The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories [Paperback]

Shelley Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2, 2002

Amusing, touching, and unsettling, The Melancholy of Anatomy is that most wonderful of fictions, one that makes us see the world in an entirely new light.

Here is the body turned inside out, its members set free, its humors released upon the world. Hearts bigger than planets devour light and warp the space around them; the city of London has a menstrual flow that gushes through its underground pipes; gobs of phlegm cement friendships and sexual relationships; and a floating fetus larger than a human becomes the new town pastor. In this debut story collection, Shelley Jackson rewrites our private passages, and translates the dumb show of the body into prose as gorgeous as it is unhygienic.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her oddly infantile, solemnly scatological first collection of stories treating the body's four "humors," online fiction diva Jackson (The Patchwork Girl) sends up Robert Burton's sprawling 17th-century medical treatise, The Anatomy of Melancholy. In her take, the humors Choleric, Melancholic, Phlegmatic and Sanguine function as the intriguing divisions of this dark, slender work. Around each, she attempts to construct, if not a story, then musings on a bodily necessity, with each part further broken down into its most visceral elements: Choleric into chapters called "Egg," "Sperm," "Foetus"; Melancholic into "Cancer," "Nerve," "Dildo" and so forth. Wisely, Jackson chooses to open with the one coherently plotted story: "Egg" concerns a 36-year-old woman in San Francisco working in a grocery store and living with her ex-lover, Cass; the narrator removes an egg from her tear duct, nurtures it until it grows as big as a boulder, then allows the care of its pink insatiable perfection to lift from her the burden of desire and decision. In other stories, similarly feckless narrators focus with morbid obsession on trapping bodily fluids and herding sperm; growing cancer like a species of exotic, intractable tree; gathering nerve fibers and fashioning them into inflammable hats for ladies. Though Jackson endeavors to keep the tone high by giving her prose a sarcastic scientific veneer ("Sperm are ancient creatures, single-minded as coelacanths"), her references do not go deep enough, and her humor here is arch and superficial. Cleverly imagined but laboriously executed, these stories are squeezed too tightly through the wringer of their premise. Author appearances in New York. (Apr.)Forecast: Anointed as a Voice Writer on the Verge and heralded as a top online talent (like Eisen see below), Jackson has already made a reputation for herself. Whether she can cross over successfully remains to be seen, but the low paperback price will help.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

In these 13 well-wrought, mind-bending stories, grouped by the four medieval physiological humors, people interact with bodily parts, products, and processes, often at their peril. An egg expands from the size of a dot to enfold, then expel, the woman on whom it grew, while sperm increase to buffalo heft, serving as pets, performers, and food (with a favorite recipe included), yet with a dangerous edge to their playfulness. A fetus devoted to service becomes the town pastor, and phlegm is so highly prized in social and sexual situations that low-phlegm producers can buy the prepared kind. The city of London has menstrual cycles, during which female swabbers go deep into its blood pipes to insert a giant tampon, and sleep is a crumblike substance that falls like rain, from which each person can form one substitute to act in his or her stead. Jackson, author of the novel The Patchwork Girl (1995), probes at the relationship between the emotional and the physical in these fantastic, sometimes stomach-turning stories, for a particular audience. Michele Leber
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Anchor; 1st Anchor Books ed edition (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038572120X
• ISBN-13: 978-0385721202
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #948,493 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Shelley Jackson has written and illustrated several books for children, including The Old Woman and the Wave (DK Children, 1998) and Sophia, the Alchemist's Dog (Atheneum/Richard Jackson Books, 2002). Her most recent book, The Chicken-Chasing Queen of Lamar County by Janice Harrington (FSG, 2007), received several awards and starred reviews. Shelley's books for adults include The Melancholy of Anatomy (Anchor Books, 2002) and Half Life (HarperCollins, 2006). She is well known for her pioneering cross-genre experiments such as her groundbreaking hypertext novel, Patchwork Girl, and her ongoing Skin Project, a novella published exclusively in the form of tattoos on the skin of volunteers, one word at a time. She lives in Brooklyn, New York. To learn more, please visit her website: http://ineradicablestain.com/

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Remarkable, March 20, 2004

By 

L. Berk "Leah Lionheart" (Praha, CR) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories (Paperback)

Shelley Jackson really knows how to do it, and this book is a keen demonstration of her literary abilties. She pulls off a gutsy fictitious romp through the four humors, both entertaining the reader and airing her wonderous ability to write. All at once, her writing is hopeful and dreary, unsettling, yet so comfortable, one could wrap oneself in it. Definitely, this is one of the most interesting books - both in premise and execution - that I have ever read.

This book is arguably nothing more than an exercise in experimental fiction. It will not fly off the shelves, and it will not be a best seller. Rather, it is a gem which will be ignored by most, disliked by many, and loved by few.

Jackson, here, portrays various parts of the body in environments which they are not usually found. A large foetus arrives in a town, looming overhead in an enormous fashion. From this viewpoint, it partakes in the activities of the town, serving as a pastor and -- remarkably -- as a sort of guiding light.

"Egg" is another story which I personally enjoyed. There is bleeding symbolism, and in some respects (throughout the book), heavy handed metaphors. Despite this, though, "Egg" is, for me, the most interesting story in the book. Jackson tells of an egg from a woman's tear duct which grows larger and larger. Throughout the story, Jackson punctuates her writing with a sort of omniscient commentary - it is witty and cynical - an easter egg found in this literary scape.

Overall, this book is well worth the while of anyone who loves to read something slightly offbeat, darkly humorous, and definitely interesting. It is an enjoyable romp through the parts of the human body, a romp which is playful and disturbing all at once. Really superb.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thought Provoking, August 31, 2005

By 

Andrea Havoc "Havoc_66" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories (Paperback)

The Meloncholy of Anatomy is one of the most insightful books I've read in a very long time. I was amazed at the use of the metaphorical language pretaining to the view of the stories. This book inspired me to become part of the Skin Project put on by Shelly Jackson, author of this book.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Explore Your Body, June 20, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories (Paperback)

The four humors get a work out in this amazing collection of stories. Jackson starts with something really basic (like phlegm, or sperm, or fat!) and just works wonders with it -- she's the Martha Stewart of body fluids!