Customer Reviews

Narcissus Ascending: A Novel

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The style is a little confusing at times -- I LIKE standard punctuation! -- but the characters are absolutely riveting. Becky, the narrator and main character, is a struggling artist who spends most of the book deftly psychoanalyzing herself, her friends, and especially the mysterious siren Callie, the sweet/strange/needy/demanding/impossible woman who brought Becky and all her friends together because each one had been burned in some way by her. Becky's narrative is frustrated and emotional and a wild joy to read, and the special rivalry between her and Callie and the way it affects their other friends makes for a unique and compelling portrait of friendship unlike anything I have ever read.

Narcissus Ascending is a great read, and normally that is enough to merit praise, but for me it didn't end there. The story itself touches on a number of modern themes, including that of the struggling artist in the city, the exile that forms a surrogate family in the absence of a real one, and the struggles of youth in forming identity. It can also be read as a cautionary tale of the perils of self-absorption with its paradoxical ingredients of hubris and insecurity.

The novel conveys a world that I have never seen depicted elsewhere in contemporary literature with such mesmerizing authenticity. The main characters are four friends who have gathered on the eve of the first solo art exhibition of one of them. Becky, whose work is being shown, is an ambitious, aspiring artist who also serves as the novel's narrator. One person - the manipulative, yet charismatic Callie, had brought all four characters together. Though no longer in the picture, having in stages become estranged from each of them, Callie, nevertheless continues to hover psychologically over each of them.

As I said initially, the story itself is gripping and will no doubt appeal to many people simply looking to pickup a good read. As I read, though, I could not help feeling that the qualities of the novel - its structure, language and story - were weaving a sensibility that was more profound. The novel ultimately offers insight into the human condition of the world that we currently inhabit. The characters and their motivations are truly the products of this brave new world and that they could only exist in our time is unmistakable. To simply describe the story in Narcissus Ascending is to not communicate the importance of this concise novel to literature. In much the same way that Woolf or Lawrence used their novels as vehicles for their exploration of contemporary sensibilities, so does McKinnon. While reading Narcissus Ascending, I felt that I had come upon a future classic.

I came across this debut novel recently and on cracking open the cover I didn't look up until I had finished all 200 plus pages several hours later. McKinnon's style of writing is impressive and her ability to render the novel's characters into flesh and blood is mind-whirling. The examination of the complexity of friendships that form when self-absorbed people (and aren't we surrounded more and more by them) find each other is sobering...and, I hate to admit it (and so will you), familiar. I can't wait to read more of her writing.

Recently, we've been bombarded by the fiction publishing industry with woman characters that are ambivalent about their independence and obsessed with the desire to be all things to everyone (especially to men). The women of Narcissus Ascending cannot be reduced to these banal caricatures. Instead, Karen McKinnon, in her darkly ironical first novel, gives us two rivalrous characters - Becky and Callie - whose complex, obsessive, self-delusional personalities jumps off the page. The seeming authenticity of these characters makes them fascinating to read about. This is a unique and wonderful book that I highly recommend.

I loved this book. It dares, which is more than I can say for most of the novels I've read in the last few years. Fiction has become all the same thing, seemingly meant to make both writer and read feel good about themselves. This novel isn't about that. McKinnon's writing is alive, her characters are vivid and her story is wickedly fun. Reading the other reviews, it is clear that the author's refusal to tell the reader what to think has [upset] some readers and perplexed others; the smart ones, though, know that she purposely encloses you in the suffocating point of view of a narcissist--here's what it's like to live in the skin of a vain, short-sighted, self-glorifying young woman 24/7--as if to say you'd better watch out, world, or this is what we'll all become. But Becky is not a mouthpiece, she is a character whom McKinnon embodies fully and without flinching. I can't wait to see who and what she'll take on next.

Narcissus Ascending is a sylistic masterpiece, uniquely and successfully capturing the damaged identities of a group of people who cannot be complete without each other. The author has an incredible grasp of group psychodynamics and knowledge of art. The writing is sheer poetry. I couldn't put it down and I could not disagree more with the Publishers Weekly review. The ending is deliberately NOT melodramatic.

Narcissus Ascending, the initial novel offering by transplanted New York psychologist and writer Karen McKinnon is exactly what you expect it to be when you first see it on the bookstore shelf. And it is things you never expected it to be.

The title of the work and its modest size (214 pages) may lead you to believe it contains the usual dose of pretentious self-indulgence that often accompany a first novel, which this one does. Two of the first four words in the opening paragraph are "I" and unless you are among the most voracious and academic of readers, not a few times will you find yourself reaching for the Roget's to get a handle on the sometimes reachng vocabulary. But don't let that keep you from picking it up. This look at the relationships between a group of late twenty-something friends that don't spend their lives huddled in a New York City coffeehouse immediately grabs hold of your interest and rarely lets go.

Written in a unique "diary-like" narrative from the perspective of the main character, Becky, McKinnon's writing structure here is perfect for the subject matter and is a large part of what makes this such an enjoyable read. The lack of dialogue punctuation and the often combined thoughts and sentences make the reader have to work a little harder, but helps to stay atuned to the story line and each of its subjects.

The story is centered around four friends wrapped up in the melieu of New York's East Village who, aside from the day-to-day travails of Manhattan life are each dealing with the mental residue deposited by a fifth character, Callie, whom, though we don't actually meet until the last 80 pages of the book, we come to know and loathe...and fear, but are anxious to meet. The setting is well written and through the interaction and thoughts of each character, we are given a look into four distinct lives and points of view; neurosis, desire, ambition and all. McKinnon walks us through their relationships, individually and collectively, and as we progress, have no choice but to make comparisons with our own lives. Their private thoughts, personal battles and betrayals and the rationalizing of sexual indiscretions and desires are upfront and honest, to the point we are left to wonder how many of the characters and experiences are autobiographical or if the writer is just this good.

McKinnon does deserve a little slap for not reaching further into the character Dahlia and how her life as an incest survivor fuels her thoughts and actions, but should be highly praised for her research into modernist artist Becky. If we didn't know the writer was a psychologist, her depth of detail regarding her artist's struggle for professional self-definition and the art world itself would have us looking forward to her next show at the MoMA.

The storyline focuses largely on the angst and fears of its main players and their shallow, adolescent need to acquire revenge for past deeds done them by the protragonist Callie. But there is an unspoken subtext you can not help but delve into, questions about the foundative solvency in today's society you can not help but ask. Because most of the character development is so thorough and well defined, we can't help but wonder if present-day adults are really this [messed] up and whether we fall into one of two categories; those as equally disfucntional and in need of therapy as the characters we're reading about or those who are fortunate enough to have grown up.

A quick-paced, cozy-up-on-the-sofa-for-an-evening novel, Narcissus Ascending is a fun read that takes an naked, revealing look into the self-centered aspects of the human condition we all enjoy...or suffer from. But don't believe for a second that after you close the cover, it won't have you thinking.

Perhaps more than you'd like to.

This is a well-crafted, very modern story about the joys and sorrows of friendship. Cant wait to read more from McKinnon.

It might be the energy racing throughout, I couldn't put it down.
Starting even before she ever came to town.
So much ado, so much to do.
All these people around her so tightly wound.

Is it possible, could she love me?
He?
Careful-this day you may rue.
Thee . . !

Oh the way they run around,
for reasons known only in their own crown.
Each and everyone they woo,
more than one on the rebound.

To themselves be true?
Anything not to be blue.