Billy Dead: Amazon.de: Lisa Reardon: Englische Bücher

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Produktinformation

Gebundene Ausgabe: 304 Seiten
Verlag: Viking Adult (1. Oktober 1998)
Sprache: Englisch
ISBN-10: 0670882240
ISBN-13: 978-0670882243
Gr��e und/oder Gewicht: 23,1 x 15,2 x 1,8 cm

Durchschnittliche Kundenbewertung: 4.3 von 5 Sternen Alle Rezensionen anzeigen (11 Kundenrezensionen)

Amazon Bestseller-Rang: Nr. 793.592 in Englische Bücher (Siehe Top 100 in Englische Bücher)

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Produktbeschreibungen

Amazon.com

So, you find out one day that your brother has just been killed, brutally murdered in fact, by someone who seemed to take calm delight in watching him die slowly, agonizingly. The thing is, you can think of dozens of people who wished Billy harm, and a few who very well might have done it, including members of your own family.

Such is the situation of Ray Johnson, the narrator of Lisa Reardon's first novel, Billy Dead, as we begin a gut-wrenching trip into the past of an American family that's about as unappetizing as you will find. A relatively decent, tender man who's spent much of his life trying to keep out of harm's way, Ray has managed to cobble together a pretty good existence of steady job and thoughtful, intelligent girlfriend, Sally... until now. As he ranges around town in a surreal haze in the days following Billy's murder, meeting up with ghosts from the past, and interacting with various and sundry family members (including a mother who flirts with an old boyfriend in sight of her son's coffin), Ray realizes just how much he remains shackled to a past chock full of domestic abuse, alcoholism, incest, and just plain meanness.

While Billy's death seems a just, but unavoidable, conclusion to a nasty existence--"Somebody took that thing full of mean and made it nothing at all"--maybe he was the lucky one. For Ray, the killing pulls into sharp relief the hell on earth that is his when he realizes his only life passion is his forbidden love for his younger sister, Jean: "All the hurt and confusion about Billy being killed is like a big forest fire that's burned through everything in me. Burned clean through all the underbrush of when we were little, all the deadwood memories. Even the big strong trees that I thought would live forever, blocking all the sun ... Jean and me, we're looking at each other now in that empty, burned-out place."

In a narrative that explores in terrifying detail the violent nature of Jean and Ray's past and the poignant truth of their love, Reardon creates a skillful and credible tale. This is a hard, in-your-face kind of book that takes you for a disturbing ride, and finally asks you to reexamine your notions of what is and what is not right when it comes to affairs of the heart. --Marianne Painter

From Booklist

Startling, alarming, altogether original, and one of the more challenging novels of recent memory. Reardon's debut novel is narrated by Ray Johnson, younger brother of the recently murdered Billy and middle child of perhaps the sickest family in Michigan. Ray, and Reardon, cast no aspersions though, as Ray sleepily reveals the layers of pain that go way beyond the self-perpetuating spirals of "abuse." As the police and Ray try to find Billy's killer, the covers are lifted on the not-so-secret secrets of the Johnson clan. In the tangled core of the story is Ray's love for, and love affair with, his younger sister, Jean. Reardon dares to challenge the very nature of sin as she suggests that incest can have color and layers; indeed, she creates between Ray and Jean a terribly beautiful love story. Reardon writes in a masterful, an artfully quiet, and a most unfabulous way, which has the effect of making this tale seem acceptable. If this one doesn't cause a buzz, then our collective consciousness is more damaged than we thought. David Cline

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A family drama that left me hungover and begging for more 29. Oktober 1999

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Start with a gruesome murder of a character that everyone in a small midwestern town hates; throw in a family history that is disturbing on its surface and intoxicatingly interesting when probed deeper, and top it off with a rhythmic prose style that ushers the reader through twisted narrative. I was horrified and captivated, and I can't wait to see what Reardon does next.

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Brilliant Debut! 30. September 1999

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

I simply adored this book. The way that Ms. Reardon made me feel sympathy for Ray and his sister's relationship was amazing. By the way, after reading other reviews, I must state that Ms. Reardon was, in fact, raised in Eastern Michigan in a rural community.

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Readable, but lacking. 4. August 1999

Von Ein Kunde

Format:Gebundene Ausgabe

Billy Dead by Lisa Reardon reads a lot like a television miniseries, that is quite intriguing but lacks any real substance. There was a part of me that would have wanted to rant about how horrible this book was, but it wasn't. I did fnd myself pushing through this book wanting to know how things would work out between Ray, his sister, and his family, in the same way that gives miniseries and TV talk shows their appeal. You just want to learn mor about their dirty laundry and see things finally work out in their own twisted way. This is the one thing that drew me in about this book. However, Lisa Reardon should really stick to writing about what she knows. It was obvious in reading this that she has never been in rural Michigan for any amount of time. I have doubts as to how much she knows about rural life at all. I was not convinced by the narrator of much of what he was telling me much because of this. Also, the plotline and the characterizations are a major slam against lower-class families. Most of her characters are based on cheap stereotypes and lack any real substance as human beings. Finally, this book might have worked better for me if she didn't try to write it from a man's point of view. It was less than geunine, shifting from machismo sterotypes to a falsely feminine inner voice. Ms. Reardon does a horrible job of trying to speak from a man's perspective, and it shows. Overall, this could have been a better book had she taken the time to learn about her subject, and told the story from a more geuine perspective.

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