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Great Expectations

By Kathy Acker
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Great Expectations by Kathy Acker is a bold and experimental reimagining of classic narratives, challenging conventional storytelling. Through its protagonist, the book combines themes of identity, rebellion, and the exploration of social norms with Acker's signature punk style. Its raw and avant-garde approach weaves together literary pastiche, personal narrative, and cultural critique.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$2400
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you enjoy experimental and avant-garde narratives that explore themes of identity and power through a provocative and unconventional storytelling approach. A writer known for defying literary norms offers a unique reinterpretation of classic literature, infused with her rebellious and subversive style. If you're drawn to bold and fearless narratives, this might just be the read you're looking for.

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Great Expectations

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Great Expectations by Kathy Acker features Pip switching identities, sexes, and centuries in a brilliant experimental explosion of literature, sex, and art.

New York City is very peaceful and quiet, and the pale grey mists are slowly rising, to show me the world.

Pip switches identities, sexes, and centuries in this punk, fairytale reimagining of Charles Dickens's original Great Expectations. Both familiar and unfamiliar, our orphaned narrator is transplanted to New York City in the 1980s; becoming, by turns, a sailor, a pirate, a rebel, and an outlaw, through adventures incorporating desire, creativity, porn, sadism, and art. This ribald explosion of literature, sex, and violence shows the literary anarchist Kathy Acker at her most brilliant and brave.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Kathy Acker's Great Expectations is praised for being her most accomplished and ambitious work, showcasing a revolutionary approach both in form and content. The narrative is noted for its emotional depth, blending warmth and skill, setting Acker apart in her ability to engage and challenge readers.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241352144

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 05 July 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 9.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 115g

Pages: 144

Collections

Fiction General Fiction Kathy Acker Literary Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Series: Penguin Modern Classics

About the Author

Kathy Acker was born in 1948 and was raised in New York. In her twenties she broke ties with her family and worked as a stripper, while writing and publishing with the underground literary scene. She burst into the mainstream with Blood and Guts in High School, which caused a sensation upon publication in 1987 - the book was banned in several countries. After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996, she abandoned Western medicine after a traumatic experience of surgery to treat the cancer, which was unsuccessful. She died in an alternative treatment centre in Tijuana, Mexico in 1997. Her major novels include Blood and Guts in High School, Great Expectations, Don Quixote and Pussy, King of the Pirates. A collection of her emails with McKenzie Wark was published in 2015, titled I'm Very into You.

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