The Stories of Devil-Girl

By Anya Achtenberg

Book Overview

"Achtenberg is a cutting-edge voice in the literature of the postglobalization age, an era in which we are uprooted geographically and spiritually, and redefining what it means to be home. What a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 193269062X
• ISBN13: 9781932690620
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Modern History Press
• Length: 128 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Original and intense

Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (10/09) "The Stories of Devil-Girl" by Anya Achtenberg is Book #1 in the Reflections of America Series of books published by Loving Healing Press. This series "highlights autobiography, fiction, and poetry which express the quest to discover one's context within modern society." Achtenberg's book fits the series description to a tee, completely embodying the entire statement. The book is "dedicated to all who were easily discarded, demonized, and widely underestimated." It is explained that the stories are prose fiction with much being autobiographical. A lot of the content is sad and disturbing such as the author stating that her first memory is of someone trying to strangle her in her crib when she was a baby. Achtenberg's style of writing is quite unique and just to give you a feel for her originality here is an excerpt from one of the stories entitled "Pictures": "There are things that even I can't say, Devil-mouth, Devil-tongue, from the dictionary of barb and heat and nakedness. Born in a cab, but I can't get one these days. My harpy cry of `Taxi!' falls flat, as if being born once- in the big old Checker- were enough. One look back at my costume, and most know I am no paying customer. Pouches of pockets swaying open with shadow. Soles of my shoes racing to catch up with my stride. Others raise one arm and the journey swings open the door to its sweet center, but all I can do is turn my back and allow the world its ride." (p. 41) The entire book is composed of artistic passages such as this one. Each individual story is filled with intensity and depth. Achtenberg's writing is powerful and really commands the reader's attention. The poetic language can be difficult to decipher at times and I did end up re-reading a few stories here and there to try and fully comprehend the author's meaning. I really enjoyed the originality though and if you are looking for something different, not another "cookie-cutter" book, then "The Stories of Devil-Girl" would definitely be one to try!

Poetic Tale of Devil-Girl is Rich, Harsh, and Hopeful

Reading Anya Achtenberg's novella "The Stories of Devil-Girl" is a unique experience. Describing "The Stories of Devil-Girl" is difficult. Readers really need to experience the language for themselves. To give a taste of the style, here is a passage from the novel's opening when Devil-Girl describes the circumstances of her birth in New York: I was born here as the one I had violated during another lifetime, I'm sure of it. I was born here to walk the avenue between life and death. To fill out the forms of denial. To rave in the road and stop traffic with my stillness, as some do with their anger. To prowl the bootless alleyways, to drink the spoiled fluids of men. To flail beneath the Devil. To sprout breasts in the lunar lots of Bushwick, where the maws of an old Frigidaire caught my friend Penelope and she froze to a fetus, knees to lips, gray fists clenched. Devil-Girl's first memory is of someone trying to strangle her--someone she later believes must be the mother who clearly does not want her. Her father is not much more friendly. When she leaves home and begins giving men what they want so she can survive, she compares herself to the monster in Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" who was "unnatural, bereft of a determinable childhood." When Devil-Girl learns about Lilith, the woman in Jewish tradition depicted as Adam's first wife, driven from Eden as evil, she takes on a similar identity. Devil-Girl encounters perverts and sadists who relish the chance to use and abuse her. But despite her negative experiences, Devil-Girl has a hopeful spirit; she senses there is some good in her, and she becomes a kinder version of Lilith; while the mythical Lilith sought children to punish and kill, Devil-Girl will ultimately find others like her whom she can protect and nurture. Devil-Girl undergoes many trials. She suffers, she questions life, and she finds irony in the way her mother calls upon God and he answers by fulfilling her curses. Devil-Girl knows no one will pray for her, so she decides to learn how to pray herself, but ultimately, she learns self-reliance. She is Jewish--she knows those who have escaped the holocaust, seen the numbers tattooed on their arms. But a young man who wants to fight for Israel tells her, she has done nothing for their people--he calls her "Lilith" and "Whore of Babylon." Devil-Girl, however, comes to realize her people are not limited to Jews but to anyone who has suffered like her. Ultimately, writing becomes Devil-Girl's salvation. She leaves New York; she travels somewhat aimlessly, but eventually, she finds hope in "the summer of the Minnesota Plains." She gets an education and becomes a teacher. She shares her story with others; she encourages her students. She realizes she is a miracle. The novella's plot is not very complicated. What is complicated is the language, or rather it is complex, hyperbolic, poetic and forceful. A poetic life is built from a world of misery; Achtenberg's Devil-Girl is the quintess

Writing the World into Existence

Devil-Girl's insistent voice narrates that place, that anvil, where history, memory, race, and gender pound identity into place. In a voice by turns insistent, tender, outraged, and nurturing Achtenberg summons a voice the speaks through experience and extends hope.

The pain of the heart

Reading Anya Achtenberg is like a sculptor creating something beautiful out of a lump of hard, cold stone. The chips of pain fall away as the narrator slowly escapes the confines of her childhood. Piece by piece fall away revealing more and more truths about life. Not since reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls have I felt the pain and torment of this kind of childhood. Eventually as the real person evolves we see the freedom that is in the heart really revealed. Lovely!

Incandescent brilliance and effervescent honesty.

Anya Achtenberg wields words with the precision of a diamond cutter. The scalpel's edge of her pen cuts deep and true--to the heart, the soul, the bone. Devil-Girl flares through the murk of her world with an incandescent brilliance and effervescent honesty that will stay with you long after you put the book down. Compelling and poignantly triumphant.