The Jigsaw Woman

by Kim Antieau

Overview

This brilliant and original tale relates one extraordinary woman's fantastic and universal journey of self-discovery. Keelie is created from the bodies of three different women to be a plaything for her doctor. Not satisfied with the life given to her, she sets out to find one of her own, embarking upon an amazing quest that will bring her closer to the reality of her incredible heritage. Guided by the counsel of the mercurial goddess Eriskegal, she uncovers pain and healing, love and anger, and the primordial truths that lie buried deep within each of us. From matriarchal times to violent witch hunts to battles in the Amazon jungle, Keelie spirals through epic distortions of history and magic, finding that her salvation lies not only in the promise of the future but in the lessons learned in the past. By turns, erotic, mystical, hilarious and horrific, The Jigsaw Woman is a fabulous blending of the sensuous and the profound. Steeped in mythology yet told with a fresh modern voice, Keelie's struggle to re-member her true self is a dynamic new fable for lovers of folklore, myth, and fantasy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949644302
Publisher:	Green Snake Publishing
Publication date:	07/13/2011
Pages:	316
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.71(d)

Table of Contents

Prologue

Part 1: Dismemberment

Part 2: The Burning Times,1535 c.e.

Part 3: Re-membering

Afterword

What People are Saying About This

Kate Wilhelm

A marvel, a fabulous trip...exciting, poignant, frightening and transcendant.

Charles De Lint

Brilliant...one of the best writers we have today.

Editorial Reviews

A marvel, a fabulous trip. Exciting and erotic, poignant and funny, frightening and finally transcendent, this is a novel to read and remember. —Kate Wilhelm

Antieau deftly weaves together stunning imagery and powerful concepts. Very highly recommended. —House of Speculative Fiction

One of the best writers we have today. —Charles de Lint

Strong and lyrical. —San Diego Union-Tribune

Comparable to Ursula Le Guin and Margaret Atwood. —Vancouver Columbian

No doubt of about it, The Jigsaw Woman belongs on your shelves. —Feminist Bookstore News

A powerful and impressive statement. —Kirkus Reviews

Engaging and effective. —The Red Queen

From the Publisher

Antieau's amorphous debut, having no truck with orthodox novelistic ambitions, takes the form of an extended feminist polemic. Keelie, still healing and unable to talk yet, awakens to the realization that she's a composite of three distinct individuals, surgically fused together. Her head once belonged to drowned Anna, her body is that of poor murdered Bella, while her dancer's legs derive from suicide Lee. Keelie has been created by Victor to be his lover, and she's attended by timid medic Griffin, psychiatrist Hart, and Lilith, Victor's deformed wife. All of these people, as the young woman's experiences unfold, are shown to be related by blood or marriage, through space and time. Indeed, Keelie relives something of the miserable lives and sad deaths of the women whose hybrid she is. But before long she's seized by the death-goddess, Eriskegal, and commanded to remember everything. Soon Keelie recalls a time in the South American rain forests around the advent of Columbus, where she and the others live in idyllic circumstances—until a ship bringing Victor's brutal and domineering father arrives to kill or enslave them all. Later, in a prehistorical matriarchy beset by vicious patriarchal invaders, Keelie must persuade her warrior lover, Victor, to reject his father and his horrific conquests. Finally, as she remembers all the reincarnations of her composites, Keelie becomes Eriskegal.

A powerful and impressive statement, with lots of complicated scenarios, relationships, and symbols, though descriptive rather than prescriptive.

Kirkus Reviews