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Rating: 
Summary: give it another chance!
Review: I disagree with a number of the previous reviewers. I think Acker uses her style effectively to drive a point home. She is rewriting the canon from a perspective of pain and oppression and her way of doing this is by attacking the very language that aids in her oppression. Janie must relearn language in her own way, hence we watch this process begin through drawings and a relaearning of the alphabet and finally a reconstruction and retelling of well known tales (e.g. The Scarlet Letter). Rather than being only dark and painful, I found the end to be somewhat uplifting by offering a glimmer of hope through the banding together of society's castoffs. It's a difficult book, but I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in seeing what happens when an author attempts to rewrite a personal history and in doing so urges us all to deconstruct our own narratives.
Rating: 
Summary: Couldn't force myself to finish it
Review: I liked _Empire of the Senseless_ a lot and I have a bunch of her other books but this just seemed like something written by a 13 year old. Not sure what the point was other than to be as disgusting as possible (though that wouldn't bother me if the book had something else to offer.)
Rating: 
Summary: Tries too hard
Review: I read this novella for a postmodern fiction class and was disappointed with what I settled on as its purpose. This book, however successful in addressing the issue of the taboo (the pedophilia, incest, abuse), which, as I have skimmed articles related to the book, was one of Acker's intentions, was simply shock for the sake of shock. It seemed as if all the pictures were simply to shock, all the embarrassingly sleazy plotlines, and the non-traditional form, existed simply to be sleazy and non traditional. Who knows if this is a truth. All I know is I felt nothing but relief after finishing the novel, which I felt was wholly unreadable, as Acker may feel comfortable admitting.
Rating:
Summary: Tries too hard
Review: I read this novella for a postmodern fiction class and was disappointed with what I settled on as its purpose. This book, however successful in addressing the issue of the taboo (the pedophilia, incest, abuse), which, as I have skimmed articles related to the book, was one of Acker's intentions, was simply shock for the sake of shock. It seemed as if all the pictures were simply to shock, all the embarrassingly sleazy plotlines, and the non-traditional form, existed simply to be sleazy and non traditional. Who knows if this is a truth. All I know is I felt nothing but relief after finishing the novel, which I felt was wholly unreadable, as Acker may feel comfortable admitting.
Rating:
Summary: You will know her
Review: I see that many reviewers feel repulsed and perturbed by this novel's somewhat shocking content and unconventional narrative style. While I can understand that some of the content may offend potential readers, and that the de-emphasizing of the plot (as opposed to lack of plot..there is, in fact, some narrative progression here) may baffle them, I can still state quite certainly that this book is a moving and thoroughly enjoyable read. I found myself identifying with the novel's protagonist, and suspect that there may be a little bit of Janey in everyone. The final chapters of the book are the most moving, culminating in a genuinely captivating sequence of illustrations that are every bit as important as the preceding text. So in final analysis: Yes, this book switches format many times - from dramatic dialogue, to conventional text (which itself changes subject many times), to poetry, to illustration. Yes there are lots of references to genetalia, and yes there are distinctly feminist overtones throughout. However, none of this should stop anyone from picking the book up and giving it an openminded read. It is not as difficult as some reviewers have made it out to be, and the shocking elements are not, as one reviewer claimed, there for controversy's sake. Take a trip into the mind of little Janey. You'll be glad you did.
Rating:
Summary: This is not a book to be set aside lightly.
Review: Instead, it should be flung to the ground with great force. Acker is nothing more than a paedophile, a dirty old toothless man trapped in a woman's body. Comprehensively awful. Had a man written this, he would have been lynched instantly. Avoid at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: A Map of My Dreams-- by Janey
Review: Janey is a little girl wandering through a fantasy landscape of men who reject her-- her father, Jean Genet, the Persian Slave Trader, Tommy. This is a book communicating a world of pain-- the dialogues in the beginning between Janey and her father as he prepares to leave her for someone else carry the weight of the agony of someone being betrayed by someone so close and all the little lies and tricks we use to pull closer and push away. It's also a book about illness. Janey constantly has pain and infections and disease that cripple her, but she always pushes the physical pain to one side to focus on the men who she knows from the beginning are going to leave her. It is not the easiest book in the world to read-- the emotion, rather than the plot, is the thread that ties the book together. There's a section in the book which is a series of drawings by Janey that provide a map to her dreams. I used this map to give the reading experience a kind of structure and I found that thinking about the book as a dream landscape made the lack of narrative much less jarring.
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