clare louise harmon

"The Thingbody explores the edge of bearable female existence in an age of plenty: suicide attempt, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the requisite stint on the psychiatric ward which is both a prison and a safe space. The struggle to become vulnerable . . . is beautifully rent and rendered."--Maria Damon

"...a work the listening, reading world will talk about for a very long time."--Niyi Osundare

In the wake of an act of focused violence, a concert musician experiences an obsessive-compulsive breakdown that leads her into treatment. There, denied of her “ethical privilege of person,” she must assemble disparate elements—Western music, Continental philosophy, Herman Melville, and more—into a map of her escape route.

Blending a radical approach to rhythm and language with experiments in typography, interactivity, Claymation, and the limits of textual form, Clare Louise Harmon’s debut collection The Thingbody charts her titular heroine’s journey from trauma and self-destruction toward reality and God.

"This debut nearly shivers and shakes with an urgency to pound and press—to break alive—and move on. We can only hope Harmon does, to another and another book of such tremulous talent."--Michael Tod Edgerton

For more information, please see the book website here: http://www.instarbooks.com/books/the-thingbody.html