-bestselling author of Gone Girl )

“A breezy, self-deprecating voice that makes for good company...clever dialogue...It’s tempting to consider [LOSING CLEMENTINE] a Left Coast update of “Bright Lights, Big City” ...although Ream’s Clementine stares down a fate far more dire than that faced by Jay McInerney’s magazine fact-checker.” (Kansas City Star )

“This is a novel that allows us to experience how exciting life is, and how fast time can fly, once you truly free yourself to live it.” (Bust Magazine )

“An entertaining and moody whirlwind. Whether readers love or hate Clementine, they won’t soon forget her.” (Publishers Weekly )

“An unexpectedly fresh and humorous voice. Fans of dark comedy should add Ream to their list of authors to watch.” (Library Journal )

“With her razor wit and over-it-all candor, Clementine makes for a fascinating companion, and Ream manages to craft an engaging and impressive debut without soft-pedaling how very sick Clementine is . . . A hip and hilarious portrait of a crazy person.” (Kirkus )

“It’s hard not to fall in love with Clementine Pritchard--she’s talented, witty, inventive and suicidal. You won’t want this story to end as you root for the wonderfully lawless and impulsive Clementine.” (Jessica Anya Blau, author of Drinking Closer to Home )

From the Back Cover

In thirty days Clementine Pritchard will be finished with her last painting and her life.

World-renowned artist and sharp-tongued wit Clementine Pritchard has decided that she's done. After flushing away a medicine cabinet full of prescriptions, she gives herself thirty days to tie up loose ends—finish one last painting, make nice with her ex-husband, and find a home for her cat. Clementine plans to spend the month she has left in a swirl of art-world parties, manic work sessions, and outrageous acts—but what she doesn't expect is to uncover secrets surrounding the tragedy that befell her mother and sister. In an ending no one sees coming, will we lose Clementine or will we find her?

A bold debut from an exciting new voice, Losing Clementine is a wonderfully entertaining and poignant novel about unanticipated self-discovery that features one of the most irresistible, if deeply flawed, characters to grace contemporary fiction in years.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 589 KB
• Print Length: 323 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0062093630
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (March 6, 2012)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers
• Language: English
• ASIN: B005MMDKE4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Not Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,449 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply wonderful. April 9, 2012

By AMB

Format:Paperback

What happens when you decided that 30 days from now you would end your life? Do you avoid all responsibility, have fun, and go wild? Or do you put all your ducks in a row, buy your burial plot, and find a new owner for your beloved cat? The latter is exactly what Clementine Pritchard did.

This review is difficult to write for two reasons. The first being I still haven't mastered the art of reviewing without giving anything away. And the second is that I am not articulate enough to give Losing Clementine the review it deserves. Nothing I write can convey how powerful this novel is.

I treasured every single second I spent with Clementine. She was funny, raw and candid in a way only someone preparing for her suicide can be. I'm thankful the novel was written in first person. I enjoyed being inside her head, enduring what she did, feeling what she felt.

Ashley Ream's idea to countdown the days until Clementine ended her life was brilliant. I liked how Clementine worked to resolve unfinished business with father, she knew that in order to rest in peace she needed resolution. The more I discovered about her, the more I understood her. The more I learned, the more my heart broke.

Losing Clementine would not have worked as well as it did if not for Ms. Ream sensitivity and understanding of conveying and relating Clementine's battle with manic depression. She has a remarkable capacity to communicate Clementine's emotions that as the reader I felt them too. As a debut novel, this is nothing less than stellar. It was the perfect combination of heartbreaking, moving, humorous, shocking, raw and sincere. It reads like a memoir. Clementine jumped out of the page, became real and told me her story.

In Losing Clementine, I found a wonderful novel that was twisted, dark, sad but redeeming, powerful and honest.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars My dark Clementine March 24, 2012

By Susan Whitfield VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I just finished reading Losing Clementine. Even though the topic is depression's "black days" and Clementine decides that in 30 days she'll commit suicide, I found the book humorous and thought-provoking. She threw away most of her possessions, picked out her own casket, and stopped being nice to people she never liked anyway. As the book moves along and the days count down, she makes all the preparations necessary to end her life.

Ashley Ream did a good job of taking me into the depths of depression where the body is in a stroke-like situation. I liked the uniqueness of this book, and the ending gave me hope for Clementine.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars dark often graveyard amusing character study March 6, 2012

By Harriet Klausner #1 HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

Extremely depressed and off her meds artist Clementine Pritchard decided to commit suicide. She has given herself thirty days to determine her exit strategy. To begin with Clementine fires her shrink as she figures death means she does not need to see any doctor. Then she lets go of her assistant Jenny Pritchard who barely holds back the tears with the news. That done she tosses her tea set out the window nearly braining odious Mrs. Epstein. The countdown has begun in earnest as Clementine knows the only individual who will truly miss her is Chuckles the cat; yet she also refuses to leave a mess behind for whoever has to clean up her death.

The key to this dark often graveyard amusing character study is the profound complex look at depression but does so without using the mental illness as an alibi to justify Clementine's erratic behavior. Ironically as she plans to kill herself, she does so in an orderly manner; mindful of a leaper taking off their watch so it does not break. Readers will wonder throughout whether Clementine will take the poison she bought in Tijuana or become saved like in It's A Wonderful Life. With a nod to Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why I Killed Myself, Ashley Ream provides a powerful tale as Chuckles becomes the barometer of Clementine's "To be or not to be" life altering decision.

Harriet Klausner

More About the Author

Ashley Ream got her first job at a newspaper when she was 16. After working in newsrooms across Missouri, Florida and Texas, she gave up the deadlines to pursue fiction. Her debut novel, Losing Clementine, which sold at auction, was a Barnes & Noble debut pick and a Sutter Home Book Club pick. She and her books have appeared in L.A. Weekly, Los Angeles Magazine, Bust Magazine, the Kansas City Star and Marathon & Beyond Magazine. She lives in Los Angeles where she works at a nonprofit, runs ultramarathons and is finishing her next novel.