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Aimee Bender’s stunning debut collection, The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, proved her to be one of the freshest voices in American fiction. Now, in her first novel, she builds on that early promise. Mona Gray was ten when her father contracted a mysterious illness and she became a quitter, abandoning each of her talents just as pleasure became intense. The only thing she can’t stop doing is math: She knocks on wood, adds her steps, and multiplies people in the park against one another. When Mona begins teaching math to second-graders, she finds a ready audience. But the difficult and wonderful facts of life keep intruding. She finds herself drawn to the new science teacher, who has an unnerving way of seeing through her intricately built façade. Bender brilliantly directs her characters, giving them unexpected emotional depth and setting them in a calamitous world, both fancifully surreal and startlingly familiar.… (more)
User reviews
The novel manages to wrap up leaving you wishing for one more
This is where the book gets wild and wacky. One child brings in a part of an arm for the number "1". The teacher brings in an axe for the number "7". You get the idea.
A relationship begins to develop between Ms. Gray and Benjamin the science teacher, but it is often thwarted by soap (yes, soap!). You're not going to understand my review of this book. If your "thing" is bizarre, post-modern and creative literature, give this book a try. If not, don't go near it!