Description: Amina Cain's extraordinary fiction has been said to take place in "a strangely ageless world somewhere between Emily Dickinson and David Lynch" (Blake Butler), and this, her debut novel, is no exception. Indelicacy introduces us to a cleaning woman at an art museum who nurtures aspirations to do more than simply dust the paintings around her. She dreams of having the liberty to explore them in writing, and so must find a way to win herself the time and security to use her mind. She escapes her lot by marrying a rich man, but having gained a husband, a house, high society, and a maid, she finds that her new life of privilege is no less constrained. Not only has she taken up different forms of time-consuming labor--social and erotic--she is now, however passively, forcing other women to clean up after her. Perhaps another, more drastic solution is necessary. Reminiscent of a lost Victorian classic in miniature, yet taking equal inspiration from such modern authors as Jean Rhys, Octavia Butler, Clarice Lispector, and Jean Genet, Amina Cain's Indelicacy is at once a ghost story without a ghost, a fable without a moral, and a down-to-earth investigation of the barriers faced by women in both life and literature. It is a novel about seeing, class, desire, anxiety, pleasure, friendship, and the battle to find one's true calling.
Brief description: Lauren Ezzo is a Chicago-based audiobook narrator and commercial voice talent. A Michigan native and Hope College alumna, at this writing she has narrated over 100 titles for authors including Catherine Ryan Hyde, Georgia Clark, Adam Rapp, M. Dressler, Christopher Rice, Kirk Lynn, Lauren James, and Dot Hutchison. She has won multiple awards for her narration, including several "Best of the Year" lists, and several Earphones Awards. In 2016, her performance of The Light Fantastic, by Sarah Combs, conarrated with Todd Haberkorn, was named one of AudioFile's best books of the year. She was accorded the same honor in 2017 from School Library Journal for her narration of To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party. In 2018, she was Audie Award-nominated as part of a full cast of narrators for Best Original Work, Nevertheless We Persisted, performing two pieces-one of which she authored. She is a proud member of the Audio Publishers Association, and a lifelong bookworm.
Review Quotes:
"It reminded me of A Room of One's Own with a few wicked twists...[it] is not escapist reading, but it is fuel, pushing you to do the thing you love."
-- "New York Times"