Vapor: A Novel [Hardcover]

Amanda Filipacchi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 1999

Nude Men, the author's first novel, was described by Louis Malle as "hilarious, full of plot surprises, and completely original." Double that and you have Amanda Filipacchi's droll, fantastical, and much-awaited second novel. No one could anticipate Damon's illegal act of generosity -- encaging Anna Graham for nine months in an extraordinary vapor-filled house as repayment for saving his life. Through bizarre methods of discipline that only a madcap scientist such as Damon could concoct, he intends to fulfill her wish to become the best actress of our day. From this surreally screwball setup, Filipacchi spins an extravagant and zany parable of love and self-awareness, beginning with Amanda's escape from this torturous improvement program.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This cruelly inventive, mercilessly witty and outrageous second novel skewers the Pygmalion myth with barbs at modern neurosis, celebrity, greed and obsession. Filipacchi (Nude Men) plunges her heroine into a surreal trajectory from drama school failure to Oscar winner, satirizing the American dream every step of the way. Anna Graham, 27, passes time piercing ears, making copies at a Xerox shop, attending acting classes and thinking up ways to punish herself. That is, until the night when, dressed as the Good Fairy, she rushes onto the subway tracks to save the life of an eccentric scientific researcher named Damon Wetly, who repays her by making her fondest wishAto become a famous actressAcome true. Wetly plays Higgins to Anna's Eliza, teaching her to walk, talk, eat and think. To ensure Anna's commitment to his bizarre techniques, he holds her hostage in a cage, pelting her with ice bullets when she misbehaves and treating her to gifts and games as she makes progress. The brilliantly bizarre inverted logic of this relationship echoes elsewhere in Anna's life: when she herself is rescued from rapists, she dates her hero, who turns out to be quite a catch: a cosmetic surgeon, etiquette expert, cellist, Weight Watcher's counselor and male stripper. But Anna's metamorphosis and identity is bound, literally and irrefutably, with Damon. Filipacchi shrewdly juxtaposes human actions with contrasting desires, pitting social aspirations against antisocial ones. She quickly launches from the mundane (Anna's acting coach suggesting she give up acting) to the insane (then suggesting she give up her name to a promising actress who could make better use of it) fueled by clever language and merciless insight. Her novel showcases a prodigious postfeminist talent. Her energetic originality never falters and her unforgiving eye for the fluidity of human weakness never blinks. (May) FYI: Not to be confused with Vapors, by Wes DeMott, reviewed on March 15.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

A surreal and often frenetic trip through makeover land as a bizarre young man helps an aspiring New York actress become a star by imprisoning her in his cloud-filled home. Filipacchi (Nude Men, 1993) crafts an intriguing diversion thats as much a lighthearted meditation on the excesses of ambition as it is an unusual love story. When an acting professor tells narrator Anna Graham that she will never be an actress because shes too much herself, she is determined to prove him wrong. As it happens, while shes waiting for the subway, Anna rescues a young man whos being attacked; in gratitude, Damon Wetly asks her out to dinner, and, after she tells him about her acting ambitions, lures her to his country house, where he closes her up in a specially designed prison. Damon, a scientist working to create solid clouds, is exquisitely sensitive to moisture and weight. Anna initially tries to resist the program of education hes devised for her, but, worn out by a regimen that is as much physical as mental, gives in and follows his orders. Soon after she manages to escape and get back to New York, she becomes a major star. She hasn't forgiven Damon, though, so when the opportunity presents itself she tricks him into visiting her apartment, where she imprisons him in a cage shes had built. Nonetheless, the two soon become lovers, even though evil forcesincluding Damon's plastic-surgeon brotherare determined to thwart their passion. The bad guys are routed, but Damon, whos been experimenting with weightlessness, suddenly evaporates after being released from his cage. A grieving and Oscar-winning Anna has intimations of his possible return. An original and beguiling interpretation of old myths and contemporary preoccupations, despite a plot that often goes into overdrive. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Carroll & Graf; 1St Edition edition (March 24, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786706171
• ISBN-13: 978-0786706174
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,507,784 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Cool Book, May 2, 2000

By 

The Big L (MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vapor: A Novel (Hardcover)

This book is cool; it's like entering a world filled with humor and surrealism. I laughed throughout the whole thing and was disturbed by some of the description in it.

I'm not an avid reader, but I couldn't keep this book down. I hope Miss Filipacchi is working on another novel. Please, Amanda, write another novel!

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The only BAD thing about this book is that it ends..., August 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Vapor: A Novel (Hardcover)

At first I thought:"So what's this all about then?" It seemed pretentious. But then, slowly but surely, I started adoring it! It takes you to another world. I couldn't put it down. Filipacchi's world is so perverse and magical and makes our world seem quite dull in comparison. Tell friends and family to read it, but don't give ANYTHING away about the plot (I myself just bought the book and knew nothing about its contents) Let it unravel to them slowly. I'd like to talk about this book, so e-mail me!

25 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Ends and Means, May 8, 2000

By 

Robert Derenthal "bucherwurm" (California United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vapor: A Novel (Hardcover)

If your skills as an actress could be developed you could become a star. I could develop these skills, but you won't submit to my instruction. What should I do to make you my attentive pupil? In "Vapor" the man faced with this problem kidnaps the would-be actress, holds her prisoner in a cell, and physically abuses her when she resists his tutoring process. She becomes a better actress, but does this end justify these means?

This is a strange book. I should state at the onset that I like black humor, but this novel simply dismayed me. While weaving a tale that hovers between reality and fantasy Ms Filipacchi adds additional trauma through revenge, murder by torture, and various psychological abuses. The book often has a light hearted, floating manner that frequently crashes under the jarring weight of the characters in their horrendous psychological or physical mistreatment of each other. One man in the book has his girl friend, a model, suffer through repeated plastic surgeries in order for her to attain physical perfection - an end which, to her dismay, she never achieves.

It's like a roadrunner cartoon where life sort of happily goes on despite frequent mauling of the participants. I find it hard to understand why women -or men- like this book. Holding a person prisoner in a cage against their will for months, and torturing them for not complying with one's wishes is, to me, a repellent theme. I would not have thought this to be a modern woman reader's fantasy, but yet this novel reaps acclaim from such an audience.

The quality of the writing? It's fine. AF has talent, but I wish she would change her psychological frame of mind.