The Electric Michelangelo

by Sarah Hall

Overview

“Wickedly imagined and richly written. . . . Prose as highly colored as Hall’s has to to be savored.”—The Independent

SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE

Cy Parks is the Electric Michelangelo, an artist of extraordinary gifts whose medium happens to be the pliant, shifting canvas of the human body. Fleeing his mother's legacy — a consumptives' hotel in a fading English seaside resort — Cy reinvents himself in the incandescent honky-tonk of Coney Island in its heyday between the two world wars. Amid the carnival decadence of freak shows and roller coasters, enchanters and enigmas, scam artists and marks, Cy will find his muse: an enigmatic circus beauty who surrenders her body to his work, but whose soul tantalizingly eludes him.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780060817244
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	10/11/2005
Series:	P.S. Series
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	879,164
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Sarah Hall was born in Cumbria. She is the prizewinning author of six novels and three short story collections. She is a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters E. M. Forster Award, Edge Hill Short Story Prize, among others, and the only person ever to win the BBC National Short Story Award twice. 

Hometown:

Charlotte, North Carolina, USA and Carlisle, Cumbria, UK

Date of Birth:

January 6, 1974

Place of Birth:

Carlisle, Cumbria, UK

Education:

B.A., The University of Wales, Aberystwyth; M.A. in Creative Writing, St. Andrews University, Scotland

Read an Excerpt

The Electric Michelangelo

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By Sarah Hall

HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

Copyright © 2005 Sarah Hall
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0060817240

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Chapter One

Bloodlights

If the eyes could lie, his troubles might all be over. If the eyes were not such well-behaving creatures, that spent their time trying their best to convey the world and all its gore to him, good portions of life might not be so abysmal. This very moment, for instance, as he stood by the hotel window with a bucket in his hands listening to Mrs Baxter coughing her lungs up, was about to deteriorate into something nasty, he just knew it, thanks to the eyes and all their petty, nit-picking honesty. The trick of course was to not look down. The trick was to concentrate and pretend to be observing the view or counting seagulls on the sill outside. If he kept his eyes away from what he was carrying they would not go about their indiscriminating business, he would be spared the indelicacy of truth, and he would not get that nauseous feeling, his hands would not turn cold and clammy and the back of his tongue would not begin to pitch and roll.

He looked up and out to the horizon. The large, smeary bay window revealed a desolate summer scene. The tide was a long way out, further than he could see, so as far as anyone knew it was just gone for good and had left the town permanently inland. It took a lot of trust to believe the water would ever come back each day, all that distance, it seemed like an awful amount of labour for no good reason. The whole dirty, grey-shingled beach was now bare, except for one or two souls out for a stroll, and one or two hardy sunbathers, in their two-shilling-hire deck-chairs, determined to make the most of their annual holiday week away from the mills, the mines and the foundries of the north. A week to take in the bracing salty air and perhaps, if they were blessed, the sun would make a cheerful appearance and rid them of their pallor. A week to remove all the coal and metal dust and chaff and smoke from their lungs and to be a consolation for their perpetual poor health, the chest diseases they would eventually inherit and often die from, the shoddy eyesight, swollen arthritic fingers, allergies, calluses, deafness, all the squalid cousins of their trade. One way to tell you were in this town, should you ever forget where you were, should you ever go mad and begin not to recognize the obvious scenery, the hotels, the choppy water, the cheap tea rooms, pie and pea restaurants, fish and chip kiosks, the amusement arcades, and the dancehalls on the piers, one way to verify your location was to watch the way visitors breathed. There was method to it. Deliberation. They put effort into it. Their chests rose and fell like furnace bellows. So as to make the most of whatever they could snort down into them.

