Rating: 
Summary: ocd, axes and kindergarten=fantastic
Review: I have personally suffered ocd. Having read a brief synopsis of the novel (which I just finished reading) I can say that Bender has truly grasped the feeling of ritualistic behavior. Not that this fact alone, either commends or degrades a novel, is a moot point. Subjective response is something novelists long ago ignored. What sets Bender's novel far apart from others is its love of human life and all of its idiosyncracies. Purchasing an axe, could well be considered a deviant desire to subvert the existing status quo. In Bender, it simply "IS". Sometimes the most severe of human obsessions can be over analyized. Bender understands this and goes with the flow.
Many people will ridicule this novel as being non-authentic (i.e. the second grade characters don't "speak" like second graders.
Why should novels purport to be anything but unreality? As real as characters may seem in your mind, that doesn't mean that the logical flow of life should assume such straight-jacketed roles. Novels are (in essence) fiction! Bender has simply illuminated the unknown. Those strange crevices that miners are too afraid to burrow in to. If you love DeLillo, you should equally love Bender. Remember...Novels are an alternate reality. A reality that will soon be surpassed by other novelists. Her writing is so journalistic in essence, that it is difficult to divorce fiction from reality. Drown...Float within the words, except her world. Life is much better with it.
Rating:
Summary: A search for emotional truth through the veil of OCD
Review: I see they improved the cover for the tpb edition. The hardcover version gave me the heebs!Mona teaches second-grade math and enjoys the ordered world of numbers as she wrestles with the chaos of her feelings about her family and her life. She tries to exert some control though knocking on wood and other obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Occasionally the intricacy or cleverness of the words gets in the way of the story and the character development, but overall this is an enjoyable, well-written book. The characters are fascinating and we get to know both the details of their lives and the emotional landscapes that either shore them up or undermine them. The author places special emphasis on people who are able to notice the truth beyond someone's facade. As the characters develop they are able to see through each other's facades to the "invisible sign"s of the title. Mona's love of numbers gives the book an intriguing framework, but it is the emotional truths that the characters bring out in each other that makes this such a rewarding novel.
Rating: 
Summary: OCD can be boring, too!
Review: I got a gift certificate for my birthday and bought this book based on the reviews at this site. I was bitterly disappointed. Like a lot of people, I like to read books about people struggling with psychological disorders because it's fascinating to realize that a lot of the stuff that people do that we think is crazy actually has a pretty logical (if not entirely effective) thought process behind it. In our attempt to understand odd behavior from another person's perspective, we grow to appreciate the person and feel connected to them. This simply does not happen with Mona Gray. She's annoying- but characters are allowed to be annoying if they are interesting. This character finds a way to be both annoying and utterly boring. The contention that she is a "brilliant schoolteacher" is ridiculous- there's just no way a bunch of kids would think she was such a prize, even with her supposedly fascinating game of "numbers and materials". I know a lot of people seemed to really like this book, so I guess there must be something to it, but I would not recommend buying it. Satisfy your curiousity at the library.
Rating:
Summary: A Review of An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender
Review: An Invisible Sign of My Own explores the vulnerable
psyche of a young woman in suburbia struggling to make
sense of the disordered world she inhabits.
Mona Grey is clearly a young woman with "problems":
constant knocking on wood, quitting as soon as she
develops a fondness or skill for any activity, and a
sick father with a unknown illness which started her
knocking & quitting in the first place. Mona also has
a little obsession with numbers, a central theme in
this book.
The three chapters in this short, highly imaginative
novel, entitled 20, 50, and 42, respectively, set us
up to see her world through her eyes, labeling and
reducing life to a numerical value -- her own
semilogical way of taking control of her life, and of
explaining why weird, horrible things happen at
random. Numbers made of wax found on front lawns are
harbingers of death (a zero was found on the front
lawn of a neighbors house; the next day their infant
child dies)and her former math teacher uses these same
numbers to rate his mood( he was a 42 today!).
Appropriately enough, at the start of the novel, Mona
takes a job as math teacher at her former grammar
school. Her love of numbers inspires 2nd graders to
see numbers in nature, and on their bodies, which
leads two of her students to act out one of Mona'a own
violent fantasies.
An Invisible Sign of My Own takes a jab at
suburban life. This is a town reminiscent of Donald
Antrim's Elect Mr. Robinson For A Better World( a
severed arm encased in glass is proudly displayed at
the town's hospital as their, "first surgery")The odd
cast of character's Bender creates have difficulties
connecting with one another, as if they all have
their own idiosyncratic ways of seeing the world that
do not overlap. The love story between Mona and the
Science teacher (who, incidently, wears a shirt which
says "science") is not overly sentimental, but a rare
connection between two people in a confusing, unstable
world.
Rating:
Summary: a great weekend getaway
Review: I really enjoyed this book, although I was expecting more. Actually I was expecting less. Bender has a talent with characters. All her characters have LOADS of personality. I think they are better suited to short stories than a novel. (The Girl in the Flammable skirt is wonderful.) In a novel it is just overwelming, like quirky-personality overload. The kids especially bothered me. They all were so bratty that I just wanted to put the book down, or spank them or something. Then I reallized that they are second-graders, and thus supposed to be bratty. Once I got over that I really enjoyed the story.
Mona is so honest about how she feels, what she thinks/dreams. I truely felt as if I was in someone's mind. The story is intriguing, all though not fully solved by then end. And I really had that "what could possibly come next" feeling that kept me reading until I was done, no breaks. I read this one in just a day, and it was a day well spent. I finished feeling like i'd just gotten back from a vacation. I'll definatly be sharing this one with friends. As a side note, I'd recomend listening to Liz Phair while reading this. Both have that brutal honesty about what it is like to be a young woman, with a little bit of fantasy thrown in. It seemed so fitting that i kept playing the same cds over and over.
