In Awe (Paperback)

by Scott Heim (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
The poetic language of In Awe places images like mutilated mannequins and a defunct miniature golf course in a weird, dark Kansas setting. Scott Heim's lyrical tale of three outcasts (a 17-year-old boy, a 32-year-old woman, and an old woman) works its eerie magic on two levels. On one level, it's about people so vilified by society that their ambitions come from horror stories: Boris is writing a story in which the three friends will rise from the grave "with worms on [their] wrists like gray bracelets" and wreak zombie vengeance, and Sarah wants to "star in movies where everyone will suffer sobbing and she alone will survive for top billing in the sequels." On another level, it's about an obsessive desire for a love object (Boris's for another boy he sees as "half-hyena, half-swan") that is so fierce, it can only be consummated in death. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
Our Gang meets Godzilla in a leather bar on the Great Plains, in Heim's disappointing follow-up to Mysterious Skin (1995). Within a particular gay subculture, Kansas may function as a kind of byword for homoerotic camp, but for most people who've never been there it sounds like a quiet enough place where very little goes on. They'll hardly be prepared, then, for life in Lawrence, the university town where Boris, Harriet, and Sarah have formed one of the most unlikely trios since the brothers Karamazov. Harriet, in her 60s, was the mother of Marshall, who was a friend and mentor to the gay Boris and the prodigiously heterosexual Sarah, both of them CINCs (Children in Need of Care) from the local juvenile detention center. Marshal died recently, and his mother acts out her grief by hanging with his two teenaged friends, both creative types themselves: Boris is writing a horror novel for school, and Sarah is fascinated by cinema. Sarah's obsessive nymphomania, which landed her in the juvenile home in the first place, has come back to haunt her in the person of Rex, a local redneck who's stalking her. Boris, in love with Rex, would give anything to be stalked, but Rex doesn't know he's alive. There are vivid, detailed flashbacks describing Sarah's sexual adventures. There are lyrical and sad flashbacks describing Harriet's recollections of her son. There are scenes from Boris's novel. And there is a confused subplot concerning the disappearance of young girls in town, with all the usual suspicions and hysteria, that adds up to little in the end. Heim is a master of unnecessary detail who badly overestimates the amount of literary freight his train can pull. In a contrived and obvious climax, his story finally seems not so much fulfilled as denuded. Empty posturing without much lurking behind it, save adolescent nihilism and more than a hint of misogyny. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Perennial (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060929200
• ISBN-13: 978-0060929206
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,023,576 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A GEN-X FAULKNER ON ACID WRITING HORROR, November 19, 2004

By	Owen Keehnen (Chicago) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a fan of horror movies and overall 'eerie-ness' I thoroughly enjoyed Heim's second novel (after the also recommended MYSTERIOUS SKIN). IN AWE is certainly one of the most original, poetic, amd menacing gay novels outside of Dennis Cooper's work in recent memory. It's a moody and atmospheric horror movie with deep literary significance (Imagine a Gen-X Faulkner on acid writing a horror novel - and toss in equal parts Shirley Jackson, Dennis Cooper, and David Lynch). This meticulously crafted novel follows a season in the STRANGE lives of 3 Lawrence Kansas misfits. The completely absorbing and slightly surreal plot defies succinct description but includes mutilated mannequins, a vile of urine, and numerous other surprises. Suffice it to saw IN AWE is one hell of a ride. Demented, evocative, descriptive, deeply profound, and not recommended for the squeamish...big ole GORE ALERT...and I'm not talking former VP Al or his wife Tipper. The characters were a bit tough for me to get a handle on...but the strongest presence in this novel is that overall menacing mood and that holds it all together.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I'm Left Wanting More, June 17, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Los Angeles (Silverlake), California) - See all my reviews

I'd not recommend this book. When I put the book down today for the last time I was angry. Angry that I wasted my time with a juvenile story of twisted desire and obsession. IN AWE did keep my attention with an interesting main character. However, the plot is ridiculous and reads like a made for TV movie. I'm ready for novels that say something new, and this one does nothing but entertain the masses. Skip it.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Juvenile Pretensions Flatten Good Writing, October 4, 1998

By A Customer

Scott Heim's writing is at times beautifully visual and graphic, and yet in this novel, the story is so preposterous his art is obscured. The characters all engage in completely ridiculous behavior that is meant to be read with grim shock and guilty, ghoulish pleasure, but which will make more discerning readers roll their eyes. This book also personifies the laughable trend in gay fiction: if there is death and depravity and self-loathing, then it's lit. If there is not, then it's not. The finale of this book is especially outrageous; you can feel Heim reaching for the most grotesque things possible in order to top himself. One part of the book I did love was the female character's past as one of those dirty little girls in class who doesn't even realize why she behaves the way she does. More character study on that line would have improved this book immeasurably.