Bad Brains

Rating:
Summary: The best novel to date dealing with the artistic process
Review: Bad Brains, which I was moved to purchase after reading a rave review by Linda Marotta, was the first book of Koja's that I ever read. I read it as slowly as possible, dreading the conclusion because it was so beautiful.

This isn't a novel for people seeking a good horror tale for two reasons. First, Koja is not a horror novelist, but because her books contain violent and often fantastic elements not seen in non-genre fiction, she is frequently referred to as one. Second, her books are powered by her magnificent prose, rather than by the usual story telling devices employed by Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz. With Koja, finding out what happens to the characters is less important than accompanying them on the journey. Her novels all deal with artists and their relationship with their art: her first novel, The Cipher, was about a poet; Bad Brains was about a painter; Skin was about a sculptor turned performance artist and Strange Angels was about a photographer.

Bad Brains tells the story of an artist named Austen Bandy who, after a nasty fall in a parking lot, suffers strange and powerful hallucinations and seizures, during which he sees and tastes a silvers sheen over everything. However, the book is mostly about the demands of art on its creator and how far he's willing to go for it.

It's a shame that it's out of print, but don't let that deterr you, look for it at auction sites and online used book sellers. It's worth it. Give Koja a few hours of your time and she'll change the way you view art.

Rating:
Summary: The best novel to date dealing with the artistic process
Review: Bad Brains, which I was moved to purchase after reading a rave review by Linda Marotta, was the first book of Koja's that I ever read. I read it as slowly as possible, dreading the conclusion because it was so beautiful.

This isn't a novel for people seeking a good horror tale for two reasons. First, Koja is not a horror novelist, but because her books contain violent and often fantastic elements not seen in non-genre fiction, she is frequently referred to as one. Second, her books are powered by her magnificent prose, rather than by the usual story telling devices employed by Stephen King and Dean R. Koontz. With Koja, finding out what happens to the characters is less important than accompanying them on the journey. Her novels all deal with artists and their relationship with their art: her first novel, The Cipher, was about a poet; Bad Brains was about a painter; Skin was about a sculptor turned performance artist and Strange Angels was about a photographer.

Bad Brains tells the story of an artist named Austen Bandy who, after a nasty fall in a parking lot, suffers strange and powerful hallucinations and seizures, during which he sees and tastes a silvers sheen over everything. However, the book is mostly about the demands of art on its creator and how far he's willing to go for it.

It's a shame that it's out of print, but don't let that deterr you, look for it at auction sites and online used book sellers. It's worth it. Give Koja a few hours of your time and she'll change the way you view art.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: I just finished rereading BAD BRAINS...it still speaks to me,
as an artist. The process of creation is often difficult,and
sometimes,as Austen,Koja's protagonist finds out,the artist
must travel through Hell to find inspiration. BAD BRAINS is
Koja's second book; there are no wasted words in Koja's
surreal prose. The characters are memorable and I am haunted
by the images she evokes. This book is both beautiful and
grotesque and very much worth reading...

Rating:
Summary: A terrifying look into self-disintegration and creation
Review: Starting from Cipher, Koja begins the journey that takes her further from extrinsic abnormality into the most intrinsic sicknesses of the sole. Kathy Koja is the best expressor of the postmodern equivalent of Sartre's Nausea - this book is essential to understanding how Koja came to write Skin, which is the ultimate prose poetry novel of angst.

Rating:
Summary: The Same As Before....
Review: This book could have been the story of my life. Still could be. I reviewed it four years ago -- and my review still stands, right there where I said it's probably the best book I've ever read. Buy it. It'll do you good.