The Tracey Fragments [Paperback]

Maureen Medved (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 28, 2007

Naked under a tattered shower curtain, 15-year-old Tracey Berkowitz has been sitting on a bus for two days, telling her story and looking for her brother, Sonny, who thinks he’s a dog. She confesses her hopes and fantasies, as well as the grief and horror of a hardscrabble life. As time passes, Tracey’s stories begin to twist the truth and entwine it with lies, at once captivating and unsettling the reader. As an unforgettable portrait of a teenager on the verge of imploding, The Tracey Fragments has been compared to The Catcher in the Rye with a style similar to that of Go Ask Alice. Maureen Medved's first novel is a raw, moving account full of twists and turns, fear and uncertainty, trust and betrayal.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Another oddly timely book (see above) that comes on the heels of recent headlines of teen violence, Canadian author Medved's debut novel provides an eerie glimpse of a raging adolescent psyche. Fifteen-year-old Tracey Berkowitz has been riding on a bus through a blizzard for two days, searching for her younger brother and wearing only a shower curtain. From the back seat she tells her story in a layered narration that shifts from first- to third-person, when Tracey talks about herself as "It," a girl tormented by her classmates and neglected by her parents: "When It went anywhere, It went alone. When It crept against school walls, people held their breath.... Boys pulled at It. Blew their snot on It. Yelled, `It's coming." Tracey's life at her "scary monster house" is no better, her parents alternately catatonically miserable and ruthlessly cruel; they warn Tracy that she'll wind up like her mentally unstable grandmother, who apparently walked the streets in search of abusive men. In her utter isolation Tracey often escapes into a fantasy world where a gorgeous boy, Billy Speed, loves her. The flip side of her psychic dislocation is that she vividly dreams of killing her family, strangers and herself. In fragmented prose mirroring Tracey's splintered identity, Medved gradually reveals her protagonist's devastating reality (that Billy Speed raped her) as well as her sources of hope, her 10-year-old vanished brother, Sonny, who thinks he's a dog, and the distorted memory of her grandmother. Medved skillfully blends Tracey's frenzied facts and fictions into a cohesive portrait of a teenager on the verge of imploding. Tracey's frantic speech, repetitive yet evasive, sometimes appears in capital letters; other times she manages a dry, deadpan voice, like when she's talking about her psychiatrist. Rivulets of hope somehow seep through this taut, harrowing narrative as Tracey examines the steps she's taken, like her grandmother, to search for a world beyond the "monster house." (Aug.)

Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

About the Author

Maureen Medved's fiction has been published in literary journals and magazines. She is an assistant professor in the creative writing program at the University of British Columbia. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: House of Anansi Press (November 28, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887847684
• ISBN-13: 978-0887847684
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #904,062 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for a "late teenager", July 8, 2008

By 

C. S. Usler (Rhode Island) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (Paperback)

i really liked this book. i never read much before this but this book sparked something in me. I never understood how people could get involved with a book but while reading this i wanted to actually jump in it and save tracey from her life. Its a very sad story but i could relate to it and it seemed a little too real. Everyone, especially just out of high school and starting college, should read it.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars neat way to tell a story, but.., August 25, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (The Spider Line Series) (Paperback)

perhaps my expectations for this book was a little high, since it has been called a "Catcher in the Rye" for the 90's. However, the book didn't live up to those expectations. there are similarities between "catcher" and "tracey fragments": both protagonists are young, lost, misunderstood, and lonely teenagers, and nothing really physically happens in the book. But while Holden Caulfield was a most likeable hero for me (i love you holden caulfield), i find Tracey Berkowitz to be much too whiny. I had little sympathy for her. I realized Tracey's mind games as I read further along in the book, and felt almost betrayed. In the end, Medved's unique way of telling the story (which makes the reader feel as if he/she was in tracey's mind) kept the book fresh and urged me to read on. An ok read; it is short so it's worth picking up if you are into depressing/angst stories.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Dysfunctional......., July 7, 2008

By 

BJ "Brett Starr" (East Peoria, IL United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Tracey Fragments (Paperback)

.... is what best describes "The Tracey Fragments"!

Tracey Berkowitz's life is confusing, yet very interesting!

The book is Tracey's mind racing from story to story, situation to situation, all the fragments of her so called life!

The book is full crazy rants and unforgettable prose, these two were my favorites-

"When a horse falls, foam comes out of its mouth. When it falls, the legs of the horse thrash and the horse is no good, so somebody shoots the horse. The horse turns into glue. A machine puts the glue into bottles. Some of the bottles have nipples and children squeeze the nipples to get the glue out and stick bits of paper onto cards. Glue gets on the children's hands and the children eat the glue. The children become the horse"

"I don't like the country. Creeps me out. In the country, dead bodies lie in swamps, ditches, shallow graves. A man dumps the body of a girl in a ditch. The body rots and melts into slime. Flowers pop up where the body lies. Seeds fly out of the flowers. A bee sucks the flowers and makes honey. The family of the girl buys the honey from the store. The family eats the girl."

Quick and short book, very easy to read, the dvd is out now, the movie should explain things a little better then the book!