SECOND SKIN

by John Hawkes ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

A wandering, bumbling Searcher-against-his-Will tells about all the horrid things that happen to his luminous self in this ""comic"" novel by the author of The Cannibal. Skipper is our hero, and love with Skipper is always being nipped in the bud. His undertaker father shoots himself in the lavatory as his son tries to talk him out of it. Wife and daughter also commit suicide, and his daughter's husband Fernandez, on whom Skipper casts a fond eye, is found dead in a brothel. The mighty Miranda on the shores of Maine has her own form of insult. At last, however, there is refuge on a tropical island with Catalina Kate, a simple minded native who bears him a child while Skipper and his companion Sonny scientifically inseminate cows. Skipper has a last laugh, for although love continues to fail him, other opportunities continue to present themselves. The tone is light and the style skillful, with a sharp edge of satire. However, the misty situations sunk full fathom five and the monstrous human furies attacking Skipper's visceral vacuum will not endear Skipper to the American multitudes. Special, too confined a joke.

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0811216446

Page Count: -

Publisher: New Directions

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1963

Categories: FICTION