Hysteric

Fiction. ReLit Long Shortlist, 2015. Finalist, Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction. Winner, National Magazine Award, Silver Medal for Humour. One of the Telegraph Journal's Most Anticipated Books of 2014. In this daring act of self- examination and confession, the late novelist Nelly Arcan explores the tortured end of a love affair. All the wrong signals were there from the start, but still, she could not help falling. More than a portrait of an affair gone wrong, Hysteric is a chronicle of life among the twenty- and thirty-somethings, a life structured by text messages, missed cell phone calls, the latest DJs, and Internet porn. When the writer's aunt read her tarot cards, no predictions for her future ever appeared. This tale, an astounding feat of literary realism, shares the story of a woman who loses her identity in a man in hopes of finding love. Told in the same voice that made her first novel Whore an international success, Nelly Arcan manages to answer the challenges she set down for herself in her previous books. "I'm sure something scares Jon Paul Fiorentino, and maybe it drives him toward the deadpan magic he wields so masterfully in these pages. This is a daring and funny collection." Sam Lipsyte "Jon Paul Fiorentino writes the thoughts that we all might have, especially those of us who are loners, losers, or social misfits of one sort or another, using them to create surreal little worlds that show what it might be like to actually live them out. If you've ever suspected that the veil between the ordinary and the surreal was very thin that just a small step to the left would take you to a place where things are not quite what they seem then these stories, with their touch of absurd humor shrouded in darkness and often hazed over by drugs, drink, or mental illness, may be just what you're looking for." Foreword Reviews "This book leapt up out of the box. It is an outrageously funny book deadpan. The prose is sharply sliced, clean, and precise. Fiorentino is a master stylist writing from a broad range of interest, drawing on a well of compassion." The Hugh MacLennan Award for Fiction Jury "Fiorentino smartly and brightly facilitates the reader's journey into his mind. He has a talent for pointing to profound topics on being and belonging, evoking empathy in the reader, and getting a laugh at the same time. The author does as Andy Kaufman did when, performing as Mighty Mouse, he said, 'I'm not sure if you're laughing at me or with me.' And everybody really laughed." The Montreal Review of Books"