The trouble with being born

Jeffrey DeShell

Literary fiction · Dark comedy

First published: 2008
Print length: 209 pagesFC2, 2008

Description

Jeffrey DeShell’s experimental novel follows an unnamed narrator attempting to make sense of a life that began without consent and refuses to settle into a coherent story. Childhood, family, sexuality, memory, and adulthood emerge in fragments, while changes in voice, chronology, and perspective repeatedly unsettle the authority of autobiography. Instead of treating identity as something gradually discovered, the book presents the self as an unstable construction shaped by language, other people, and the stories memory invents. Dark humor accompanies its more disquieting questions about consciousness and embodiment. The result is less a conventional life narrative than a formally restless inquiry into how anyone becomes—and remains—the person speaking.

Reading profile

About this profile

Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).

Writing: How much attention the sentences and language require.
Ideas: How much interpretation or abstract reasoning the book asks of you.
Structure: How much you need to keep track of speakers, timelines and connections.
Background knowledge: Prior knowledge needed to follow the book, beyond what it explains.
Emotional intensity: Emotional pressure, from gentle (1) to intense (5). Separate from difficulty.

Writing style

Dense · Experimental · Fragmentary · Stream of consciousness

Pace

Variable

Tone

Absurdist · Cerebral · Dark · Unsettling

Structure

Fragmented · Nonlinear

Focus

Character · Ideas · Voice

Emotional intensity

4 / 5

Reading complexity

1–5 · higher means more demanding

Writing: 5 / 5
Ideas: 5 / 5
Structure: 5 / 5
Background knowledge: 2 / 5

Themes

FamilyIdentityKnowledge and truthMemoryMortalitySexuality

Book details

For the print edition listed above.

Publisher: FC2
Language: English
ISBN: 9781573661416

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