Avalon

LoveReading Says

Part coming-of-age survival story, part unconventional love story, part wry commentary on contemporary America and the people who fall prey to capitalism’s claws, Nell Zink’s Avalon is a unique and thought-provoking page-turner. Zink’s writing is razor-sharp and sublimely spell-binding, and Avalon boasts a remarkable narrative voice that had me hooked from the visceral opening scene.

With her father long gone, and a mother who abandoned her for a Buddhist colony, Bran’s childhood saw her raised by cruel non-relatives on a plant nursey (essentially a bunch of outlaw bikers), where she was set to work from a tender age. “Never considered a member of the family unless they wanted something from me,”, here Bran was “the ignorant child who knew no other life, the perfect employee, taught to accept self-harm as an economic necessity.”

But Bran finds friends in fellow outcasts through her teenage years, and begins a complicated long-distance relationship with a hilariously pretentious college student. At the same time, she takes up screen-writing and somehow manages to get by, and find a sense of self and anchorage. Not only is Bran’s voice uniquely gripping, but she’s also mightily resilient and fiercely witty.

Joanne Owen

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