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WORK TITLE: Monsters
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1941
WEBSITE: http://karenbrennan.org/
CITY:
STATE:
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://karenbrennan.org/?page_id=27 * http://poetry.arizona.edu/people/karen-brennan * https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-brennan-4366b827/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born 1941.
EDUCATION:Holds a Ph.D.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and educator. University of Utah, Salt Lake City, professor emerita; Warren Wilson College, Swannanoa, NC, instructor.
AWARDS:Grant, National Endowment of the Arts.
WRITINGS
Contributor to anthologies.
SIDELIGHTS
Karen Brennan is a writer and educator. She holds the position of professor emerita at the University of Utah, in Salt Lake City. Brennan is also an instructor for the M.F.A. Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College. Brennan has published collections of poetry, short story collections, and a memoir. Among her poetry books are Little Dark, The Real Enough World, and Here on Earth. Brennan’s short story collections include The Garden in Which I Walk and Wild Desire.
Wild Desire and Being with Rachel
Wild Desire was released in 1991. Most of the protagonists of the stories in this collection are women finding their way through life on their own. One of the protagonists is a woman who determines that she will build a home for herself and her children by herself. Another story focuses on a woman who takes care of her mentally ill mother. She is an employee at a fast-food restaurant. A woman finally gathers the courage to leave her violent husband in another story. She brings her children with her. The woman does not have a plan for what she will do next, but she knows that she must remove herself and her children from their dangerous situation. A woman wishes for a way out of her current situation in another story. This woman once worked as an actress. “Wild Desire” finds Brennan describing several people who are suffering from unrequited love. A contributor to Publishers Weekly described Wild Desire as a “fine collection of short stories.” The same contributor noted: “Brennan’s women are survivors, and they know that life will go on for them.”
Being with Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival is Brennan’s 2002 memoir. In this volume, she recalls a harrowing experience involving her daughter, Rachel. When she was twenty-five, Rachel had a terrible accident while riding a motorcycle. The damage to her body caused her to fall into a coma. Rachel remained comatose for months. She eventually came out of the coma and was faced with the challenges of recovering from major head trauma. Rachel death with memory loss, psychological problems, and physical difficulties. Brennan describes her feelings as she helped her daughter through her recovery. She shares lessons she learned from the spiritual leader, Ram Dass, on how to be a caretaker. A Publishers Weekly reviewer suggested: “Although Brennan’s writing is appealing, the interest in her story is limited, focusing almost like a medical case study on her daughter’s brain injuries.” Deborah Anne Broocker, critic in Library Journal, remarked: “Brennan’s honesty and straightforward perspective is to be admired.” Broocker also described the volume as an “engaging and well-written book.”
Monsters
Monsters: Stories, another collection by Brennan, was published in 2016. Many of the stories in the volume feature supernatural characters or events. The bedroom of the narrator of “10 Birds” is suddenly and inexplicably filled with doves. Zombies converse in a morgue, terrifying its custodian, who is the protagonist of “Pete, Waste Lab Technician”. Another story features a family who unsuspectingly adopts a cat with the ability to talk. “Monsters“ finds a father visiting a care facility where his daughter lives. He is shocked to meet his daughter’s roommate, who looks like an overgrown mouse. Four characters narrate a road trip their are taking together in “Last Quartet”.
Critics offered favorable assessments of Monsters. A contributor to Publishers Weekly asserted: “Brennan’s collection of compassionate and intelligent fiction is a showcase for a very skilled author.” A reviewer on the Kirkus Reviews Web site commented: “If there aren’t many happy endings for Brennan’s characters (or, really, any endings at all), the reader is luckier: there is delight in merely reading these innovative and unusual stories.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Library Journal, January, 2002, Deborah Anne Broocker, review of Being with Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival, p. 141.
Publishers Weekly, September 20, 1991, review of Wild Desire, p. 126; January 14, 2002, review of Being with Rachel, p. 48; August 29, 2016, review of Monsters: Stories, p. 62.
ONLINE
Karen Brennan Home Page, http://karenbrennan.org/ (May 23, 2017).
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (August 1, 2016), review of Monsters.
Poetry Center Web site, http://poetry.arizona.edu/ (May 23, 2017), author profile.*
Karen Brennan Ph.D. is the author of seven books of varying genres including poetry collections Here on Earth (1989) and The Real Enough World (2006), both from Wesleyan University Press; little dark (2014) Four Way Books; AWP Award-winning short fiction Wild Desire (1990), U Mass Press; The Garden in Which I Walk (2005), Fiction Collective 2; a memoir, Being with Rachel (2001) Norton, and new stories, Monsters, from Four Way Books (2016). Her fiction, poetry and nonfiction has appeared in anthologies from Norton, Penguin, Graywolf, Spuytin Duyvil, Michigan and Georgia, among others. A National Endowment of the Arts recipient, she is Professor Emerita at the University of Utah and teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.
