The Pink Institution - Softcover

Saterstrom, Selah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1566891558 ISBN 13: 9781566891554

Publisher: Coffee House Press, 2004

Synopsis

Interweaving visceral, atmospheric prose with historical photographs, images and texts, The Pink Institution traces four generations of Mississippi women from their run-down, post-Civil War plantations to the modern-day trailer parks that house the youngest generations. As the impoverished decay of the Deep South expresses itself through their bloodlines, a new impression of Southern history and heritage emerges. The lyrical gravity and singular style of this unforgettable debut novel will transform the reader in its wake. Selah Saterstrom's writing has appeared in 3rd Bed and Pitkin Review. She is the editor of Soul Collections, a collection of prose and poetry written by at-risk teenagers in North Carolina. Born in Mississippi in 1974, she now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she teaches at Warren Wilson College.

About this title

Review:

"Happy families may all be alike, but even unhappy families have started to look pretty similar these days. Then there's the family created in Selah Saterstrom's multigenerational bildungsroman about America and the South, and women and men, and madness and whatever desperate things we do in order to, maybe, for a while, survive. Selah Saterstrom has a daring, artful voice. I am confident "The Pink Institution is only the first of many astoundingly beautiful, brutally disturbing works of art."--Rebecca Brown
"Saterstrom writes with a poet's economy and eye for visceral detail, collapsing into a mere 140 pages a four-generation history of a Southern family bedeviled by alcoholism, poverty, racism, violence, and mental illness. Her spareness is a mercy. The story she tells is brutal, almost impossible to take; at the same time, her exquisite, cut-to-the-quick language makes this book impossible to put down." "The Huffington Post, " "11 Underappreciated Literary Masterpieces""
-Saterstrom writes with a poet's economy and eye for visceral detail, collapsing into a mere 140 pages a four-generation history of a Southern family bedeviled by alcoholism, poverty, racism, violence, and mental illness. Her spareness is a mercy. The story she tells is brutal, almost impossible to take; at the same time, her exquisite, cut-to-the-quick language makes this book impossible to put down.- --The Huffington Post, -11 Underappreciated Literary Masterpieces-
"Saterstrom writes with a poet's economy and eye for visceral detail, collapsing into a mere 140 pages a four-generation history of a Southern family bedeviled by alcoholism, poverty, racism, violence, and mental illness. Her spareness is a mercy. The story she tells is brutal, almost impossible to take; at the same time, her exquisite, cut-to-the-quick language makes this book impossible to put down." --The Huffington Post, "11 Underappreciated Literary Masterpieces"

About the Author:

Selah Saterstrom is the author of the novels Slab, The Meat and Spirit Plan, and The Pink Institution, all published by Coffee House Press. Widely published and anthologized, she also curates Madame Harriette Presents, an occasional series. She teaches and lectures across the United States and is the director of Creative Writing at the University of Denver.

About this edition

• Publisher: Coffee House Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 1566891558
• ISBN 13: 9781566891554
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 140