Ipswich Public Library

Toad, Katherine Dunn ; introduction by Molly Crabapple ; editor's note by Naomi Huffman

eng

no index present

novels

Toad

1289249662

Katherine Dunn ; introduction by Molly Crabapple ; editor's note by Naomi Huffman

"Sally Gunnar has withdrawn from the world. She spends her days alone at home, reading drugstore mysteries, polishing the doorknobs, waxing the floors. Her only companions are a vase of godfish, a garden toad, and the door-to-door salesman who sells her cleaning suplies once a month. She broods over her deepest regrets: her blighted romances with self-important men, her lifelong struggle to feel at home in her body, and her wayward early twenties, when she was a fish out of water among a group of eccentric, privileged young people at a liberal arts college. There was Sam, an unabashed collector of other people's stories; Carlotta, a troubled free spirit; and Rennel, a self-obsessed philosophy student. Self-deprecating and sardonic, Sally recounts their misadventures, up to the tragedy that tore them apart. Colorful, crass, and profound, Toad is Katherine Dunn's ode to her time as a student at Reed College, filled with the same keen observations, taboo-shirking verve, and singular characters that made Geek Love a cult classic. Daring and bizarre, Toad is a brilliant precursor to the book that would make Dunn a misfit hero--even fifty-some years after it was written, it's a refreshing take on the lives of young outsiders treading the delicate lines between isolation and freedom, love and insanity, hatred and friendship." -- Jacket flap