Fiction. Five stories-several as long as novellas-introduce the world to Jen Geo
rge, a writer whose furiously imaginative new voice calls to mind Donald Barthel
me and Leonora Carrington no less than Kathy Acker and Chris Kraus. In "Guidance
/The Party," an ethereal alcoholic "Guide" in robes and flowing hair appears to
help a thirty- three-year-old woman prepare a party for her belated adulthood; "
Take Care of Me Forever" tragically lambasts the medical profession as a ship of
fools afloat in loneliness and narcissism; "Instruction" chronicles a season in
an unconventional art school called The Warehouse, where students divide their
time between orgies, art critiques, and burying dead racehorses. Combining slaps
tick, surrealism, erotica, and social criticism, Jen George's sprawling creative
energy belies the secret precision and unexpected tenderness of everything she
writes.
