Daphne

November 20, 2017
Boast’s supple debut novel plays with the myth of Daphne, placing a version of the Greek nymph into contemporary San Francisco. Rather than transforming into a tree, the title character suffers a condition that leaves her literally paralyzed whenever she feels strong emotion, able to think and feel but unable to support or move her body. She is pursued by construction worker Ollie, a down-to-earth Apollo, and their love affair suffers predictable complications. Though the romance plot prunes the novel into a restricted shape, and late revelations about the heroine’s father offer too-pat explanations for some of her experiences, memoirist Boast (Epilogue) precisely depicts Daphne’s emotional states, with brief, sensorily rich passages when she is on the brink of overload, and more relaxed, mundane ones when she is comfortably at her computer or engaging in less charged relationships. While Ollie may be a standard-issue hero, Boast surrounds Daphne with a full range of other friends, relatives, and medical research coworkers, including an anxious mother, a partying best friend, and the various members of the support group for those who share her malady. The novel offers a striking metaphor for the ways emotion is experienced in the body.

December 1, 2017
Psychology and myth twist into each other in this debut novel about vulnerability and fear.Boast (Epilogue, 2014, etc.) writes about Daphne, who isolates herself from most other people by choice and strict routine. While her mythical namesake turns into a Laurel tree to avoid Apollo's pursuit, this Daphne "explode[s] into lush forest," freezing when she feels anything too intense. Her rare, unnamed condition means she absorbs powerful emotions around her, and her own feelings are paralytic: "I couldn't move at all," she says, recounting her first episode. Doctors postulate that her "immune system [is] blasting away at receptors in that mysterious part of the brain where muscle control, emotion, and sleep intersect." Daphne's adult life becomes about "at least, surviving," avoiding feelings and seizurelike episodes. Romance is dangerous. Even books and movies can send her into a trance. In clipped sentences, Daphne narrates her daily routine: support group; work at a research center that tests medical devices on dogs; public transportation; and isolation. When she meets Ollie, an empathetic could-be suitor, she's forced to confront her own idea that life would be easier "if only we could all stay a mystery to one another." Ollie's attention tests the lengths to which she'll allow herself to get hurt. Boast leads Daphne--and the reader--through many of the Bay Area's corners of art and culture. Daphne's "fluttering and slumping" that result from emotion are one thing, but her real fear? "I'd twisted and twined and bound myself up inside," she says, "to avoid death." "When you insulate yourself against disaster, you're always waiting for it to arrive."Boast's story is rooted in myth. But it's his perceptive take on the risks of emotion that the reader will remember.

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January 1, 2018

In the annals of Greek mythology, Daphne is a nymph whose pursuit by the amorous god Apollo is so overwhelming that she finds a unique way to cope. (After begging her river god father for help, she's turned into a laurel tree.) In Boast's reimagining of the myth, Daphne is a young woman in San Francisco whose sense of being overwhelmed manifests itself in uncontrollable seizure-like spells. In her own words, she is "paralyzed by emotions." Her Apollo is Ollie, a free-spirited man who gently charms his way into her life. Struggling with her mysterious illness since high school, Daphne knows how to mediate her symptoms, and she attends a support group for people who also deal with this damning disorder. But rather than allowing herself to be defined by her condition, she does her best to live her life in full. VERDICT Through stream-of-consciousness inner dialogs, Boast (Power Ballads) fully expresses the levels of intense discomfort and deep frustration that Daphne must confront. Akin to Aimee Bender's The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, this compelling novel portrays the life of someone whose body betrays her at every step.--Susanne Wells, Indianapolis P.L.

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from January 1, 2018
In his stunning first novel, Boast (Epilogue, 2014) turns the myth of Daphne and Apollo into a modern love story about social anxiety and physical debilitation. Daphne suffers from a rare medical condition that renders her immobile in high-anxiety situations. Jostling into a crowded bar or city train, watching movies, and even having sex can trigger an episode in which her speech slurs and her body slumps. Having all but abandoned trying to explain her condition to others, she relates more to the dogs she tests at the experimental lab where she works than she does to her support group. Strangers often assume she's drunk, though in fact she is hyperaware and self-conscious during an attack. It doesn't help that her best friend, Brook, is a shamelessly gregarious businesswoman, and her widowed mother sends care packages, as though Daphne's still in college. When she meets Ollie, a sensitive construction worker, Daphne must decide how much of her insecurity she's willing to expose. Ollie attempts to understand Daphne's disorder without pitying her as he introduces her to San Francisco's fringe culture and reveals his own fixations. Sharply observant, both of the limits of human longing and of the fear of feeling trapped inside one's body, Boast's understated tale is at once tragic and enchanting.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)