Scissors: A Novel

by Stéphane Michaka Narrated by various narrators, Lloyd James, Kathe Mazur, Scott Brick, Hillary Huber

Overview

Based on the life of the great short-story writer Raymond Carver, particularly his last ten, postalcoholic years, Scissors is that rare thing: a funny, compassionate, and convincing portrayal of the creative life-its compulsions, its rewards, its frustrations, its affinities with tragedy.

Raymond is a writer whose life is fraught with personal and creative struggle. His first marriage, to Marianne, is intense, passionate, and unhealthy. After his divorce, he finds new love and support with Joanne, a poet. All the while Raymond (and to some extent, each of his wives) is in an escalating conflict with his editor, Douglas, who both assists and distorts Raymond's work. As his success and confidence grow, Raymond strives harder and harder to ensure that his stories, the most important part of his life, are published as written. Douglas, who considers the stories as much his as Raymond's, is determined to present them in the heavily edited form he's given them. Four of Raymond's stories, given in full at four different points in the novel, reflect his life, his relationships, and the creative process itself; and then Douglas goes to work on them. Raymond's former alcoholism and his past and present relationships always lurk in the background, Marianne and Joanne offer their own perspectives on both, and in the end, after Raymond's death, Joanne finally confronts Douglas in a way that Raymond never could.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Scissors

"[An] empathetic exploration of an author's soul, his allegiance to his writing above all else, and the increasingly painful submission to his editor that eventually leads to a breaking point ... Like the best literary homages, Scissors evokes a craving for the original — and, in this case, further consideration of the aesthetic questions at the heart of Carver's published work."—NPR

"[Scissors] takes readers deep into the creative life. Funny, sad, and deeply compassionate, Scissors is a unique and engaging novel that ponders life, love, and the importance of believing in ourselves and in our chosen work."—Booklist

"Whether or not you know anything about Carver and his stories matters little. Stéphane Michaka’s talent and the attention he brings to each of his characters suffice to rivet the reader to his words. He breathes life into the trio as they revolve around the central figure of the writer, the man without certainties, whose work, although butchered by his editor, has been passed down to posterity."—Le Figaro

"Stéphane Michaka performs the prodigious feat of intertwining four biographies to produce a powerful reflection on literature itself."—Le Monde 

"This book is a novel about writing. Stéphane Michaka excels in inventing stories that Carver himself could have penned. But this book is also a love story, full of power and inebriation. But also painful, like a hangover, and abiding long after the definitive separation. Scissors is at once fascinating and beautiful, engrossing and brilliantly structured ... Reading this novel will immerse you in a haunting, lived narrative experience. As Raymond Carver’s work does."—L'Avenir

"Ambitious and deftly woven, Stéphane Michaka’s novel is fascinating whether or not you know about Raymond Carver and his editor Gordon Lish. As a stylist whose main concerns are emotions and human frailty, Michaka successfully depicts a writer in his everyday existence. Someone who struggles incessantly with words and with his own doubts. Someone whose texts, imbued with a rare empathy, evoke the shocks and jolts of life and make the real both poignant and poetic."—Le Journal du Dimanche
 
“The book’s debts to its famous subjects are repaid. It is a measure of the book’s success that readers need no knowledge of its famous subjects to appreciate it. Daring and impressive.”—Kirkus Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Loosely based on the life of Raymond Carver, this book is more than a love triangle--it's a love polygon?--of a writer, his work, his editor, his significant other and alcohol. Scissors is the nickname of Raymond's editor, Douglas, a man with such a high opinion of himself that he might be divine. Raymond is married to Marianne. They married young and were parents before they knew it. Burdened with debt, working dead-end jobs, Raymond and his wife sacrifice so Raymond can write, and he does, but he drinks, too. When Raymond's work finds its way to Douglas' desk, lives are changed: Douglas', Raymond's, Marianne's and readers'. As Douglas observes, "If Raymond hadn't existed, I would have invented him." Raymond is that good and that important to Douglas' sense of his mission. But Douglas cuts so much from Raymond's work that it is unrecognizable. As Raymond and Douglas exchange letters and finally meet, as they struggle over Raymond's work, the novel becomes a slippery study of writing and re-writing. Raymond's a mess; as he becomes successful, he feels fraudulent. Is the work his or not? Four short stories appear in the novel. Douglas' savage cutting of the first two is dramatized exquisitely. The book's weakness is that one of the included stories is too good an imitation of bad writing. Raymond's life, Douglas' life and the "lives" of the later stories are inextricably linked in unexpected ways. The book's debts to its famous subjects are repaid. It is a measure of the book's success that readers need no knowledge of its famous subjects to appreciate it. Daring and impressive.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169912883
Publisher:	Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Publication date:	08/13/2013
Edition description:	Unabridged

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