Retelling - from SD

	Fiction Non-Fiction Poetry Film Art MEB Authors Events Distribution Booksense Contacts<>	Retelling by Tsipi Keller ISBN 1-933132-19-1 $14.00 US \| $17.95 CAN Find the book on Amazon> Readers of Dostoyevsky's “Crime and Punishment” always know that Raskolnikov committed murder, but they often don’t know whether Raskolnikov knows that he committed murder. It is in this wonderful vagary, more than among any writerly tricks of mood, foreshadowing or scenic alteration, that one finds the origin of the so-called psychological novel, a genre that has become largely moribund in an America in which consciousness is often postmodernized into hocus pocus, or ignored altogether for the sake of the heartless thriller. In her new trilogy, Tsipi Keller is revealed as a superlative psychological novelist.... a writer who is among the most subtly compelling of our time. The Forward/Joshua Cohen Capturing the waft and drift of her un-heroine's unstructured days, Keller has a keen eye for the territorial pissings and unspoken resentments of immature female friendships. Retelling is foremost a discomfiting novel of loneliness—perhaps we can all recognize some past or present version of ourselves in Sally, alone in the dark trying to piece together the shards of ugly memories. Jessica Winter, Village Voice ... Retelling is great at maintaining mind-bending suspense, and it never entirely rules out the possibility that its narrator is simply an odd case. The book questions its own sense of reality a few times too many, but the buildup is justified by the powerful final arc. In the end, Keller gives her narrator’s eerie delusions free reign—an apt conclusion for this heartfelt and willfully perverse novel. Michael Miller, Time Out New York The mystery of who butchered ethereally beautiful and pregnant Elsbeth is at the heart of Keller's elegant and spooky second novel (part of a trilogy, after Jackpot). Was it the traumatized and fragile narrator, Sally, whose friendship with the dead woman verged on the obsessive? Or was it Elsbeth's arrogant and demanding boyfriend, Drew, who resented Sally's relationship with her? Keller flirts with the answer as her novel slips back and forth through time to depict tantalizing glimpses of possible truths filtered through Sally's uncertain memories. As her emotions unravel, Sally finds solace in the gentlemen who play chess in the park where she breakfasts, and maintains, however fitfully, an uneasy reliance on Lydia, a self-centered and mean-spirited friend who thinks Sally is better off with Elsbeth dead. The police, bent on extracting a confession from Sally, harangue her during increasingly abusive interrogation sessions that provide her a forum for creepily pondering her (questionable) innocence. This opaque yet beguiling novel showcases the work of a talented and original writer. Publishers Weekly Book Description It is the end of the millennium. A relaxed and anticipated summer on Manhattan’s East Side turns into a nightmare for the impressionable and vulnerable Sally. In this tightly woven novel, she is suspected of having murdered her closest friend, Elsbeth, with whom she has had a mysterious and absorbing relationship. Traumatized by the detectives investigating the murder, and by her own confused recollections, Sally experiences “subtle reality shifts, as if I existed, simultaneously, on two or more fault lines and could not always trust what I thought I saw or heard. I began to doubt small, ordinary things.” Keller’s lean, taut, and unsettling prose enhances the simmering suspense that permeates this novel, as she fuses the elements of a Rashomon-type narrative with a Hitchcock classic. Praise for Jackpot by Tsipi Keller ... A Bahamian vacation turns into a nightmarish dreamworld in Tsipi Keller’s smart, sly Jackpot. Maggie has long been cowed by her beautiful friend Robin, so when Robin leaves Paradise Island for a spur-of-the-moment sailing trip, Maggie has a chance to shine. Instead, she descends into wild gambling and even wilder sex, though she somehow retains her innocence. Keller expertly charts Maggie’s transformation in this accomplished and oddly gripping novel. Publisher’s Weekly Jackpot is a wonder of a book. It is irresistibly fascinating-painfully fascinating. You may not feel like sharing the experiences of its misguided heroine, but you should, because you’ll have a livelier time sticking with her than to your own comfortable ways. And you can always reassure yourself that you’ll never end up like Maggie; although—who knows?—some day you may get the chance. Harry Mathews This marvelously engaging and pleasurable novel is like a cross between watching a sly Eric Rohmer film about the spiritual crisis of vacation and reading a Jean Rhys interior monologue of a woman in extremis. For all its horrific aspects, it has a steady undercurrent of humor: the comedy derives from showing the precise mechanisms of low self-esteem, rationalization and self-indulgence. A wickedly readable, psychologically astute and drolly knowing fiction. Phillip Lopate

