Crazy
Published on 8. April 2021
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-78033-120-1 (ISBN)
Description
'Perhaps my problem all along is that I've never understood or recognized the difference between story and life...'
Crazy is an account of the origins and progress of an early, all-consuming relationship. Jane, the teller of the tale, shuttles between her present predicament, assailed by physical symptoms she can't explain, and the story in hand, an ill-fated tale of obsession compelling in its rawness and emotional candour. With humour and a poetic sturdiness that is by now characteristic of her writing, Jane returns to scenes of childhood whose after-effects can be seen to permeate the emotional landscape of what unfolds - marriage, childbirth and the vagaries of working life.
Questions of love, ambition and identity are examined in a novel that is, above all, about story-making itself, about who gets to tell the tale and how, and about the ways in which those stories we absorb and accrue become the ones that make us, and (if anything can) might redeem us, too.
Crazy is an account of the origins and progress of an early, all-consuming relationship. Jane, the teller of the tale, shuttles between her present predicament, assailed by physical symptoms she can't explain, and the story in hand, an ill-fated tale of obsession compelling in its rawness and emotional candour. With humour and a poetic sturdiness that is by now characteristic of her writing, Jane returns to scenes of childhood whose after-effects can be seen to permeate the emotional landscape of what unfolds - marriage, childbirth and the vagaries of working life.
Questions of love, ambition and identity are examined in a novel that is, above all, about story-making itself, about who gets to tell the tale and how, and about the ways in which those stories we absorb and accrue become the ones that make us, and (if anything can) might redeem us, too.
Reviews / Votes
Stunning . . . Tackling sex, writing and office politics, Jane shrewdly eyes her youthful guilelessness in a satisfyingly rich and complex narrative that rings so messily true to life, it almost feels transgressive -- Anthony Cummins * Daily Mail * This book is brilliant - brave, truthful and intelligent -- Wendy Cope I was blown away by Crazy. A book without the slightest self-importance, fed by a subterranean stream one part anger to two parts love, and all done with the kind of skill and care that marks Jane Feaver out as a writer in the top rank. Brilliant -- Andrew Miller Set amid the debris of a marriage which still haunts her, Feaver's beautifully written and startlingly frank book is so humane in its hard-won wisdom that every reader will recognise themselves in it -- Vesna Goldsworthy Terribly funny, appallingly grim, acutely observed. It's wonderful -- Sean O'Brien Crackles with energy, integrity and a deep poetic sensibility. A raw and disturbing story of obsessive attraction, it obsesses the reader also, with the force of a haunting -- Julia CopusMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Little, Brown Book Group
Dimensions
Height: 220 mm
Width: 146 mm
Thickness: 32 mm
Weight
440 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78033-120-1 (9781780331201)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Jane Feaver is a novelist and short story writer. According to Ruth (Harvill Secker, 2007), was shortlisted for the Author's Club Best First Novel Award and the Dimplex Prize; Love Me Tender (Harvill Secker, 2009) was shortlisted for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize. After twenty years working in the South West, Jane now lives in Edinburgh.