The Ecstatic

by Victor LaValle and Victor La Valle

Book Overview

Something is wrong with Anthony, and it's getting worse. Schizophrenia runs in his family's blood, picking off an uncle here, a mother there, and has now found a home in Anthony's mind. The women in his life -- his mother, sister, and grandmother -- bring him home to Queens and try to fix him, but his presence slowly turns their home into a semi-suburban asylum.Anthony narrates the skewed story of his family's surreal adventures in an exploitative...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0609610147
• ISBN13: 9780609610145
• Release Date: November 2002
• Publisher: Crown Publishing Group (NY)
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

The flickering light

The Ecstatic is one of those novels that should not be read by anyone outside of the intended audience and I believe in this instance that audience is comprised of english majors, aspiring writers, professional book reviewers, and others like me who function under the delusion they are much more erudite than the evidence would otherwise suggest. While I have reservations regarding comparisons of authors and texts, the primary character of this story, Anthony James, is reminiscent of other literary creations such as Winston Foshay from Paul Beatty's Tuff, Ignatius Reilly of Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces, and even Salinger's Holden Caulfield from The Catcher in the Rye. Anthony is an imposing characterization in every sense. As we learn early on, he has inherited the family's singular legacy - mental illness- and the story takes the reader along on the tragic-comic journey to the affliction's inevitable victory over that which most of us would view as normalized existence. By mere size (substantially north of 300 pounds), Anthony has the capacity to intimidate, but often in his self-conscious, introspectively critical manner, he is oblivious to that fact. He is brilliant yet only tangentially functional in any environment, living in the basement of the home owned by his 93 year old grandmother and also inhabited by his equally instable mother and Nabisase, his constantly seeking and searching 13 year old sister. Along the way, a mélange of inarguably dysfunctional, most often darkly humorous people are introduced however not surprisingly, only superficially expanded in a story narrated by a twenty-three year old, increasingly non-plussed by the reactions of others but equally as ill-prepared to personally take any steps to extricate himself from the widening abyss. And it does not take long to realize that if he is destined to recover, his assistance will not come from his immediate family, each of whom is clearly too consumed with their personal battles, literal and figurative, to offer any more assistance than the initial act of spiriting him away from reclusiveness in Ithaca, N.Y. would demand. As demonstrated in Slapboxing with Jesus, Victor Lavalle's perceptive view of society and culture is on display here. Through utilization of simile, allegorical imagery and in many cases, unencumbered declaratives, he brings a searing beam to a wide range of subjects including poverty, education, societal obsession, marginalization, multiculturalism, familial dynamics and most prominently, the concept of sanity. The Ecstatic is a wonderful read for anyone seeking intelligent writing with enticing phrasing in a linear story filled with sub-text. Conversely, if your tastes gravitate towards a feel good tale where resolution is never in doubt, there are plenty of other works out there for sampling.

Tired of the bull

I'm writing because I'm just concerned, straight up, with some of the reviews this novel has been given by people who meant well but, if I'm being honest, simply can't give other people a fair minded picture of this spectacular novel. First of all, IT'S NOT CONFUSING!!!!!!!! I can't say that enough. The problem is that if you've only been used to eating candy your whole life you're not going to know how to take a steak. Some of the people who've posted before me have been talking about how the novel loses them at times, but if you're used to reading smart fiction, even slightly literary, then you can breeze through this book. In fact, at times you'll have to slow down because you're enjoying the poetry of the language so much that you forget to take notice of the story. Are we ever going to just come out and say you should have to take an IQ test in order to read certain books? Probably not, but maybe we should. I mean, I don't think great literature means that it's got to be confusing, but I get mad when I see good, decent folks trying to pretend that just because there's not a straightforward romance going on the book is Finnegan's Wake! Of course, I realize that now I've made nothing but an in joke, but what saddens me the most is that there are people for whom that reference was over their heads. My god, the state of American readers is dismal. Okay, I shouldn't turn this review into nothing but a big complaining session so let me tell you that I haven't read a book this ambitious and profound in ten years. Imagine a novel that tries to be funny and heartbreaking at the same time, sometimes in the same line. I put this book down feeling like I'd discovered my eyes after years of being blind. It just made me so happy to see that this painful and touching novel was actually published.

A long, strange trip

The first thing that struck me about "The Ecstatic" is that the writing is really of very high quality. Lavalle is a master of character description, and brings the eccentric characters in this story vividly to life. I suppose the backbone of the plot is that our hero is on a journey of self-discovery, and in the process finds himself in some hilarious and sometimes dangerous situations. I don't know to what extent this novel is actually autobiographical, but it makes me wonder. Overall, a very entertaining and somewhat surreal read. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".

Bif! Bam! Boom!

This book hit me so hard, but I couldn't put it down. What is it about families that keeps creating great literature. They just contain this energy. Victor LaValle tapped into that and put it on the page. What I liked was that sometimes I was laughing along, thinking this was just a big book of jokes and then, BIF! BAM! BOOM! he'd have a scene that broke my heart. Then he'd go right back to the funny stuff. Wow. I never really thought you could do that without losing the momentum. I missed the people in it right after I closed the book. It's just a book for anyone who cares at all about seeing real human beings in fiction.

Wonderful !

This is one of the best books I've read in quite some time. Experiencing an individuals descent into madness is a topic not often handled with such grace and dark humor it's done here with the off-handed skill of a great talent I look forward to reading future works by this author.