Amor and Psycho

Starred review from June 3, 2013
Psyche, rechristened Psycho by high school “witchy girls,” is the star of the local poetry slam team. Psycho is smart, funny, and maybe a little psychic, and though she’s been known to adjust facts “for realistic effect,” as the narrator tells us, she is instantly likable. Which makes it hard not to miss her when her story morphs into those of two other women in her town, a foggy place up the coast from San Francisco where “poetry is a blood sport.” In her second story collection (after The Bostons), Cooke delivers tales of cancer; bosses who stop paying their employees; a teacher and her Native American charge, both with boundary issues; an ambitious young writer who works for a Hustler-like magazine; and a mysterious culture, the Mezima-Wa. Cooke’s stories twist and turn, playing games with language. They don’t stop where you think they will (or, sometimes, where you think they should), and even when they disappoint (as in “She Bites,” a note-perfect reckoning between man and contractor, form and function, that turns into magical realism 101), they leave you with something: shards of phrases; a lifetime of attitudes conveyed in a word or an aside; or odd, perfect details that stick in your mind. Agent: Laurie Fox, Linda Chester Literary Agency.

Starred review from June 1, 2013
Erotic, whimsical, profound--almost all of Cooke's stories illustrate what Matthew Arnold terms "the eternal note of sadness." In "Francis Bacon," the narrator hangs out at "Bob's House...the largest private residence in Manhattan," an obvious allusion to Bob Guccione, founder of Penthouse magazine. He's hired the narrator to shape up the quasi-erotic ramblings of the feckless Laya, who breathlessly serves as the "grand prize" in a contest Bob dreams up. "Aesthetic Discipline" introduces us to Karim Brazir, the narrator's "alluring, sexy, [and] passionate" lover, who takes her to visit his home in Hell's Point, Long Island, for a weekend or two. There, she comes up against the sensibility of Karim's ultramodernist parents, who inhabit a house with black bathrooms and minimalist furniture. Although the relationship with Karim doesn't last, the narrator is in equal parts fascinated by and empathetic with Karim's father, who's suffering from a terminal illness. One of the best stories in the collection is the eponymous "Amor and Psycho," which features a pair of memorable adolescents. Psyche, who renames herself "Psycho" during her freshman year of high school, is a poet who freestyles brilliantly, though she readily admits her friend Harald Bugman is even "more whacked and brilliant" than she is. After she accidentally runs over a baby in her car, Psycho does community service, which she loves, since "corrupting youth was the best and purest thing in her life." The second part of the story features Georgie, the best friend of Harald's mother, Babe, who's trying to hang onto a life in which she deals with cancer and chemo. Cooke writes with passion, empathy and considerable humor as her characters face life-changing issues of divorce, illness, self-destruction and impending death.

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July 1, 2013
PEN/Bingham Award winner and National Endowment of the Arts fellow Cooke (Daughters of the Revolution, 2011) presents an edgy collection of powerful, engaging, offbeat stories filled with characters who are appealing without being likable. The stories span a range of time and geography, some specified, some enticingly vague, some totally suspect. Sexual relations are plentiful, but, more often than not, they are passionless and banal. Marriages are seldom stable, and illness, mental and physical, is a haunting presence. Francis Bacon chronicles a seemingly wild but actually quite dull lifestyle. In The Snake, Dr. Drema remakes herself with a freedom that defies real life. Breast cancer recurs in several stories, with the character Georgie popping in and out. Isle of Wigs depicts the struggle to maintain control as the world rapidly spins away. Amor and Psycho is a complex, three-part tour de force. And the final story, Among the Mezima-Wa, is so outrageous one imagines Cooke's glee in writing it. This is the product of a mature and considerable talent and should be enjoyed, but not taken lightly.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

March 1, 2013

Author of the acclaimed debut novel The Daughters of the Revolution, Cooke also excels in the short form; The Bostons garnered the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize. The characters here include friends dealing with cancer and suicide to a husband building a doghouse for his wife as she slowly goes canine.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2013

Whether struck with cancer or a brain tumor, struggling against domestic violence, or coping with the suicide of a boyfriend, vulnerability, and its effects on human relationships, is the central theme in these 11 short stories. Author Cooke (The Bostons, winner of the PEN Award/Robert W. Bingham Prize for fiction) takes readers to various cultures and times to examine the anxiety, hopes, struggles, and, above all, the ever-present human quest for love and acceptance. Some of the stories, "She Bites" for example, inhabit a surreal atmosphere, while many deal with sex--one is a portrayal of pure lust; another of a young poet writing scripts for porn films. The three-part title story takes place in the world of a young woman who is a freestyle poet competing at the Grand Slam Finals, where she covers all aspects of her life, including the suicide of her boyfriend, in fantastic poetic verse. VERDICT This slim volume is a definite page-turner, leaving the discerning reader with memorable characters upon which to reflect. A notable writer of both fiction and nonfiction, Cooke keeps readers aware of the travails and triumphs of their humanity. [See Prepub Alert, 2/4/13.]--Lisa Rohrbaugh, Leetonia Community P.L., OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.