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Iodine
by Haven Kimmel
Strange detours on roads that might
not exist
Through dream journals, brilliant
Midwestern student Trace Pennington
records the terrors and thoughts of a traumatized girl. A mixture of
third person and first person narration tells the story of her classes
in Special Topics in Archetypal Psychology and the remaining class on
the Wounded Women she needs to complete a minor in Women's Studies.
Interwoven within and against these narratives, the reader also hears
stories of living in a shack without electricity, her dog Weeds as well
as mythological dogs, her friendship with Candy and UFO abduction.
Literary and psychological theory itself becomes an essential part of
the plot as the psychosis itself is explored through academic concepts.
Clearly, IODINE is a book that will not
appeal to all readers,
especially readers looking for a more traditional narrative with a
linear plot, clear characterization and a realistic tone. The plot is
not distinguishable from the dream narratives. As a narrator, Trace is
unreliable to the n-th decree. She readily admits lying and the reader
questions the truth of every word by the end. Truth or outside events
are not clearly distinguishable from the inner events of psychosis. The
veracity of one school of psychology or literary theory is not
guaranteed. At every turn the reader readjusts their interpretive
framework. Feminism, Structuralism, Semiotics, Psychoanalytic,
Deconstruction, Reader Response theory and even New Criticism enter the
fray as avenues through which to enter the IODINE narrative and yet
none provide the answer or unlock the text or the personal psychosis.
Haven Kimmel's description of the Women's Studies class details a
humorous and not so humorous look into the interaction between the
personal and the intellectual within academia. Here there are no tags
of realism as described by Todorov, or if there are, they quickly
vanish as the narrative itself takes strange detours on roads that do
not exist. The reader keeps looking for a route, a key with which to
decipher the text into a logical construct --- but Haven Kimmal does
not provide the easy answer.
IODINE is a poetic, cutting edge
book that blazes a new, dark
territory. All safeguards are gone in this text which takes academic
notions, a classical prose narrative style and indeed the inner mind
and turns them not just on the head but also removes the ground. IODINE
is clearly not a book to choose if you want to
relax into a more
traditional reading experience. The publisher's description of the book
provides an interpretive key perhaps to sort out the truth or plot, but
in reading the book, even those words seem to be inadequate to describe
the contents of IODINE. Are
those words reliable or just one more
interpretive framework to be discredited? For readers versed in the
world of literary or psychological theory, Haven Kimmel's IODINE
delights. The narrative twists and turns in plot, symbol, voice and
just about every other narrative device in its portrait of Trace and
her psychosis, provoking a desire for analysis while simultaneously
destroying the sanctity or primacy of each route. IODINE is not an easy
read that will appeal to a mass readership and yet, this reader loves
the challenge and lack of safe interpretive formula. Its portrait of
psychosis in character and in literature itself is ahead of its time
and, as fiction, most certainly a fascinating challenge to the current
state of literary theory.
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Book
description:
Haven Kimmel, the #1 New York
Times bestselling author, has long
attracted legions of fans for her insightful, humane portraits of
outsiders struggling to find their place in the world. In Iodine,
her fourth novel, Kimmel once again draws on her exceptional powers of
observation and empathy, but this time she makes an exhilarating foray
into psychological gothic territory with the electrifying story of a
young woman emerging from layers of delusion, fantasy, and lies. With
her astounding intelligence, fierce independence, and otherworldly
lavender eyes, college senior Trace Pennington makes an indelible
impression even as questions about her past and her true identity hover
over every page.
From her earliest years, Trace turned
away from
her abusive mother toward her loving father. Within the twisty logic of
abuse, her desperate love for him took on a romantic cast that persists
to this day, though she's had no contact with her family since she ran
away from home years ago. Alone but for her beloved dog, she's eked out
an impoverished but functional existence, living in an abandoned house,
putting herself through college, and astonishing her teachers with her
genius and erudition. What they don't know is that she leads a double
life: thanks to forged documents, at school she is Ianthe Covington, a
young woman with no past.
Trace's singular life is upended when
she and her literature professor fall in love. She tells him nothing
about her life, and as it becomes apparent that he has his own dark
secrets, she's forced to face herself and her past. After recovering a
horrific, long-suppressed memory, Trace finally copes with the fallout
from her brutal, bizarre childhood. Kimmel parcels out Trace's strange,
dark story in mesmerizing bits that obscure as much as they reveal, and
keep the reader guessing until the end.
With Kimmel's radiant imagination, lyrical prose, and vision of a bleak
and fertile Midwest on full display, Iodine
is a frightening and marvelous tale of life at the outer extremes of
human experience. This unique portrait of the psychological effects of
trauma is tantalizing, shocking, and ultimately hopeful.
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