Karen Brennan is the author of seven books of varying genres including the poetry collections little dark (Four Way Books, 2014),The Real Enough World (Wesleyan, 2006), and Here on Earth (Wesleyan, 1989); fiction collections Monsters (Four Way Books, forthcoming), Wild Desire (U Mass Press, 1990), and The Garden in Which I Walk (Fiction Collective 2, 2005); and a memoir, Being with Rachel (Norton, 2001). Her fiction, poetry, and nonfiction have appeared in anthologies from Norton, Penguin, Graywolf, Spuytin Duyvil, Michigan Press, and Georgia University, among others. A National Endowment of the Arts recipient, she is Professor Emerita at the University of Utah, where she also served as fiction editor for Western Humanities Review. She teaches at the Warren Wilson MFA Program for Writers.
QUOTED: "Brennan's collection of compassionate and intelligent fiction is a showcase for a very skilled author."
Monsters
263.35 (Aug. 29, 2016): p62.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Monsters
Karen Brennan. Four Way (UPNE, dist.), $17.95 trade paper (208p) ISBN 978-1-935536-79-6
Brimming with real and imagined monsters, Brennan (The Garden in Which I Walk) delivers striking meditations on memory, time, fragility, and strength. In the title story, a father visits his impaired daughter and her roommate, who resembles a giant field mouse. In "10 Birds," the narrator wakes to find the bedroom invaded by a bevy of doves. "Pete, Waste Lab Technician," centers on a fearless morgue custodian plagued by roving shadows and a group of chatty zombies with a penchant for theoretical physics. There is a compelling conflict that unifies these stories. As one of the many nameless narrators explains, "There'd been a time, I felt certain, that duplicated this time, but was not remembered." The narratives dwell in stark duality: the endless duplication of .life, and the temporal condition of shared existence. The majority of the characters in this book speak of routine, predictable occurrences. But these tales--some less than a page--are not conventional; they're beautifully strange and often surreal. Brennan introduces fantastical elements that dramatically transform relatable characters and familiar settings into something new, like a family adopting a talking cat. Brennan's collection of compassionate and intelligent fiction is a showcase for a very skilled author. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Monsters." Publishers Weekly, 29 Aug. 2016, p. 62. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA462236409&it=r&asid=7b5f5fb634bd11c700c2e8487c2eb943. Accessed 4 May 2017.
QUOTED: "Although Brennan's writing is appealing, the interest in her story is limited, focusing almost like a medical case study on her daughter's brain injuries."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A462236409
Being with Rachel: A story of memory and survival. (Nonfiction)
249.2 (Jan. 14, 2002): p48.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
KAREN BRENNAN. Norton, $23.95 (256p) ISBN 0-393-01961-6
Brennan was vacationing in Mexico when she received word that her 24-year-old daughter, Rachel, had been severely injured in a motorcycle accident and was in a deep coma. Brennan rushed to her daughter's bedside at Denver General Hospital. The prognosis was poor, but Brennan's faith was steadfast through the months of the coma and the agonizingly slow discovery of the extent of Rachel's brain injuries. Brennan's devotion to her daughter was instrumental in her improvement; she stayed with Rachel in the hospital night and day, lying next to her, talking to her and monitoring her medical care and physical therapy. She also read widely about brain injury, learning about the personality changes, language problems and severe memory deficits that often ensue. Anxious to resume her life as an English professor at the University of Utah, Brennan moved back to Salt Lake City with Rachel. As Rachel began intensive therapy, her most troubling problem was losing her short-term memory. Although she was able to move about on a motorized wheelchair, she would often get lost, having forgotten where she lived. To alleviate the strain of being Rachel's sole caretaker, Brennan moved with Rachel to Tucson, where they had lived years earlier and Rachel was familiar with the terrain. They visited friends in Mexico, where Rachel seemed most comfortable, exploring her talent as an artist and living independently. Brennan, who teaches creative writing, provides readers with a compelling narrative, conveying without bathos how she and her daughter met the challenges that resulted from Rachel's terrible accident. (Mar.)
Forecast: Although Brennan's writing is appealing, the interest in her story is limited, focusing almost like a medical case study on her daughter's brain injuries. While inspirational in tone, it will likely speak principally to those who face similar problems.
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Being with Rachel: A story of memory and survival. (Nonfiction)." Publishers Weekly, 14 Jan. 2002, p. 48. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA82013134&it=r&asid=bda7b8143bb473bdde205221a99e0218. Accessed 4 May 2017.
QUOTED: "Brennan's honesty and straightforward perspective is to be admired."