Rating:
Summary: quirky quitter
Review: Aimee Bender's _An Invisible Sign of My Own_ chronicles the misadventures of Mona Gray, an early twentysomething elementary school math teacher. Mona's dad has a mysterious illness. Mona's 2nd grade class loves "Numbers and Materials," a special show-and-tell style activity in which children bring in number-shaped objects they've found in nature. Mona knocks on wood, literally knocks on wooden objects, every chance she gets. Mona calls herself a quitter. Once a successful runner, she quit. She may have a tendency to sabotage herself just when she's doing well. Mona buys herself an axe on her 20th birthday. Mona eats soap. I think Mona has a crush on the science teacher, who has burns all over his arms (and once wears a shirt with SCIENCE in block orange letters). There is oddness everywhere in this fantasy-like story, from the hospital with the blue glass elevator to the hardware-store owner who wears a waxen number (a different waxen number, personally made) each day, depending on how he feels (some days he feels like a 12, some days like a 15. ok?) Mona's pupils are equally quirky. Lisa Venus, James Beeze, and Elmer Gravlaky are curious children indeed. They LOVE numbers and materials, and they've all got their little strange behaviors, but they act like children. The classroom scenes are FUNNY. The kids sass each other and the teacher in quite realistic fashion. This book was recommended to me by a friend, someone who seemingly has excellent taste in books, and I was not disappointed. It seems like a fantasy, a fairy tale, sometimes. There is a lack of realistic detail almost everywhere. But most of the dialogue and something else intangible about the story rings true... I can't quite put my finger on it. The story is very enjoyable, I'll give it that. This story is slight and quick-- I read it very quickly... and I recommend you take a look also. ken32
Rating: 
Summary: Unlike Anything Else I've Read
Review: I absolutely adore this book. As a reader and huge fan of Bender's short stories, I had been looking forward to her first novel and wasworried that it wouldn't live up to my great expectations. What unfounded fears! The book is funny, original, and full of astute observations about what it's like to be alive. Mona, like Bender, herself, charmed me, intrigued me, and left me wanting more. She does with language what no else can do - giving voices to human fears and frailties in prose that makes reading a joy-ride. Do yourself a great big favor and buy this book!
Rating:
Summary: Trust
Review: I love Bender's writing, both her stories and this novel, because she trusts in the power of what's NOT revealed. I've read one too many books/stories that leave me shrieking "Enough already! I... get it!!!"
Bender has a gorgeous reverence for the unconscious, and it's a joy to read something that isn't entirely based on the connection between the intellect/cultural awareness of the writer and the reader--I don't feel like she's trying to connect with her characters or her readers on a purely conscious, orchestrated level.
I think it's interesting that there aren't many middle-of-the-road reviews for Bender--in my opinion, this is a sign that she's onto something significant and complicated--art that might be uncomfortable for those who prefer to have everything explained to them.
Bender's writing seems to elicit comparisons to fairy tales. I would have to agree--especially in the way that fairy tales are so very loaded, and the way they both tap into and reflect the unconscious.
Love the novel.
Rating:
Summary: Trust
Review: I love Bender's writing, both her stories and this novel, because she trusts in the power of what's NOT revealed. I've read one too many books/stories that leave me shrieking "Enough already!
Bender has a gorgeous reverence for the unconscious, and it's a joy to read something that isn't entirely based on the connection between the intellect/cultural awareness of the writer and the reader--I don't feel like she's trying to connect with her characters or her readers on a purely conscious, orchestrated level.
I think it's interesting that there aren't many middle-of-the-road reviews for Bender--in my opinion, this is a sign that she's onto something significant and complicated--art that might be uncomfortable for those who prefer to have everything explained to them.
Bender's writing seems to elicit comparisons to fairy tales. I would have to agree--especially in the way that fairy tales are so very loaded, and the way they both tap into and reflect the unconscious.
Love the novel.
Rating:
Summary: It Just Kept Going
Review: I hate giving this novel a bad review because I really enjoyed Bender's short stories, but this novel is just awful. Aimee is trying to accomplish too much. She has too many characters (and none of them are ever filled in completely) with conflicts that are either shallow or stupid. Basically, I don't think Bender can pull off her cuteness in long form. It just got old after awhile. I just wanted her to get down to business, but she continued to skim over the relationships between all her characters in favor of cutesy situations. The protagonists of Bender's tales are starting to meld together into a big nutty mess. Cover it with sweetness and it makes a good candy bar, but it makes a terrible story.
There were a lot of chapters in this novel where nothing happens. And there were chapters where a lot happens and you're left thinking, "who cares." Mona eats soap: who cares. She buys an axe: so what. She sees a movie and kisses the science teacher: big deal. Am I supposed to believe that a character who goes around knocking on wood throughout an entire novel is interesting? I mean, that was the only characteristic that didn't make Mona Gray cliché. Booooooooorrrrring! Step out the door and throw a rock and you'll hit any number of psychotic women who think their lives are unfulfilling and are unwilling to make the effort to change. I certainly don't want to read about one. Which is another thing: Mona comes from a clean, nice suburban middle-class household. She's handed a great job (even though she isn't qualified for it). She has three squares a day and a stressless day to day routine. Yet, she acts like the world is crashing down. Please! I'm sick of whining, moaning Monas in novels, stories and movies. Get over it, ladies. The world doesn't end because Walgreens ran out of Raspberry lip balm.
Don't make the same mistake I did: do yourself a favor and skip this novel in favor of something worth reading. Two suggestions: What's Eating Gilbert Grape by Peter Hedges or The Burning Women of Far Cry by Rick Demarinis. Both feature a disgruntled first-person narrative, but with real conflicts and interesting insights.
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