Defiance

...[a] powerful and mercilessly disturbing novel ... Shockingly original, Ms. Maso's novel is a convincing study of a brilliant yet damaged mind, and a sharp exploration of new extremes of cynicism and darkness. -- The Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth BukowskiCarole Maso has a fast, furious mind. She writes in a free-associative style that is irritating at first but works to merge memories and their effects on the present.... Her sarcasm is merciless. -- The Los Angeles Times Sunday Book Review, Susan Salter ReynoldsSo relentless is her honesty that this hard-boiled book turns unexpectedly tender as Bernadette drops her monster mask--her defiance--to show the human face beneath. -- The New York Times Book Review, Patrick FarrellThough beautifully written in Maso's typically innovative prose (reconfirming that she is one of the most forceful stylists working in experimental forms), Defiance is so extreme and so bleak in its catalogue of female abuse that at first glance it's hard to take seriously. It is closer in feel to crusading social activist works than to more ambiguously shaded literary fiction. -- The Nation, Charlotte Innes