"engaging and well-written book."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A82013134
Being with Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival. (Health & Medicine)
Deborah Anne Broocker
127.1 (Jan. 2002): p141.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2002 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Brennan, Karen. Being with Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival. Norton. Mar. 2002. c.256p. ISBN 0-393-01961-6. $23.95. MED
Award-winning poet and author Brennan (Here on Earth) here details the recovery and rehabilitation of her 25-year-old daughter, Rachel, following a motorcycle accident that left her in a coma for several months. She quickly involves the reader in the events that unfold, conveying the profound impact that the accident has had on their lives. As she recounts Rachel's slow journey toward recovery, Brennan provides a candid overview of the medical and psychological struggles typically associated with severe head trauma. Brennan's honesty and straightforward perspective is to be admired. The book has a strong sense of spirituality yet maintains a realistic "take it one day at a time" approach to living in the aftermath of a terrible personal tragedy. She quotes from Ram Dass, who, as he nursed his terminally ill stepmother, realized that sometimes all a caretaker can do is simply "be" with the loved one. This engaging and well-written book is suitable for public libraries and for academic libraries supporting a curriculum in health or education. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 11/15/01.]--Deborah Anne Broocker, Georgia Perimeter Coll., Dunwoody
Broocker, Deborah Anne
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
Broocker, Deborah Anne. "Being with Rachel: A Story of Memory and Survival. (Health & Medicine)." Library Journal, Jan. 2002, p. 141. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA82479852&it=r&asid=c4f65972c6ab743582b0eb429d15372b. Accessed 4 May 2017.
QUOTED: "fine collection of short stories."
"Brennan's women are survivors, and they know that life will go on for them."
Gale Document Number: GALE|A82479852
Wild Desire
238.42 (Sept. 20, 1991): p126.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 1991 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
WILD DESIRE
Karen Brennan. Univ. of Massachusetts, $9.95 ISBN 0-87023-752-7; cloth $22.50 -751-9 The main characters in this fine collection of short stories are independent women who struggle to make it on their own in a world that seems to exist outside of, if not without, men. A single mother labors to build a house for her family with her own hands. A young woman works at a fast-food restaurant to support herself and her deranged mother. In one of the most memorable pieces, a wife takes her children and flees an abusive husband, unsure of where she is going but certain of what she is leaving behind. When reality becomes too severe, these characters often escape into fantasy. A former actress reflects on her past and longs for an out-of-body experience in order to transcend her current condition. Indeed, transcendence and transformation lie at the heart of this anthology. Brennan's women are survivors, and they know that life will go on for them no matter what. Life will be what they make it. The title story is a strong, episodic tale (told in staccato paragraphs) about an unlikely group of misfits, all of whom are in love--but none with the person most in love with him or her. As Brennan (Here on Earth) says in the title to another story, "C'est la vie." It could serve as Brennan's credo. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"Wild Desire." Publishers Weekly, 20 Sept. 1991, p. 126+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA11309448&it=r&asid=34a5c56a3976cdff94d998c58143b5d1. Accessed 4 May 2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A11309448
QUOTED: "If there aren’t many happy endings for Brennan’s characters (or, really, any endings at all), the reader is luckier: there is delight in merely reading these innovative and unusual stories."
MONSTERS
by Karen Brennan
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KIRKUS REVIEW
Structurally ambitious flash fiction that examines all the ways—great and small—in which characters can be haunted.
The monsters in this latest collection from multigenre writer Brennan (Little Dark, 2014, etc.) range from the recognizable (ghosts, zombies) to the whimsical (a talking cat) to the darkly realistic (brain damage, a cancer diagnosis). These 39 stories, many of which are only a few pages long and some of which clock in at just a paragraph, foreground their construction: they are as much about language and form as they are about plot and character. In the title story, a father tells the tale of his daughter’s traumatic brain injury, and as the story progresses, nonsense words get subtly swapped for real ones, mimicking the breakdown of language the daughter goes through. “Last Quartet” is about four characters on a road trip—one of whom is dying—and every paragraph is comprised of four sentences, each devoted to a different person’s perspective. But if this all seems overly dour or overly fussy, it isn’t. Each story is infused with humor, most often a wry treatment of character and a deadpan delivery. (“To Whom It May Concern in My Creative Writing Class: A ‘fascinator’ is a kind of hat,” one narrator abruptly explains.) The stories can veer into the absurd, too, as in “The Corpse and Its Admirers,” the story of three women, perhaps at a funeral home, who engage in increasingly outlandish behavior in the presence of the family patriarch’s corpse. And, as is so often the case with absurdism, if there aren’t many happy endings for Brennan’s characters (or, really, any endings at all), the reader is luckier: there is delight in merely reading these innovative and unusual stories.
An impressive mixture of emotional exploration and formal experiment.
Pub Date: Sept. 20th, 2016
ISBN: 9781935536796
Page count: 208pp
Publisher: Four Way
Review Posted Online: July 31st, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1st, 2016