Sleeveless [Paperback]

Joi Brozek (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 2002

Sleeveless is the darkly humorous and provocative story of Lisha, a sardonic and very twisted teenager living on Long Island in the late 80s, dealing with the accidental death of her younger sister after a botched DIY abortion. Alienated from her peers and a fanatically religious mother, Lisha begins exploring the creative potential of self-abuse, through what she refers to as skin design.

When her razor art becomes the latest trend at school, it’s all she can do to maintain the purity of her original vision and protect the memory of her sister. Employing a variety of styles and shifting tempos to describe Lisha’s descent into an inner-world of visceral creativity, Sleeveless is an intensely psychological novel, a stunning debut by this gifted writer.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"This is a terrific book. The structure, the style, all come together organically to produce a reality/hallucinatory story that doesn’t alternate between the two, but creates its own images and defies you to differentiate between the two, and leaves you with the question, is anything real? Damned if I know." —-Hubert Selby Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Waiting Period

About the Author

Joi Brozek was born in Queens, New York, grew up on Long Island and moved to Manhattan to attend New York University as soon as she could. She holds an MFA from Brooklyn College. Published in a variety of small press literary zines, her other titles include The Luckiest Girl, Georgie and Her Meat, The Porcelain God (co-authored with Eve Rings, with whom she also co-edited Dirty Girls Press), Blood and a Windshield Make Lovely Stained Glass and Strays In Pompeii. Joi currently resides in Brooklyn where she is working on a new novel.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Phony Lid Pubns (July 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1930935269
• ISBN-13: 978-1930935266
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.2 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,693,130 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent debut, October 5, 2002

By 

Verian Thomas (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeveless (Paperback)

Reading this first novel by Brozek in one sitting was not good for my mind. It has left me feeling as though I have been standing barefoot on an oversized razor blade and slowly split in two by my own weight. Half of me is real and the other half I can only assume exists in some other place where darkness and light have reversed roles and everything exists in shocking negative. Sleeveless is a deeply affecting book. A book of the car crash on the freeway variety but, rather than slowing down and taking discreet sidelong glances, it is pedal to the floor as there's another one coming up and then another, tearing full on through the pages from one fascination to the next and wondering where it is all going to end.

The story of Sleeveless is told by Lisha, a twisted slice of the teenage America of the late 80's, who is attempting to come to terms with the accidental death of her younger sister following a disastrous DIY abortion. She turns her creativity towards her own body and begins to carve designs into her skin. This self-abuse becomes a school trend leaving Lisha uneasy in the role of trend setter as her original vision is hijacked and transformed into something she never intended. Lisha shows the world her detached disdain but internally she is desperately attempting to deal with the cancerous guilt she feels from her part in the death of her sister and the mock religious fervour of her needy mother.

Brozek adopts a number of different styles and methods throughout the book which give the voyeuristic feeling of reading excerpts of a personal journal, stolen from beneath a pillow and poured over before being slipped back at the sound of approaching footsteps. Lisha's mind is slowly revealed like a flap of skin being pulled back over muscle, it is equally captivating and revolting and impossible to turn away from as we sink beneath the skin and enter her blood stream on a mission to examine the unravelling threads of her mind. Here is where the boundaries between what is real and what is not merge into each other in psychotic acid trip narrative.

This is hard and dark book, disturbed, disturbing, gripping.

It is also extremely clever and perceptive, playing by its own rules and succeeding in taking the reader on a guided tour of dark hearts and darker minds. It is an always uncomfortable but strangely appealing place to travel.

The blurb on the back cover of Sleeveless states, "a stunning debut by this gifted writer." For once, I have to agree.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and lovely., March 18, 2003

By 

Kerry Reid (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeveless (Paperback)

This is one of the rare books about adolescents and mental illness that isn't cloying, smarmy, or obvious in its approach. Joi Brozek has a poet's ear and a painter's eye in describing the world of Lisha, a tormented teenager on Long Island in the late 80s. The "David Lynchian Brainrack" (to quote a friend) elements in the book are impressively handled. But what I really responded to was the lack of either sentimentality or cynicism (the latter of which is really just another form of sentimentality). Brozek is wise enough to realize that not everything can be fixed, closure is a myth, our minds play tricks on us...and we have to keep chugging along to our own weird muses. I look forward to reading more from this singularly gifted writer.

P.S. It's actually quite funny in a lot of ways, too.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars gorgeous and fierce, October 14, 2006

By 

Carolyn Turgeon (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sleeveless (Paperback)

This book blew me away. It's ferocious, original, weird, and heartbreaking, and written in prose that's both kaleidoscopic and elegantly stripped down. It felt more like an experience than a great read--like going through a war, a love affair, a tragedy. I don't think I've read anything quite like it. Be prepared to be hit right in the heart and gut.