Valerie, or, The faculty of dreams : amendment to the theory of sexuality

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Title:

Author:

Stridsberg, Sara, 1972- author.

ISBN:

9780374151911

Uniform Title:

Drömfakulteten, tillägg till sexualteorin. English

Edition:

First American edition.

Physical Description:

xii, 352 pages ; 22 cm

Abstract:

In April 1988, Valerie Solanas--the writer, radical feminist, author of the SCUM Manifesto and would-be assassin of Andy Warhol--was discovered dead at fifty-two in her hotel room, in a grimy corner of San Francisco, alone, penniless, and surrounded by the typed pages of her last writings. In Valerie, a nameless narrator revisits the room where Solanas died, the courtroom where she was tried and convicted of attempting to murder Andy Warhol, the Georgia wastelands where she spent her childhood and was repeatedly raped by her father and beaten by her alcoholic grandfather, and the mental hospitals where she was shut away.

Personal Subject:

Solanas, Valerie-Fiction.

Subject Term:

Women authors, American -- 20th century -- Fiction.

Feminists -- United States -- Fiction.

Mentally ill -- United States -- Fiction.

Holds:

Available:

Library	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
Searching... MCML South Regional Library - The Woodlands	Circulating books	F Strids	Searching... Unknown
Searching... MCML Central Library - Conroe	Circulating books	F Strids	Searching... Unknown
Searching... LSC-CyFair Library	HCPL Book	Strids	Searching... Unknown
Searching... HCPL Freeman	HCPL Book	Strids	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

A fever dream of a novel--strangely funny, entirely unconventional-- Valerie conjures the life, mind, and art of American firebrand Valerie Solanas

In April 1988, Valerie Solanas--the writer, radical feminist, author of the SCUM Manifesto and would-be assassin of Andy Warhol--was discovered dead at fifty-two in her hotel room, in a grimy corner of San Francisco, alone, penniless, and surrounded by the typed pages of her last writings.

In Valerie , a nameless narrator revisits the room where Solanas died, the courtroom where she was tried and convicted of attempting to murder Andy Warhol, the Georgia wastelands where she spent her childhood and was repeatedly raped by her father and beaten by her alcoholic grandfather, and the mental hospitals where she was shut away.

A leading feminist in Sweden and one of the most acclaimed writers in Scandinavia, Sara Stridsberg here blurs the boundaries between history and fiction, self-making and storytelling, madness and art, love and tragedy. Through imagined conversations and monologues, reminiscences and rantings, she reconstructs this most intriguing and enigmatic of women, reaching back in time to amplify her voice and bring her powerful, heartbreaking story into new light.

Notes

Sara Stridsberg is an internationally acclaimed writer and playwright. Her fiction and nonfiction books have been translated into more than twenty languages. A former member of the Swedish Academy, she is a leading feminist and artist in her native Sweden and around the world. Valerie is her first book to be published in the US.

Deborah Bragan-Turner has a degree in Scandinavian languages from the University College London. She translates Swedish literature, particularly literary fiction and biographies.

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The life of Valerie Solanas, who wrote the SCUM Manifesto and became famous when she shot Andy Warhol in 1968, is speculatively reconstructed in Stridsbergs's inventive and stimulating novel, her American debut. Told in nearly a hundred short chapters that span almost 50 years, the book's major focus is Valerie's death in 1988 at the Bristol Hotel in San Francisco. Through an unnamed character called Narrator who allows Stridsberg to be in the room for historical events, the narrative returns to the Bristol Hotel again and again. Narrator questions deceased Valerie about her life; she also, in separate chapters, addresses the reader directly and addresses Valerie in the second person. Much of the story is told in dialogue--between Valerie and Warhol superstar Ultra Violet and between Valerie and her mother, Dorothy, who is also prominent in the novel. As each new piece of Stridsberg's portrait of Valerie is added, it alters the big picture, provocatively. The novel is as much about how little one can understand other people as it is about Valerie's life. Stridsberg entertainingly casts new light on both Solanas and on how society views pop culture. (Aug.)

Library Journal Review

A. You want a cohesive narrative. B. You believe character development is important. C. You're not sure who Silk Boy is. D. You are positive there is no desert in the state of Georgia. E: You think Dorothy was a bad mother. F: You want to learn more about CosmoGirl. Narrator: You seem to be fixated on story. Valerie: You seem more interested in form and structure than telling my story. Narrator: I like to take liberties. Valerie: I thought this novel was going to be about me. Narrator: It is. I'm watching you die and watching you grow up. Valerie: I can't tell which part came first, you're mixing it all up. Narrator: It's more fun this way. Valerie: My life was not fun. Narrator: No, that's why I focus on the bodily fluids so much. Valerie: Do you think I'm crazy? Narrator: That's for Dr. Ruth Cooper to decide. Why am I only allowed to make speeches and proclamations? Narrator: Because you wrote a manifesto, the SCUM Manifesto. VERDICT Editor: A fictionalized account of radical feminist Valerie Solanos from former Swedish Academy member Stridsberg. Valerie: I think the movie they made about me, I Shot Andy Warhol, was better. Maybe you should watch that instead. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/19.]--Pamela Mann, St. Mary's Coll. Lib., MD