3am Review
A REVIEW OF DIE TINKERBELL DIE BY SARAH MURPHY
"Also, despite the darkest corners of the experiences that we are privy to, there still comes across a sense of appreciation for the good that was there (the rare times that it was). Never self-pitying or self-congratulatory the narrator tells each story with a sense of humor and a quiet appreciation for having lived to tell the tale."
By Deborah Staab
COPYRIGHT © 2003, 3 A.M. MAGAZINE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Savage Beauty
Without pandering to or becoming a part of the victim culture, Sarah Murphy tells the story of her protagonist's tormented life in riveting, concise narratives. As bold, lyrical and thought out as a performance piece die tinkerbell die manages to also have the intimate feel of the diary of some one writing like she needs to empty her mind and heart before she loses them both.
Never clarifying what is real and what is fiction, Ms. Murphy tells her stories of growing up in New York with great skill. The first few pieces start simply enough, with emotions most people can relate to, like the discomfiting feeling of going to a cocktail party where you feel out of place. Ms. Murphy then takes the reader, changing the mood word by word, into her world where things are not what they first appear to be and memory can be slippery. Her stories are painful and stunning in their honesty. I don't want list the myriad of topics that are touched upon and written about with more eloquence than most mainstream writers have been able to muster, but I will say that the small portion that concerns September 11th re-humanized an event that, for me, had been co-opted by so many organizations and political groups as to drain the meaning from the lives that were lost. Also, despite the darkest corners of the experiences that we are privy to, there still comes across a sense of appreciation for the good that was there (the rare times that it was). Never self-pitying or self-congratulatory the narrator tells each story with a sense of humor and a quiet appreciation for having lived to tell the tale.
The lack of punctuation and unusual trim size of the book may irritate some readers but these are small complaints for such a fine piece of writing. Ms. Murphy has created this book as part of a cycle called 26 Nutmeg Mews. It is published by Spout Publications and can be purchased through The Word Hoard.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Debbie Staab works in medical publishing for a large university press. She lives in her native New York and is a fiction editor for 3AM Magazine.
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