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system of body contortions, and takes the opportunity to address the reader. Like her estranged husband before her (whom she purportedly assisted in relegating to a hole in her backyard), Jane takes a turn at narration, providing for the novel's conclusion; addressing her husband with ultimatums and effrontery, the reader sees life from the last member of the core Marcus-family trinity, at which point the reader is left to draw her or his own conclusions.
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belongs, is facing issues of endangerment due to the largely unsuccessful breeding procedures involving Ben and the growing number of its member that are reaching a stillness level, which makes them obsolete. Jane Marcus, too, is nearing complete and utter emotional obliteration, using a complex
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family, which shares the author's surname. The Marcus family, owning four members, lives on a farm outside of an unnamed town; the reader encounters narration from three of those members, and is led through a seemingly implausible and temporally confusing description of the life events of the
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With that, Ben Marcus (the author) launches into a lengthy first-person narration with Ben Marcus as guide, allowing the reader to decide if, and how, any of the words can be trusted. Playing with the
English language in such a manner that his work has drawn comparison's to
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allows the reader to delve into the mind of a well-meaning but obtuse young man, to glimpse into his turbulent upbringing full of radical experimentation and forced-breeding (among other things) and, possibly, to become attached.
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with several warnings – most notably, that his own offspring, Ben, may very well be mentally handicapped – and ponders reflectively, "How can one word from Ben Marcus's rotten, filthy heart be trusted?"
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When asked about his sharing a name with the main character and if the book was supposed to be autobiographical, Marcus responded "My family was very loving and I've never been to Ohio."
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Widely applauded not just for his imaginative story but his ingenious wordplay, Ben Marcus's first novel received acclaim despite little mainstream attention. Since producing
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In the end, the feminist
Silentist group, to which Ben's mother
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Michael Marcus (the father of Ben Marcus, the character) opens
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The novel, written as a follow-up to Marcus's literary debut,
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Notable
American Women, 1607–1950; A Biographical Dictionary
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41:Relevant discussion may be found on the
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277:and published in March 2002.
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408:Novels set in Ohio
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