Product Description

Skipper, an ex-World War II naval Lieutenant and the narrator of Second Skin, interweaves past and present—what he refers to as his "naked history"—in a series of episodes that tell the story of a volatile life marked by pitiful losses, as well as a more elusive, overwhelming, joy. The past: the suicides of his father, wife and daughter, the murder of his son-in-law, a brutal rape, and subsequent mutiny at sea. The present: caring for his granddaughter on a "northern" island where he works as an artificial inseminator of cows, and attempts to reclaim the innocence with which he faced the tragedies of his earlier life. Combining unflinching descriptions of suffering with his sense of beauty, Hawkes is a master of nimble and sensuous prose who makes the awful and mundane fantastic, and occasionally makes the fantastic surreal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #612624 in Books
• Published on: 2005-11-28
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

Saul Bellow
John Hawkes is an extraordinary writer. I have always admired his books. They should be more widely read.

William H. Gass
From the first, John Hawkes's prose has sounded what Henry James would have said was 'the right note.'

About the Author
John Hawkes (1925-1998), was born in Stamford, Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard in 1949, and went on to teach English at Brown University. His highly experimental works—complex, ambiguous, and grimly humorous—blend everyday reality with menacing hallucinations. He is considered to be one of America's most innovative and experimental writers. Former student of John Hawkes and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides, Jeffrey Eugenides has contributed a preface that he wrote as a eulogy, and read at Hawkes' memorial service in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1998.

Customer Reviews

More than skin deep
Second Skin is a lyrical, difficult but ultimately rewarding novel. It focuses on Skipper, the narrator, who simply tries to survive a series of life tragedies ranging from being the victim of a mutiny to losing his wife and daughter to suicide.

To say these things is not to give away the plot. Because Skipper does not tell his story in a linear fashion, we know what will happen from the beginning. The pleasure is in listening to the narrative voice tell his "naked history" (as Skipper calls it).

John Hawkes is an under-appreciated writer and a brilliant prose stylists. For anyone who loves to read beautiful sentences, this book is highly recommended.