There was a wet cough to the left of him, prolonged, meaty, ploughing through phlegm, he felt the enamel basin being tugged from his hands and then there was the sound of spitting and throat clearing. And then another cough, not as busy as the last, but thorough. His eyes flickered, involuntarily. Do not look down, he thought. He sighed and stared outside. The trick was to concentrate and pretend he was looking out to sea for herring boats and trawlers returning from their 150-mile search, pretend his father might come in on one of them, seven years late and not dead after all, wouldnt that be a jolly thing, even though the sea was empty of boats and ebbing just now. The vessels were presently trapped outside the great bay until the tide came back in. Odd patches of dull shining water rested on the sand and shingle, barely enough to paddle through, let alone return an absent father.

Outside the sky was solidifying, he noticed, as if the windowpane had someones breath on it. A white horse was heading west across the sands with three small figures next to her, the guide had taken the blanket off the mare, the better that she be seen. As if she was a beacon. Coniston Old Man was slipping behind low cloud across the bay as the first trails of mist moved in off the Irish Sea, always the first of the Lake District fells to lose its summit to the weather. So the guide was right to uncover the horse, something was moving in fast and soon would blanket the beach and make it impossible to take direction, unless you knew the route, which few did in those thick conditions. Then youd be stranded and at the mercy of the notorious tide.

-- Grey old day, isnt it, luvvie? Not very pleasant for June.

-- It is, Mrs Baxter. Theres a haar coming in. Shall I be taking this now or will you need it again shortly do you think?

-- No, I feel a bit better, now Im cleared out, you shant be depriving me. And if I need to go again Ill try to make it to the wash room. Youre a very good boy, Cyril Parks, your mammy should be proud to have a pet like you helping her around here. Well spoken and the manners of a prince. Is it a little chilly to have the sash open today, luvvie?

The woman watched him from her chair. She resembled a piece of boiled pork, or blanched cloth, with all her colour removed. Just her mouth remained vivid, saturated by brightness, garish against her skin, and like the inside of a fruit when she spoke, red-ruined, glistening and damp.

-- Yes, Mrs Baxter, Im afraid it is. Would you like some potted shrimp? Mam made it fresh today.

-- Oh yes. That would be lovely. I do so enjoy her potted shrimp, just a touch of nutmeg, not too heavy . . .

Continues...

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Excerpted from The Electric Michelangelo by Sarah Hall Copyright © 2005 by Sarah Hall.
Excerpted by permission.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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What People are Saying About This

Jack Magazine

‘Hall conveys an arresting, colourful and complex world.... Even the most miniscule of nuances fanatically thought through and delivered.”

Reading Group Guide

An Introduction to the Novel
In Morecambe Bay, a seaside resort town in Northwest England, consumptives take the air and a bit of rest from their jobs in the mills and mines. Many stay at Bayview, a hotel run by widower Reeda Parks and her son Cyril.

Cyril is befriended by Eliot Riley who teaches him the art of tattooing. It isn't until both his mother's and Eliot's deaths that he plans to make use of his talent, and heads for America where he settles in Coney Island, Brooklyn.

In the splendor and decadence of 1930s Coney Island, Cyril becomes the Electric Michelangelo and meets his masterwork, an Eastern European circus performer, a woman who would become, at his loving and talented hands, The Lady of Many Eyes.

Sarah Hall's lyrical portrait of love, human suffering, and the art of tattooing is extraordinary.

Discussion Questions from the Publisher
1. Cyril is keenly aware of Coney Island's impending decline. Discuss tattooing in relation to the public's insatiable appetite for the new thrill, the bigger and better.

2. Hall calls the English seaside towns, "harmless, farcical, if slightly uncouth" where "things never went too far." "The Island, on the other hand was absolute consumer-driven modernism, it was in-vogue anthropomorphism, a swim through the guts and entrails of the world." (page 190) Is there still a clear division from European popular culture and American culture nowadays or not?

3. Is tattooing destructive or liberating? Why?

4. Did the book make you want to go out and get a tattoo? Did it provide you a better understanding of the reasons people get tattoos?

