Splintered Day [Paperback]

V.K. Mina (Author)

Book Description

Series: High Risk Books | Publication Date: July 15, 1999

First novel by Indian American poet and novelist which is in the words of Jane DeLynn "Very good, very intelligent, moving...An exciting debut"

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

Minas debut novel features a group of young New York women who may be lesbians and may not: they sleep with other women a lot, but their boyfriends beat them, and its all so sophisticated and cutting edgeand excruciatingly banal. Very little exceeds the boredom of reading about people monotonously contemplating, and pursuing, the fortunes of their genitalia. Heres a sample of the penetrating introspection (catharsis, if you will (available to the reader: Sometimes you feel like the come you havent come forms a clog of unguent in your pussy, like mucus in your nasal passages preventing you from breathing properly . . . [and] masturbation is like blowing your nose. In nine semi-related chapters, Neelam club-hops through gay and bisexual bars, sleeps with an assortment of human incidents, and wonders what lesbians really want; Lili endures an absurd relation with Maxim, a money-sponging dreadlocked drug dealer who abuses her; and a pregnant woman notices that her vagina leaks white paste. All are members of a cast of two-dimensional characters whose genitals serve as the roller-coasters they seem to have hopped on for the ride. The novel doesnt conclude; its plot expires, smuggling away its meaning to some dark, inconceivable elsewhere. Near the end, Neelam muses, I wanted all of us to save each other from the lives we were leading. The drifting, the fucking, the lies we were telling each othera sentiment most readers will ardently agree with. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Serpent's Tail (July 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852424524
• ISBN-13: 978-1852424527
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,971,880 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars some other reviews, January 12, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Splintered Day (Paperback)

Alarmingly acute, horrifyingly readable, startlingly chaste. - Fay Weldon

There is some real thought here - about race, love, urban life. - The New York Times

Urbane...frank and witty prose [which] follows an unruly narrative path, slipping from past to present with an engaging grace...The Splintered Day is a promising debut...that brings to mind the short stories of Mary Gaitskill. Like Gaitskill, V.K. Mina is a wry and empathetic illuminator of damaged life. - Lawrence Chua

Elle aime bien se nourrir de la chair de jeunes gens étourdis...Des fois, j'ai eu l'impression d'être en présence d'un double feminin. Beaucoup plus rusé et plus intelligent. L'oeil de l'araignée. - Dany Laferrière

Margaret Atwood meets Riot Grrl. Readers of Dale Peck's MARTIN AND JOHN might recognize distant parallels, although the skewed and kaleidoscopic framework here is more idiosyncratic. Mina has found a structure and several voices suited to the deadening, tiring and confusing use-or-be-used world she describes. As alert to heritage as she remains, Mina can come across as a queer-positive Henry Miller for the year 2000, a chronicler of the ways and means that desire and angst make themselves felt. - Publisher's Weekly

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moving and observant, September 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Splintered Day (Paperback)

Moving and observant. I particularly like the way Mina depicts the way different parts/moments of life impinge on each other. A dry, Dawn Powell kind of New York novel, mixed with a Madame Bovary-ish search for glamourous romances. The handling of a Tamil/Indian woman's perspective was well-done, using South Asian culture without masalafying it.