The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli [2008] - Ginnetta Correli

"They stare together at the powder-blue sky. Both seem entranced by the small cradles of water and are comforted by the water's healing power to clean away all the hurts and disappointments they have felt together in the past, the present and maybe the future."

"It is the human that is the alien,/The human that has no cousin in the moon./It is the human that demands his speech/From beasts or from the incommunicable mass./If there must be a god in the house, let him be one/That will not hear us when we speak: a coolness,/A vermilioned nothingness, any stick of the mass/Of which we are too distantly a part." —Wallace Stevens

The first thing that intrigued me about The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli was the disorienting cover. Then I opened the book and immediately discovered a great quote from Kafka: "To begin to understand is the first sign of a wish to die." So I knew I was in for a wild journey and Beatie Scareli delivered! 

Alternately humorous, disturbing, surreal, heartbreaking and downright bleak, this haunting novel explores fragments of a troubled childhood trapped in a highly dysfunctional family during the 1970s. What better way for a confused girl growing up in a time of "The Brady Bunch" and "All in the Family" to try to make sense of her world by escaping into the comforting world of sitcoms? However, reality keeps rearing its ugly head in the form of mental illness, alcoholism, neglect and sexual abuse as the narrator tries to make sense and survive in a world gone mad. The television script format ("The Cast of Lost People in My Life," along with 42 episodes such as "Holiday with the Ricardos" and "Little Ricky Gets Kidnapped") is an ideal method of exploring illusions vs. reality as the ideal "I Love Lucy" American family unravels into a nightmare of madness and despair.

In fact, as I read Beatie Scareli, I kept thinking of Frank Conroy's Stop-Time, particularly a quote from the memoir: "My faith in the firmness of time slips away gradually. I begin to believe that chronological time is an illusion and that some other principle organizes existence. My memories flash like clips of film from unrelated movies. I wonder, suddenly, if I am alive. I know I'm not dead, but am I alive? I look into the memories for reassurance, searching for signs of life."

Bottom line: The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli is one of the most original novels I've read in years. If you want to be challenged, if you desire to experience a range of emotions, if you are seeking something totally offbeat, check out Beatie Scareli. If you want simple mind-numbing escapism, I suggest you look elsewhere, maybe the Twilight saga. 

For more information about The Lost Episodes of Beatie Scareli and how to purchase a copy of the book, visit www.beatiescareli.com.