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Drenched

Marisa Matarazzo

2010247 pagesabout 4–6 hours
2010
first published
  • 2010Soft Skull Press · 247 pages · ENGISBN 9781593762711
  • 2010Counterpoint Press · 256 pages · ENGISBN 9781593763756

Two lovers accidentally create a love potion while making a batch of Jell-O. An apartment is filled with water as an act of gravity-defying devotion to an acrobat. At turns blissful, absurd, sexy, and devastating, Marisa Matarazzo's stories don't just push the boundaries of love--they show how very boundless it is. These interconnected shorts take love to a new level--another world, where a sex fever can sweep a town and where sex acts are performed tied to the raised mast of a sailboat. Falling into love, swimming, and drowning in it, the characters often exist in places where land and water collide and morph. A girl without hands is rescued from the sea by an oil-rig worker. A boy transplants a fish into the body of a menacing neighbor. A woman on the rebound has an unexpected encounter with an otherworldly water engineer. Fusing magical realism and fantasy with the heart of the here and now, Matarazzo has established a singular style. As she shifts effortlessly among startling plotlines and peculiar characters, she celebrates the fluid sorcery of love--in its ardor, its ugliness, all of its uncanny and magnificent manifestations, proclaiming love the most wondrous magic of all.

How it reads

CommitmentQuick escape

Worth knowing

Romance levelCentral

When and where

Reading situationCommuteWaiting
ThemesLove
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