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Mimi

Mimi

by Lucy Ellmann (Author)

  • Used

    Paperback 2013

    $3.31
Synopsis

It's Christmas Eve in Manhattan. Harrison Hanafan, noted plastic surgeon, falls on his ass. 'Ya can't sit there all day, buddy, looking up people's skirts!' chides a woman in a coat like a duvet. Then she conjures the miracle of a taxi. While recuperating with Franz Schubert, Bette Davis, and a foundling cat, Harrison adds items to his life's work, a List of Melancholy Things (puppetry, shrimp-eating contests, Walmart...) before going back to rhinoplasties, liposuction, and the peccadilloes of his obnoxious colleagues. Then Harrison collides once more with the strangely helpful woman, Mimi, who bursts into his life with all her curves and chaos. They soon fall emphatically in love. And, as their love-making reaches a whole new kind of climax, the sweet smell of revolution is in the air. By turns celebratory and scathing, romantic and dyspeptic, Mimi is a story of music, New York, sculpture, martinis, public speaking, quilt-stealing, eggnog and, most of all, love. A vibrant call-to-arms, this is Lucy Ellmann's most extraordinary book to date.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
 Pages: 352
 Publisher: Bloomsbury Circus
Published: 14 Feb 2013
ISBN 10: 1408833565
ISBN 13: 9781408833568
Book Overview: Bach, sculpture, plastic surgery, public speaking and a New York love story like no other - this is Lucy Ellmann's most extraordinary work of art to date

Media Reviews
YES! I'm throwing all my woolly winter berets in the air for Mimi! Only Lucy at her best is able, somehow, to rap on in a manner that binds together Bugs Bunny and Wagner, Haydn and hunchbacks... * Barbara Trapido *
I am bowled over by Mimi * Susannah Clapp *
Neurotic, crazy, and fun, with a love story, too * Vogue *
Funny, angry, sarcastic and utterly individual, Ellmann has been described as one of modern literarture's most well-kept secrets -- Alison Flood * Observer *
Lucy Ellman has fashioned a quirkily distinctive voice mixing righteous rage with laugh-out-loud humour. Mimi finds her on top form, couching in whimsical wit a provocative riff on romance and feminism, explored unusually from a male perspective ... It's all flighty enough to make a Wes Anderson film look like gritty realism -- Malcolm Jack * List *
This breakneck fable of love and loss has an energy that captivates ... A true original, a love story with lashings of horror and a whimsical tour de force. It might leave you exasperated or exhausted but will certainly make you think ... Ellmann's writing is fearless in its experimentation: a whistle-stop tour of the paraphernalia that litters all our minds. Oddments that most of us notice and discard are here burnished into literary devices ... Mimi is at its best when Ellmann uses her innovative style and light touch to highlight society's darkest truths -- Alice Fishburn * Financial Times *
A modern love story that packs a punch. This is the ultimate love story of our age ... The antithesis of all the cliched romances of contemporary novels and films ... A feminist text disguised as a page-turning novel ... Fans of Caitlin Moran will find the Valentine's Day chapter in particular a real distillation of feminism for our time, perfectly masquerading as a story that will have you laughing at every other page ... Some beautiful and original writing. Mimi doesn't just set out ideals, it also offers great advice and terrific phrases ... Ellmann's first book in six years is a triumph for feminism, and deserves to become a classic -- Emma Herdman * Psychologies *
Her extraordinary new novel which is, amongst many things, a love letter to New York -- Chitra Ramaswamy * Scotsman *
So much of the charm of Ellmann's eccentric take on the world lies in the common ground it makes with the equally frustrated reader; who among us, after all, hasn't vainly yearned to love and be loved? -- Laura Miller * Guardian *
A dark-hued but uplifting tale leads to a life beyond the cult of cosmetic enchantment ... Ellmann's vivid intelligence ... Mimi is more focused: it has a trajectory, it has a thesis, it has a hero ... Mimi is ringing with love and rage and hope. Ellmann's best sentences are so springy and rhythmic, they make you think of a Slinky coursing down the sweet spot of a stair-case, happy as Larry -- Susie Boyt * Independent *
The writing is exquisite and it has a cinematic momentum and enviable self-belief which sweeps you up and carries you along. Then an unexpected emotional punch two-thirds of the way through pushes this book into another league ... A wildly hilarious, modern film noir in fiction form, it's the sort of novel you love or hate immediately. I loved every minute -- Viv Groskop * Sunday Telegraph *
The rich layering of literary and artistic references adds depth to this portrait of shallow lives. In exuberant, exhilarating prose that carries a substantial cargo of humour and wit, this cutting social satire anatomises an era and, by focusing on a man who alters human bodies, offers an X-ray of the curious workings of the mind -- Anita Sethi * New Statesman *
A lively, sweet, funny tale of well-off Manhattanites in love ... For all its satire and tricksy inter-textuality ... This is simply a big happy book about loving women. Now that's shocking -- Melissa Katsoulis * The Times *
A lively ride ... It is tempting to describe Ellmann as a quirky writer, but this book goes deeper. It is bolshy, life-affirming, feminist and energetic. It makes you long to chuck your job, gulp oysters and run naked through the surf. This is all wonderful * Sunday Times *
Deceptively nutty novel ... As Mimi gaily batters the reader into submission, she does so with such charm, wit and ingenuity that it's rarely less than a delight - none of which, however, disguises the underlying anger that powers things along ... Worth celebrating -- Stephanie Cross * Daily Mail *
In what is surely an early contender for 2013's Book of the Year, Lucy Ellmann once again turns the comic novel into a work of the highest art ... Ellmann's sharp, funny, clever Manhattan tale ... If Mimi is about anything, it is about family, sisters and female power, all wrapped up in a fairy tale where every word works magic to show a superlative comic novel embodying tragedy and all the human emotions. It may be Ellmann's finest novel yet -- Lesley McDowell * Herald *
Ellmann had me eating out of her hand ... 182 pages of chortling, misty-eyed delight ... Delicious, delicate confection ... Ellmann's writing is richly imaginative -- Charlotte Moore * Spectator *
Like Lucky Jim, Mimi is a comic novel that climaxes in a bravura public address which does not go according to plan ... Not many people could write about a cloudless love affair with such aplomb -- Suzi Feay * Literary Review *
Author Bio
Born in Illinois, Lucy Ellmann was dragged to England as a teenager. Her first novel, Sweet Desserts, won the Guardian Fiction Prize. It was followed by Varying Degrees of Hopelessness, Man or Mango? A Lament, Dot in the Universe and Doctors & Nurses. She now lives in Edinburgh.