Synopses & Reviews
This book is only sort of about electrical engineering on boats. In fact, it does not really involve engineering at all, though it does involve boats. This is Ms. Fusselman's first book, and while it involves the Navy and WWII, it is at its core a truly gorgeous book about family and procreation, and that's about all we will say for now. It also involves music and death.
The Pharmacist's Mate combines Amy Fusselman's story of death, insemination, and music, with excerpts from her father's World War II journal, written while he was the Pharmacist's Mate on the Liberty Ship George E Pickett.
If you are interested in any of the following subjects, you may like this book:
Death
Insemination
AC/DC
Guns (fear of)
Guns (attraction to)
Babies (fear of)
Babies (desire for)
Boats
Clomiphene Citrate
World War II
Medical Students Bumbling Along As Best They Can Under Difficult Circumstances
Ultrasound
Howard Barker's "Scenes from An Execution"
Helplessness
The Absurd
Time (alternate perceptions of)
Space (alternate relations to)
Graham crackers
Pornography
Review
"As a rule, I am not scared of fish or individuals who stand less than five feet in their stockinged feet; this is because I do not expect small things to deliver a hefty punch. And yet Ms. Fusselman's book, brief as it is, affected me deeply. Not only that, the talent displayed therein was somewhat unnerving. In only eighty-six pages we find death, and birth and rebirth and other profundities. I cannot understand how this happened. It runs contrary to all human sense." Zadie Smith, author of White Teeth
Review
"In clean, simple prose that is as powerful as it is spare, The Pharmacist's Mate weaves together life and loss, the story of a wanted pregnancy, and a mourned father. It's impossible not to surrender to Amy Fusselman's lovely haunting voice and strange meditations." Amanda Davis, author of Circling the Drain
Synopsis
Fusselman's first book weaves surprising beauty out of diverse strands: death and sea shanties, guns and artifical insemination, World War II and AC/DC. Highly personal but always engaging, this book reveals the humor and beauty throughout Fusselman's grief following her father's death. Original cover art by Marcel Dzama.
About the Author
The Pharmacist's Mate is Amy Fusselman's first book. Her writing has appeared in Pierogi Press, Emergency Gazette, and McSweeney's. From 1993-98 she published a small magazine of her writings and drawings called Bunnyrabbit. She is currently a freelance writer. She lives in New York City with her husband.
Amy Fusselman on PowellsBooks.Blog
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