Book Review: Iodine by Haven Kimmel
Sep. 24th, 2008 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
juushikaTitle: Iodine
Author: Haven Kimmel
Published: New York: Free Press, 2008
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 221
Total Page Count: 67,329
Text Number: 194
Read For: review requested by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
special_boots, checked out from the library
Short review: As a child, Trace was abused by her mother and fell in love with her father; now she living as Ianthe and at the top of her class in college, but everything changes when she falls in love with her professor. As she balances her old and new lives, the reader wades through increasingly unbelievable stories and Trace comes ever closer to discovering the truth of her past. Intelligent, complex, and difficult, Iodine challenges but also rewards the reader with a confusing personal history, rich psychological overtones, and a shifting, twisting plot. I enjoyed this book more and more as it went on, and I love the end product. I recommend it to any reader willing to rise to its challenge.
Trace/Ianthe lives two lives, therefore Iodine is a book of two parts: The first half of the book is dedicated to Trace, who was abused by her mother and fell in love with her father, who now lives an isolated life while she tries to keep in touch with the shreds of her childhood. After Trace falls in love, the second half of the book goes to her alias Ianthe, an gifted student who casts everything and marries her professor, only to become increasingly suspicious of his past. Trace's story is piecemeal and unbelievable, haunted by visions of animals and a friend obsessed with alien abduction, and so the first half of the book is bizarre, slow, and confusing. Ianthe's story is easier to follow and more enjoyable to read, but it reaches back to the beginning of the book to knit the story together. The novel is an ever-changing landscape, twisted by an unreliable narrator, complicated by layers of psychology and symbolism. It is a slow, thoughtful book—not suitable for casual page-turning, it requires attention and thought.
And it rewards that effort. Iodine is not perfect—would that the first half were easier to like, if not to consume; would that the twists and turns were more predictable—but it is intelligent and thought-provoking, and I found it very satisfying. There is simply so much going on: among others, a feminine Oedipal complex, the psychology of alien abduction, the symbolism of Hecate and the tripartite woman, male dominance and female objectification (which reminded me of The Story of O), the ghost of the former wife (which reminded me of Rebecca), the division between memory and imagination, sanity and insanity. It's a lot for one book to handle, and none of the topics are fully discussed; instead, each is a contributing factor, creating a character, her history, and her life. Therefore, the book opens the door to infinite thought, but it also tells the story of Trace/Ianthe. Her past is conflicting, her life is unbelievable, her narration is unreliable, but her story is real.
I found some sections—Trace's dog, her totems and animal guides, her hopeless love—touching and emotionally charged. I found many sections—explorations of psychology and psychological models in literature, fairy tales, and the protagonist—incredibly thought-provoking. I found the constantly changing story both confusing and intriguing, and when I finished the book, fairly certainly I finally understood, I wanted to turn right back to the first page and begin again. I still may. So while Iodine may have benefited from more appealing content, a simpler story, and less ambitious goals, I greatly enjoyed it. The book becomes more readable, interesting, and thought-provoking as it goes on, and the final product is a gem of a novel which begs further thought and appreciation. This is an intelligent, difficult book which is well worth the effort it takes to read, and I highly recommend it to any reader ready to rise to that challenge.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
Author: Haven Kimmel
Published: New York: Free Press, 2008
Rating: 5 of 5
Page Count: 221
Total Page Count: 67,329
Text Number: 194
Read For: review requested by
special_boots, checked out from the libraryShort review: As a child, Trace was abused by her mother and fell in love with her father; now she living as Ianthe and at the top of her class in college, but everything changes when she falls in love with her professor. As she balances her old and new lives, the reader wades through increasingly unbelievable stories and Trace comes ever closer to discovering the truth of her past. Intelligent, complex, and difficult, Iodine challenges but also rewards the reader with a confusing personal history, rich psychological overtones, and a shifting, twisting plot. I enjoyed this book more and more as it went on, and I love the end product. I recommend it to any reader willing to rise to its challenge.
Trace/Ianthe lives two lives, therefore Iodine is a book of two parts: The first half of the book is dedicated to Trace, who was abused by her mother and fell in love with her father, who now lives an isolated life while she tries to keep in touch with the shreds of her childhood. After Trace falls in love, the second half of the book goes to her alias Ianthe, an gifted student who casts everything and marries her professor, only to become increasingly suspicious of his past. Trace's story is piecemeal and unbelievable, haunted by visions of animals and a friend obsessed with alien abduction, and so the first half of the book is bizarre, slow, and confusing. Ianthe's story is easier to follow and more enjoyable to read, but it reaches back to the beginning of the book to knit the story together. The novel is an ever-changing landscape, twisted by an unreliable narrator, complicated by layers of psychology and symbolism. It is a slow, thoughtful book—not suitable for casual page-turning, it requires attention and thought.
And it rewards that effort. Iodine is not perfect—would that the first half were easier to like, if not to consume; would that the twists and turns were more predictable—but it is intelligent and thought-provoking, and I found it very satisfying. There is simply so much going on: among others, a feminine Oedipal complex, the psychology of alien abduction, the symbolism of Hecate and the tripartite woman, male dominance and female objectification (which reminded me of The Story of O), the ghost of the former wife (which reminded me of Rebecca), the division between memory and imagination, sanity and insanity. It's a lot for one book to handle, and none of the topics are fully discussed; instead, each is a contributing factor, creating a character, her history, and her life. Therefore, the book opens the door to infinite thought, but it also tells the story of Trace/Ianthe. Her past is conflicting, her life is unbelievable, her narration is unreliable, but her story is real.
I found some sections—Trace's dog, her totems and animal guides, her hopeless love—touching and emotionally charged. I found many sections—explorations of psychology and psychological models in literature, fairy tales, and the protagonist—incredibly thought-provoking. I found the constantly changing story both confusing and intriguing, and when I finished the book, fairly certainly I finally understood, I wanted to turn right back to the first page and begin again. I still may. So while Iodine may have benefited from more appealing content, a simpler story, and less ambitious goals, I greatly enjoyed it. The book becomes more readable, interesting, and thought-provoking as it goes on, and the final product is a gem of a novel which begs further thought and appreciation. This is an intelligent, difficult book which is well worth the effort it takes to read, and I highly recommend it to any reader ready to rise to that challenge.
Review posted here on Amazon.com.
