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The Hanged Man

Name: The Hanged Man
Author: Francesca Lia Block
ISBN: 9780064408325

by Francesca Lia Block, Block

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Overview

After the death of her father, Laurel is haunted by a legacy of family secrets, hidden shame, and shattered glass. Immersing herself in the heady rhythms of a city that is like something wild, caged, and pacing, Laurel tries to lose herself. But when she runs away from the past, she discovers a passion so powerful, it brings her roundabout and face-to-face with the demons she wants to avoid.

In a stunning departure from her enormously popular Weetzie Bat books, Francesca Lia Block weaves a darkly exhilarating tale of shattered passions and family secrets.

Having stopped eating after the death of her father, seventeen-year-old Laurel feels herself losing control of her life in the hot, magical world of Los Angeles.

Synopsis

In a stunning departure from her enormously popular Weetzie Bat books, Francesca Lia Block weaves a darkly exhilarating tale of shattered passions and family secrets.

Publishers Weekly

Though its cast is new and its tone considerably more somber, this intoxicating if painful work shares with Block's ( Weetzie Bat ) earlier novels a magic-tinged Los Angeles setting; emotionally charged, hip writing; and a stylized narrative construction derived from the timeless rhythms of myth and fairy tales. Here, the novel (as well as its striking design) is structured upon the conventions of a tarot reading, adding another layer of meaning and mystery to the hypnotic prose. Sitting in a hospital waiting room, grimly anticipating news of her terminally ill father's death, Laurel meets an eerily attractive man named Jack. During the sultry summer following her father's death, Laurel encounters Jack at various underground clubs and parties. A bittersweet romance springs up, with motorcyle-riding, black-clad Jack (who may or may not be a reincarnation of aspects of Laurel's father) providing Laurel with spiritual and erotic guidance. With Jack's aid, Laurel slowly acknowledges and transcends torturous family secrets: her father's sexual abuse of her and her mother's silent complicity. Although the discussion of incest is fairly indirect, Block is otherwise candid; she describes Laurel's sexuality frankly (``The closest I have come to coming since I was fourteen''), and drugs play a prominent part in her exotic, lushly described L.A. scene. Disturbing but ultimately exhilarating. Ages 12-up. (Sept.)

About the Author, Francesca Lia Block

Francesca Lia Block, winner of the prestigious Margaret A. Edwards Award, is the author of many acclaimed and bestselling books, including Weetzie Bat, Dangerous Angels: The Weetzie Bat Books, the collection of stories Blood Roses, the poetry collection How to (Un)Cage a Girl, the novel The Waters & the Wild, the illustrated novella House of Dolls, and the gothic vampire romance Pretty Dead. Her work is published around the world.

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Editorials

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Though its cast is new and its tone considerably more somber, this intoxicating if painful work shares with Block's Weetzie Bat earlier novels a magic-tinged Los Angeles setting; emotionally charged, hip writing; and a stylized narrative construction derived from the timeless rhythms of myth and fairy tales. Here, the novel as well as its striking design is structured upon the conventions of a tarot reading, adding another layer of meaning and mystery to the hypnotic prose. Sitting in a hospital waiting room, grimly anticipating news of her terminally ill father's death, Laurel meets an eerily attractive man named Jack. During the sultry summer following her father's death, Laurel encounters Jack at various underground clubs and parties. A bittersweet romance springs up, with motorcyle-riding, black-clad Jack who may or may not be a reincarnation of aspects of Laurel's father providing Laurel with spiritual and erotic guidance. With Jack's aid, Laurel slowly acknowledges and transcends torturous family secrets: her father's sexual abuse of her and her mother's silent complicity. Although the discussion of incest is fairly indirect, Block is otherwise candid; she describes Laurel's sexuality frankly ``The closest I have come to coming since I was fourteen'', and drugs play a prominent part in her exotic, lushly described L.A. scene. Disturbing but ultimately exhilarating. Ages 12-up. Sept.

The ALAN Review - Teri S. Lesesne

Laurel lives near the Hollywood sign outside of Los Angeles. In many ways, she is like the city: wild and unpredictable. Still mourning the death of her father, Laurel is looking for something or someone to help her make sense of her life. Jack is mysterious and dangerous: Laurel is attracted to him immediately. Her relationship with him leads her on a spiraling descent into the secrets of her life and of those around her. Block, best known for her offbeat Weetzie Bat books, has certainly taken a different tack in her latest work. This is a disturbingly real look at life in the fast lane. Laurel and her friends grapple with the demons of real life (i.e., drugs, sex, death) with harsh consequences. Tarot cards figure prominently as metaphorical devices in each chapter. This is a book likely to meet with not a few censorship challenges. For mature readers, though, it offers a riveting read.

School Library Journal

Gr 10 Up-Laurel, who was named for the canyon, doesn't eat. Her father has just died of cancer; now her mother cooks and cleans in a frenzy and moths follow her (the spirit of her husband, like in One Hundred Years of Solitude). Laurel thinks of herself as the Hanged Man, the tarot symbol meaning ``Renunciation. Self-deprivation. Suspended in illusion...Self-poisoning. Also, resurrection.'' She is punishing herself for the incestual relationship she had with her father, and for loving him in spite of it. She smokes to lose flesh. She wants to change, to be pure and free ``like some fairy thing.'' At the same time, she wants to have a woman's body and wishes her period would come back. Her lover, Jack, and her friend, Claudia, try to help her-the three of them even sleep together-but in the end it's she who resurrects herself, and her mother who shares the flood of her pain. Her period returns, and she is seized with the desire to paint and to live. Block's prose moves like a heroin trip through the smog and wet heat, heavy flowers, and velvet grunge of Hollywood. Readers will see themselves in Laurel's dreams and be excited by the strange, yet familiar possibilities there; and they'll want fiercely, like her, to create, to dance on the beach, to have visions, to make love, and to love themselves for who they are. This is serious life Block is writing about-it's raw, hellish, heavenly, and real.-Vanessa Elder, School Library Journal