5. The book is as much about the world of boardwalk culture, with the carnival folks, freak shows, circus acts and resort town underbelly as it is about tattoo artists. Discuss these other elements and what they contribute in regard to the Hall's overall portrayal of humanity.

6. In your opinion, is The Electric Michelangelo a hopeful or hopeless view of human nature and relationships?

7. Why doesn't Cyril make a bold play for the love of Grace?

8. Much is left unresolved in The Electric Michelangelo. Grace and Cy's love is never consummated. We also never learn what happens to Grace. Why has Hall chosen to leave out major events in Cyril's life?

9. Hall writes of Cyril going back to Morecambe Bay and taking up his old tattoo parlor on Pedder Street at the end of the book. In your opinion, what is she saying about the art of tattooing in relation to emotional pain and suffering?

About the author
Born in Cumbria, England in 1974, Sarah Hall divides her time between North Carolina and the north of England. Her first novel, Haweswater, won The Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book. The Electric Michelangelo, her second novel, and was short-listed for the prestigious Man Booker prize.

Editorial Reviews

Blindingly swell, like Stendhal describing the Battle of Waterloo, or Jack Kerouac’s description of parking cars in a crowded lot or T.E. Lawrence when he cuts loose and sends thousands of noble Arabs roaring across unknown desert sands. It’s amazing work. A terrific and original novel by a splendid new writer.” — Washington Post

“The best moments are like this glimpse of the aurora borealis over Morecambe Bay: ‘It was light that had neither the impatience of fire, nor the snap of electricity, nor the fluttering sway of a candle. It was light that was nature’s grace, unhurried, the slowest, sweeping effulgence.’ Like that mysterious light, Hall’s novel is to be admired for its own slow grace.” — New York Times Book Review

‘Confirms her status as one of the most significant and exciting of our younger novelists ... The Electric Michelangelo is a work of unusual imaginative power and range, and it deserves a wide readership.’ — The Guardian

“A vivid depiction of changing seaside culture on both sides of the Atlantic and a smart study of a subtle but disreputable art.” — The Independent

“The torrential Lawrentian flow of her prose offers many heady pleasures.” — London Times

“Her gorgeously embellished prose compels the narrative, along with the beguiling vignettes she conjures up . . . the effect is intoxicating.” — Financial Times

‘Sarah Hall’s second novel, is richly descriptive, an evocative exploration of misfits and exiles searching for a home.’ — The Lady

‘Hall is a writer to indulge, and her sensuous, poetic prose is every bit as evocative as sand poured from a pocket at the end of a holiday.’ — Daily Mail (London)

‘Twisted and tantalising, this is beatifully written and a worthy successor.’ — Ham and High

‘The writing is so polished that it is hard to believe the author is only 30.’ — Sunday Telegraph

‘The Electric Michelangelo is a work of unusual imaginative power and range.’ — The Guardian

‘Hall’s sensuous and brilliant imagery does not disappoint.’ — INK Magazine

‘Sarah Hall’s second book reads with all the colour, guts and flair of the 19th century tale - spinner.’ — The List

‘Hall conveys an arresting, colourful and complex world.... Even the most miniscule of nuances fanatically thought through and delivered.” — Jack Magazine

‘The Electric Michelangelo is a pleasure to read.’ — Zembla

‘A dazzlingly atmospheric and imaginative read.’ — Eve

“Picaresque in its sweep and lovely in its lush description…. Hall’s writing is pure joy.” — Publishers Weekly

“Hall’s intelligence and ambition are thrilling to behold…she manages to combine the plummy sensuality of Marguerite Duras with the silken abstractions of Michael Ondaatje.” — BookForum

“Hall... is a master wordsmith.” — Charlotte Observer

From the Publisher

‘Confirms her status as one of the most significant and exciting of our younger novelists ... The Electric Michelangelo is a work of unusual imaginative power and range, and it deserves a wide readership.’

