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Title details for We Were the Universe by Kimberly King Parsons - Available

We Were the Universe

A novel

by Kimberly King Parsons
Kristen Sieh
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
1 of 1 copy available
A TIME MUST-READ BOOK OF THE YEAR • A young mother, in denial after the death of her sister, navigates the dizzying landscapes of desire, guilt, and grief in this darkly comic, highly anticipated debut novel from Kimberly King Parsons, author of the story collection, Black Light (long-listed for the National Book Award).
"Kimberly King Parsons sings the lushest, cruelest, kindest, weirdest, darkest and most hilarious songs on paper; I want to hang these sentences in my house and admire them like the interdimensional multisensory illuminated artworks they truly are."
—Karen Russell, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Swamplandia!
The trip was supposed to be fun. When Kit’s best friend gets dumped by his boyfriend, he begs her to ditch her family responsibilities for an idyllic weekend in the Montana mountains. They’ll soak in hot springs, then sneak a vape into a dive bar and drink too much, like old times. Instead, their getaway only reminds Kit of everything she’s lost lately: her wildness, her independence, and—most heartbreaking of all—her sister, Julie, who died a few years ago.
When she returns home to the Dallas suburbs, Kit tries to settle in to her routine—long afternoons spent caring for her irrepressible daughter, going on therapist-advised dates with her concerned husband, and reluctantly taking her mother’s phone calls. But in the secret recesses of Kit’s mind, she’s reminiscing about the band she used to be in—and how they’d go out to the desert after shows and drop acid. She’s imagining an impossible threesome with her kid’s pretty gymnastics teacher and the cool playground mom. Keyed into everything that might distract from her surfacing pain, Kit spirals. As her already thin boundaries between reality and fantasy blur, she begins to wonder: Is Julie really gone?
Neon bright in its insight, both devastating and laugh-out-loud funny, We Were the Universe is an ambitious, inventive novel from a revelatory new voice in American fiction—a fearless exploration of sisterhood, motherhood, friendship, marriage, psychedelics, and the many strange, transcendent shapes love can take.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 14, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593906828
      • File size: 283059 KB
      • Duration: 09:49:42

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      February 12, 2024
      In the spunky debut novel from Parsons (following the collection Black Light), a 20-something woman deals with grief and the demands of motherhood by maintaining a prodigious porn habit. Before Kit was married, she coped with depression by using psychedelic drugs and having sex with strangers. Now, three years after her younger sister Julie’s death in a car accident and overwhelmed by caring for her three-year-old daughter, Kit seeks an escape in gangbang videos and elaborate masturbation fantasies about the men and women she interacts with over the course of her daily routine in suburban Texas. These fantasy partners include her daughter’s gymnastics teacher, a scruffy dad who shops at the same grocery store, and a fellow mom at the playground. Her husband, Jad, and her friend Pete worry she’s become too isolated, and Pete takes her along on a trip to Montana. Not a great deal happens—Kit’s porn habit continues in the Montana hotel room, Pete struggles to get over his ex-boyfriend, and there are some tense scenes involving Fireball-slugging locals. The narrative’s best sections share Kit’s insights on her past psychedelic experiences and the complicated valences of love: “Maybe talking about a trip is like telling somebody your dream—they have to love you to care about it.” There’s a beating heart at the center of this meandering story. Agent: Meredith Kaffel Simonoff, Genert Co.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      In this darkly comic novel, Kristen Sieh and Justis Bolding work together to capture the love between two sisters, as well as one sister's deep feelings of profound loss when the other dies. Sleh brings raw and authentic emotional depth to Kit's struggles with denial and grief at the death of her sister, Julie. Bolding complements these with a vibrant portrayal of Julie in Kit's memories and as Kit imagines her now, capturing the humor and absurdity of these interactions. Together, Sieh's and Bolding's dynamic storytelling enlivens Kit's downward emotional path, ensuring that listeners feel every ounce of her desire, guilt, and fleeting joy. This novel is a meditation on love, loss, and the pressures of contemporary womanhood. M.R. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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