Their faces of children: A novel

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: Their Faces of Children is a post-modern portrayal of a couple plagued by problems rooted in the traumas they both experienced as children. Readers are given a kaleidoscopic vantage into the fractured adult realities of the central characters, Maddy and Rolen, through a variety of genres and several points of view. Whether riding alongside Rolen as he drives into town naked, experiencing the cold fingers which violate Maddy's childhood, waiting with her for Rolen while she strikes a match to burn unfinished letters or visiting his father's funeral from Rolen's boyhood point of view, readers should expect a bumpy, disjointed journey through jagged-edged splinters of the characters' lives. Might therapy help? "Could be," their psychologist, Dr. Labia, interjects before spitting tobacco into a cup. "Yee-hah!" But, then again, from the couch there is always the matter about whether to open or close the window . . .

The novel is prefaced by a brief critical introduction detailing the influence of Melville's Moby Dick, Joyce's Ulysses, and Barth's Lost in the Funhouse upon the various techniques and construction utilized within it.