The Guardian

The best moments are like this glimpse of the aurora borealis over Morecambe Bay: ‘It was light that had neither the impatience of fire, nor the snap of electricity, nor the fluttering sway of a candle. It was light that was nature’s grace, unhurried, the slowest, sweeping effulgence.’ Like that mysterious light, Hall’s novel is to be admired for its own slow grace.

New York Times Book Review

Her gorgeously embellished prose compels the narrative, along with the beguiling vignettes she conjures up . . . the effect is intoxicating.

Financial Times

A vivid depiction of changing seaside culture on both sides of the Atlantic and a smart study of a subtle but disreputable art.

The Independent

‘Twisted and tantalising, this is beatifully written and a worthy successor.’

Ham and High

The torrential Lawrentian flow of her prose offers many heady pleasures.

London Times

Blindingly swell, like Stendhal describing the Battle of Waterloo, or Jack Kerouac’s description of parking cars in a crowded lot or T.E. Lawrence when he cuts loose and sends thousands of noble Arabs roaring across unknown desert sands. It’s amazing work. A terrific and original novel by a splendid new writer.

Washington Post

‘The writing is so polished that it is hard to believe the author is only 30.’

Sunday Telegraph

‘Hall is a writer to indulge, and her sensuous, poetic prose is every bit as evocative as sand poured from a pocket at the end of a holiday.’

Daily Mail (London)

‘Sarah Hall’s second novel, is richly descriptive, an evocative exploration of misfits and exiles searching for a home.’

The Lady

Blindingly swell, like Stendhal describing the Battle of Waterloo, or Jack Kerouac’s description of parking cars in a crowded lot or T.E. Lawrence when he cuts loose and sends thousands of noble Arabs roaring across unknown desert sands. It’s amazing work. A terrific and original novel by a splendid new writer.

Washington Post

Hall’s intelligence and ambition are thrilling to behold…she manages to combine the plummy sensuality of Marguerite Duras with the silken abstractions of Michael Ondaatje.

BookForum

‘Sarah Hall’s second book reads with all the colour, guts and flair of the 19th century tale - spinner.’

The List

Hall... is a master wordsmith.

Charlotte Observer

‘Hall conveys an arresting, colourful and complex world.... Even the most miniscule of nuances fanatically thought through and delivered.

Jack Magazine

‘The Electric Michelangelo is a pleasure to read.’

Zembla

‘Hall’s sensuous and brilliant imagery does not disappoint.’

INK Magazine

‘A dazzlingly atmospheric and imaginative read.’

Eve

‘Wildly imagined and richly written. Prose as highly-coloured as Hall’s has to be savoured’

Independent Whig.

‘Wildly imagined and richly written. Prose as highly-coloured as Hall’s has to be savoured’

Independent

‘The writing is so polished that it is hard to believe the author is only 30.’

Sunday Telegraph

Her gorgeously embellished prose compels the narrative, along with the beguiling vignettes she conjures up . . . the effect is intoxicating.

Financial Times

The torrential Lawrentian flow of her prose offers many heady pleasures.

London Times

Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers
In the 1920s, Morecambe Bay, a small English coastal town, was renowned, at least locally, for the purity and restorative powers of its air, taken regularly as a curative by the tourists who filled its hotels and restaurants. Young Cyril Parks resides there with his mother, a widow whose seaside resort becomes a haven for consumptives -- mostly men who've spent a lifetime in the mines and who now seek only a few moments of fresh air and relaxation.

From this landscape, The Electric Michelangelo, a finalist for the Booker Prize, tells the story of Cy, starting with his bleak childhood and his apprenticeship with a local tattoo artist whose capacity for drunken rages is matched only by his gift with the needle. Newly skilled, Cy departs for America and sets up shop on the Coney Island boardwalk, where he meets the enigmatic Grace, a circus performer who offers Cy his most bizarre commission yet. What transpires between them as Cy slowly transforms her entire body into a living work of art is a little like love, and new to a man who has always found contentment in solitude.

