Indelicacy: A Novel

Synopsis

FINALIST FOR THE CENTER FOR FICTION'S FIRST NOVEL PRIZE"Cain’s small but mighty novel reads like a ghost story and packs the punch of a feminist classic."—The New York Times Book ReviewA haunted feminist fable, Amina Cain’s Indelicacy is the story of a woman navigating between gender and class roles to empower herself and fulfill her dreams.In "a strangely ageless world somewhere between Emily Dickinson and David Lynch" (Blake Butler), a cleaning woman at a museum of art nurtures aspirations to do more than simply dust the paintings around her. She dreams of having the liberty to explore them in writing, and so must find a way to win herself the time and security to use her mind. She escapes her lot by marrying a rich man, but having gained a husband, a house, high society, and a maid, she finds that her new life of privilege is no less constrained. Not only has she taken up different forms of time-consuming labor—social and erotic—but she is now, however passively, forcing other women to clean up after her. Perhaps another and more drastic solution is necessary?Reminiscent of a lost Victorian classic in miniature, yet taking equal inspiration from such modern authors as Jean Rhys, Octavia Butler, Clarice Lispector, and Jean Genet, Amina Cain's Indelicacy is at once a ghost story without a ghost, a fable without a moral, and a down-to-earth investigation of the barriers faced by women in both life and literature. It is a novel about seeing, class, desire, anxiety, pleasure, friendship, and the battle to find one’s true calling.

Copyright:

2020

Book Details

Book Quality:

Publisher Quality

Book Size:

176 Pages

ISBN-13:

9780374718732

Related ISBNs:

9780374148379

Publisher:

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Date of Addition:

09/24/25

Copyrighted By:

Amina Cain

Adult content:

No

Language:

English

Has Image Descriptions:

No

Categories:

Literature and Fiction

Submitted By:

Bookshare Staff

Usage Restrictions:

This is a copyrighted book.