My friend Natalia : a novel
(Book)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Contributors
Hackston, David, translator.
Status
Main Flagstaff Public Library - Fiction
F LINDSTEDT, LAURA
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Format
Book
Physical Desc
225 pages ; 22 cm
Language
English

Notes

Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references.
Description
Natalia cannot stop thinking about sex. With this mesmerizing tale of one woman's potent affliction, award-winning Finnish writer Laura Lindstedt makes her American debut. Narrated by an unnamed, ungendered therapist who leaps at the chance to employ their most experimental methods, My Friend Natalia offers a gripping examination of the power dynamics always present but rarely ever spoken about in therapy. "Something flared within me," the therapist notes, "and it wasn't merely sympathy, the emotion I feel for most of my clients. It was more like a sudden experience of harmony, wholly inappropriate given the circumstances." It is clear from the moment Natalia barges into her new therapist's office that she has motives beyond simply fixing her sex life. She is quick to mention that the same exact painting hanging on the therapist's wall-an abstract piece titled Ear-Mouth-once hung in her grandmother's living room. This comment deeply unsettles the therapist, as does the large alarm clock that Natalia brings with her, intent on timing the sessions herself. And the tape recorder. At first, Natalia seems to play along with the rules of therapy. She partakes in the therapist's pain-displacement exercises, word games, and even produces a few anatomical illustrations. She muses on the art of pornography, and boldly examines seminal figures like Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, about whom she poses the question, "Did Jean-Paul consider Simone a woman at all? Or was she nothing but a pencil sharpener?" By combining philosophy and literature, repressed childhood memories and explicitly unrepressed erotic experiences, the sessions quickly shed all inhibitions. Still, the therapist can't help but wonder: What does Natalia really want?
Language
Translated from the Finnish.

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Citations

APA Citation, 7th Edition (style guide)

Lindstedt, L., & Hackston, D. (2021). My friend Natalia: a novel . Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc..

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Lindstedt, Laura, 1976- and David, Hackston. 2021. My Friend Natalia: A Novel. Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities (Notes and Bibliography) Citation, 17th Edition (style guide)

Lindstedt, Laura, 1976- and David, Hackston. My Friend Natalia: A Novel Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc, 2021.

MLA Citation, 9th Edition (style guide)

Lindstedt, Laura, and David Hackston. My Friend Natalia: A Novel Liveright Publishing Corporation, a division of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2021.

Note! Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy. Citation formats are based on standards as of August 2021.

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