Find Him!
Its narrator is an unnamed, childlike woman, who one day awakes dressed as a schoolgirl, unable to eat, speak, or clean herself without aid ... An unsettling meditation on patriarchal violence and the construction of femininity, the novel feels indebted to both Tillie Olsen and Anaïs Nin, two of Kraf’s favorite authors, and deserves to be rediscovered as a significant work of feminist literature.
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So great are the handicaps Elaine Kraf sets out for herself in this obsessional and obtuse novel that you might want, despite everything, to cheer her over ... But fair's fair--and for each dispensation a reader allows, the reward comes up mingy and without thanks ... As soon as it becomes clear that Find Him! is more a dare than plea, the wish to cheer for this underdog book disappears.
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Kraf (The Princess of 72nd Street), who died in 2013, depicts in this striking 1977 novel the eccentric life of a mysterious unnamed woman who confesses she has 'no identity, no ability to think or speak.' In the beginning, she is taught to chew food by her oafish caregiver Oliver, whom she describes as her lover in ironic terms that reveal the limits of his affection ... The strangely affecting arc of the pair’s twisted relationship lays bare the narrator’s emotional needs and ultimate sense of betrayal. This entrancing novel more than withstands the test of time.
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