Letting the Body Lead

Item: Letting the Body Lead
Author: WhichBook

Jenn Crowell

Introspective, self absorbed, ironic: Isobel tries to escape herself by fleeing the pressures of academic life in America for a break in Iceland. Will she begin to relax and ground herself by 'letting the body lead'? There are some strong supportive women characters, and lyrical evocations of Iceland: sunsets, children, the blisters of unaccustomed hiking, the acrid texture of her love affair with a charming alcoholic.

Extract

Isobel heaped the cream and strawberry jam on a pancake, cut it neatly, and lifted the fork to her lips. Her mouth filled with sugar, light, sweetness, air; her head whirled with the human warmth of the room. In the window hung a piece of stained glass in an ornate pattern she couldn't decipher; it was deep red, the purpled hue you watch emerge from beneath your skin with both fascination and fear when you cut yourself. So this is what living in a body feels like, Isobel thought. Dizzy, stroked by the kindness of strangers, as the sun shimmers through glass the color of blood.

Parallels