The Melancholy of Anatomy: Stories -- Shelley Jackson, Paperback

Amusing, touching, and unsettling, The Melancholy of Anatomy is that most wonderful of fictions, one that makes us see the world in an entirely new light.

Here is the body turned inside out, its members set free, its humors released upon the world. Hearts bigger than planets devour light and warp the space around them; the city of London has a menstrual flow that gushes through its underground pipes; gobs of phlegm cement friendships and sexual relationships; and a floating fetus larger than a human becomes the new town pastor. In this debut story collection, Shelley Jackson rewrites our private passages, and translates the dumb show of the body into prose as gorgeous as it is unhygienic.

Author: Shelley Jackson
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 04/02/2002
Pages: 192
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.49lbs
Size: 7.94h x 5.30w x 0.55d
ISBN: 9780385721202

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 02/18/2002 pg. 71
Booklist 04/01/2002 pg. 1306
New York Times 05/12/2002 pg. 25

About the Author
Shelley Jackson's The Patchwork Girl is perhaps the best-known work in the genre of Electronic Literature. Jackson studied with Robert Coover at Brown University and now lives in New York City.