Accidental Species

I absolutely loved this book. The first section I was so motivated that I whipped out my binder and started looking up words and images that I didn't know and wrote them down in order to better understand the hodge-podge of words in the first chapter. I think the usage of the varied sentence structure and word placement serves to create the feeling of the words just washing over you; the end result is that the details both enhance and push you away, like waves. In particular, I loved the repetition of the phrase, "on the day the space shuttle flew overhead," and its changing in order to reflect the sexual nature of each stanza. I never knew sexual inuendos could be so cleverly hidden and yet obvious at the same time, but Kass Fleisher manages to do it with style.

Throughout the rest of the book, she captivates using varying structure of her sentences and seemingly random word choices in order to create an overall meaning. One of my favorite parts was when she somewhat mocks the traditional structure of a novel, saying: "In the beginning-- she said, relinquishing herself to our cultural need to establish endpoints and origins over and over... (Fleisher 47)" It is in this manner that she continues to question and ridicule a traditional and accepted form of the novel and creates her own version in a book that I thought was amazing and thought-provoking.