Readers of Dostoyevsky's “Crime and Punishment” always know that Raskolnikov committed murder,
but they often don’t know whether Raskolnikov knows that he committed murder. It is in this wonderful
vagary, more than among any writerly tricks of mood, foreshadowing or scenic alteration, that one finds
the origin of the so-called psychological novel, a genre that has become largely moribund in an America
in which consciousness is often postmodernized into hocus pocus, or ignored altogether for the sake
of the heartless thriller. In her new trilogy, Tsipi Keller is revealed as a superlative psychological novelist....
a writer who is among the most subtly compelling of our time. The Forward/Joshua Cohen

Capturing the waft and drift of her un-heroine's unstructured days, Keller has a keen
eye for the territorial pissings and unspoken resentments of immature female friendships.
Retelling is foremost a discomfiting novel of loneliness—perhaps we can all recognize
some past or present version of ourselves in Sally, alone in the dark trying to piece
together the shards of ugly memories. Jessica Winter, Village Voice

... Retelling is great at maintaining mind-bending suspense, and it never entirely rules
out the possibility that its narrator is simply an odd case. The book questions its own
sense of reality a few times too many, but the buildup is justified by the powerful final
arc. In the end, Keller gives her narrator’s eerie delusions free reign—an apt conclusion
for this heartfelt and willfully perverse novel. Michael Miller, Time Out New York

The mystery of who butchered ethereally beautiful and pregnant Elsbeth is at the heart
of Keller's elegant and spooky second novel (part of a trilogy, after Jackpot). Was it the
traumatized and fragile narrator, Sally, whose friendship with the dead woman verged on
the obsessive? Or was it Elsbeth's arrogant and demanding boyfriend, Drew, who resented
Sally's relationship with her? Keller flirts with the answer as her novel slips back and forth
through time to depict tantalizing glimpses of possible truths filtered through Sally's uncertain
memories. As her emotions unravel, Sally finds solace in the gentlemen who play chess in
the park where she breakfasts, and maintains, however fitfully, an uneasy reliance on Lydia,
a self-centered and mean-spirited friend who thinks Sally is better off with Elsbeth dead.
The police, bent on extracting a confession from Sally, harangue her during increasingly
abusive interrogation sessions that provide her a forum for creepily pondering her (questionable)
innocence. This opaque yet beguiling novel showcases the work of a talented and original writer.
Publishers Weekly

Book Description
It is the end of the millennium. A relaxed and anticipated summer on Manhattan’s
East Side turns into a nightmare for the impressionable and vulnerable Sally. In this
tightly woven novel, she is suspected of having murdered her closest friend, Elsbeth,
with whom she has had a mysterious and absorbing relationship. Traumatized by the
detectives investigating the murder, and by her own confused recollections, Sally
experiences “subtle reality shifts, as if I existed, simultaneously, on two or more fault
lines and could not always trust what I thought I saw or heard. I began to doubt small,
ordinary things.” Keller’s lean, taut, and unsettling prose enhances the simmering
suspense that permeates this novel, as she fuses the elements of a Rashomon-type
narrative with a Hitchcock classic.

A Bahamian vacation turns into a nightmarish dreamworld in Tsipi Keller’s smart,
sly Jackpot. Maggie has long been cowed by her beautiful friend Robin, so when
Robin leaves Paradise Island for a spur-of-the-moment sailing trip, Maggie has a
chance to shine. Instead, she descends into wild gambling and even wilder sex,
though she somehow retains her innocence. Keller expertly charts Maggie’s
transformation in this accomplished and oddly gripping novel. Publisher’s Weekly

Jackpot is a wonder of a book. It is irresistibly fascinating-painfully fascinating.
You may not feel like sharing the experiences of its misguided heroine, but you
should, because you’ll have a livelier time sticking with her than to your own comfortable
ways. And you can always reassure yourself that you’ll never end up like Maggie;
although—who knows?—some day you may get the chance. Harry Mathews

This marvelously engaging and pleasurable novel is like a cross between watching
a sly Eric Rohmer film about the spiritual crisis of vacation and reading a Jean Rhys
interior monologue of a woman in extremis. For all its horrific aspects, it has a steady
undercurrent of humor: the comedy derives from showing the precise mechanisms of
low self-esteem, rationalization and self-indulgence. A wickedly readable, psychologically
astute and drolly knowing fiction. Phillip Lopate