Miss Jane

Brad Watson

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Reader Score

78%

78% of readers

recommend this book

Critic Reviews

Good

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Nominee:National Book Award -Fiction (2016)

Since his award-winning debut collection of stories, Last Days of the Dog-Men, Brad Watson has been expanding the literary traditions of the South in work as melancholy, witty, strange, and lovely as any in America. Drawing on the true story of his great-aunt, he explores the life of Miss Jane Chisolm, born in rural, early-twentieth-century Mississippi with a genital birth defect that excludes her from the roles traditional for a woman of her time and place and frees her to live her life as she pleases. With irrepressible vitality and generosity of spirit, Miss Jane mesmerizes those around her, exerting an unearthly fascination that lives beyond her still.

Book Details

Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Publish Date: Jul 11st, 2017
Pages: 304
Language: English
Edition: undefined - undefined
Dimensions: 8.20in - 5.40in - 0.80in - 0.45lb
EAN: 9780393354386
Categories: • Literary• Biographical & Autofiction• Women

About the Author

Watson, Brad: - Brad Watson was the National Book Award shortlisted author of Last Days of the Dog Men, The Heaven of Mercury, and Miss Jane. Originally from Mississippi, at the time of his death he was a professor of literature and creative writing at the University of Wyoming.

Critics’ reviews

Praise for this book

Watson infuses the story with curiosity, uncertainty, and, not unlike Jeffrey Eugenides's Middlesex, a certain wildness.--Aditi Sriram "Washington Post"

This is a pine knot of a novel, hard and durable, and the sap it leaches is mercy.--Jonathan Miles "Garden and Gun"

A story worth telling even as it breaks your heart.--Amy Brady "Chicago Review of Books"

[Jane's] fearless acceptance of what sets her apart is profoundly human, and her lifelong struggle to understand her place in the world reflects the intricate workings of our own mysterious hearts.--Gina Webb "Atlanta Journal-Constitution"

Miss Jane is an especially timely novel for right now, when so much of our turmoil is dependent on how we view the Other, whether it be because of race, sexuality, religion, or where someone was born. It's also a novel that thrums with beauty, melancholy, and desire.--Silas House "Salon"

Miss Jane is one of the quieter, more beautiful books I've read in years...Set in rural Mississippi, it's a story of an isolated woman who makes meaning and finds beauty in her circumscribed world.--Emily Nemens, author of The Cactus League

Exquisitely written. Miss Jane is an artistic triumph, a novel that will linger inside you as long as your own memories do. Brad Watson's gifts are immense.--Andre Dubus III, author of Dirty Love

I want to state this as clearly as I can: I believe Miss Jane to be a masterpiece of American literature. It is as remarkable as any book to ever come out of the South.--M.O. Walsh "The Paris Review"

As Watson arcs through the story of Jane's life in sensitive, beautifully precise prose, we are both absorbed and humbled.-- "Library Journal (starred review)"

A well-written portrait of a person whose rich inner life outstrips the limits of her body.-- "Kirkus Reviews"