A magical pastiche of eccentric characters and colorful times, The Electric Michelangelo seduces with its detail and atmosphere. In her American debut, Hall has created a world as mesmerizing and it is unforgettable. (Holiday 2005 Selection)

bn.com

Sarah Hall, author of The Electric Michelangelo (a Man Booker Prize finalist), steps right out on that dazzling wire. She has nothing to do with established writers of dignity and wisdom like Philip Roth or Gail Godwin, or with the all-too-predictable avant-garde. She's out to do something different, and for the first hundred pages or so it's blindingly swell, like Stendhal describing the Battle of Waterloo, or Jack Kerouac's description of parking cars in a crowded lot or T.E. Lawrence when he cuts loose and sends thousands of noble Arabs roaring across unknown desert sands. It's amazing work.
— The Washington Post

Carolyn See

True art is mysterious because an overall effect is greater than the sum of individual elements. The way to read The Electric Michelangelo, then, is to put aside quibbles about plot and allow the language and imagery to sweep you up. The best moments are like this glimpse of the aurora borealis over Morecambe Bay: "It was light that had neither the impatience of fire, nor the snap of electricity, nor the fluttering sway of a candle. It was light that was nature's grace, unhurried, the slowest, seeping effulgence." Like that mysterious light, Hall's novel is to be admired for its own slow grace.
— The New York Times

Susann Cokal

Hall's mellifluous coming-of-age story about an apprentice tattoo artist from the north coast of England who reinvents himself in Coney Island, N.Y., is picaresque in its sweep and lovely in its lush description. This 2004 Booker Prize finalist, Hall's second novel (after Haweswater) but first U.S. release, follows Cyril Parks from his youth in the 1910s, as he grows up the only son of the widowed proprietor of the Bayview Hotel in Morecambe, through his hard-won apprenticeship to the seedy rogue Eliot Riley, under whose exacting tutelage he becomes a skilled tattoo artist. From his benevolent mother, Reeda Parks, who puts up consumptives at her hotel, he learns not to be disgusted by the spectacle of human misery. (Reeda also performs secret abortions and campaigns for women's suffrage.) Upon Reeda and Riley's deaths, Cy takes off for America and plies his trade among the vibrant array of freak shows at Coney Island. By 1940, he meets a local Russian chess champion, Grace, and during the course of their love affair he inscribes 109 eye tattoos all over her body. Hall's writing is pure joy, especially when describing the childhood seaside shenanigans of Cy and his boy pals. Agent, Emma Parry. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

Hall (Haweswater, 2003) earned a Booker nod with this picaresque tale of a tattoo artist. The story begins in the early days of the 20th century, with its hero, young Cyril Parks, trying not to look into a bowl full of mucus coughed up by one of the many consumptive guests at his mother's seaside hotel. But look he does, and so must the reader, who will be treated to visions of various watery secretions-blood, sweat and much, much worse-as the story progresses. While his author indulges in an almost childlike fascination with ordure, Cyril himself develops a more pleasant-if not quite reputable-liquid passion of his own: He embarks upon a career as a tattoo artist. Ink becomes his medium, flesh becomes his canvas and his vocation takes him from the English resort town of Morecambe all the way to Coney Island. It should go without saying that Cyril meets a variety of colorful characters, including, but not limited to, circus folk. One might suppose that, given all the oddity and jolly filth here, Hall wants to expose the light that shines in shady places, to celebrate the beauty of the weird. Sadly, she doesn't manage anything quite so interesting. Like the tattoo itself, this novel doesn't penetrate very deeply. Hall has earned comparisons to Angela Carter, but the similarities between the two authors are only superficial. Despite all the mess, there's no real menace here, no whiff of the uncanny, no arcane secrets obliquely revealed. There is a torrent of whimsy and caressingly lyrical description, but the effect of all this poetry is not enchantment; it's weariness. The characters are flat, the story travels far without ever really going anywhere and the occasional attempts tophilosophize about tattoos are generally fatuous. A lot of flash, and not much more.

Kirkus Reviews