Defenestrate

Reviews

Stylish, shimmering . . . In a feat of literary archery, Branum’s lyrical prose hits its mark again and again . . . Evocative passages stud the novel like diamonds. The story cuts back and forth, brimming with suspense. It’s always a joy to see a writer dig confidently into her gifts, as Branum does in Defenestrate. Her characters may fear falling, but this novel soars. Branum is a taut storyteller who reveals and confides with great skill, in a narrative composed of addictive passages rather than conventional chapters . . . This hypnotic and philosophical debut considers the act of defenestration as something more profound than an accident or a mere unfortunate end. Through the lens of memory, Branum refracts the layers of truth, tragedy and faith that break a cycle of lives most at home in free fall. Sparkling . . . an original and engaging novel from a fresh new voice. A beautifully structured work about ancestry, siblinghood, vulnerability and fear . . . Branum confronts existential questions with bold, clean prose that swings between gravity and deflection. Excellent . . . A serious story, luminously told. Quirky and poignant . . . the collage of striking scenes and reflections offers frequent delights. Readers willing to go out on a limb will find much to savor. Written in sweeping prose rife with allegory (many unbelievable real-life falls told here), Branum's first novel is an honest, beautiful tale of fierce sibling love. Lyrical and lovely and slyly funny, yet deceptively propulsive. One to stay up all night reading and immediately begin again. Odd, lyrical and gorgeous . . . Evocative of Chloe Benjamin’s The Immortalists, Branum’s novel is a magical realist family fable, an allegory about the heaviness of history and the lightness of dropping. Defenestrate is impressively powerful. On page after page, Renée Branum manages to entwine the tall tales that shape all families with the real-world fallout those tales can cause. She also does a masterful job of rendering the sensation of falling, of spiraling in the air. The effect, like the novel itself, is spellbinding. Gorgeously written and imaginative, Defenestrate is a beautiful novel about the family stories we tell and how they echo on through generations. Rich and intimate, this novel will stay with me. Renée Branum writes with exceptional wisdom and tenderness about inheritance, obsession, and the power of storytelling as a means of understanding who we are. As family secrets are revealed, Defenestrate builds to a symphonic, exhilarating end that embraces uncertainty alongside the miracle of surviving the greatest of falls. Branum‘s prose lights up the imagination, every line a discovery and a pleasure. Beyond simple elegance or precision, she weaves sense and simile so stunningly, you have to throw your hands up and say “damn!” Defenestrate is both a transporting story, and a poetic reflection on family myths, death and danger, creation, self preservation, and the great free-fall of life. I was constantly thrilled by the beauty and insight of her words, and, at the same time, ever on the precipice of that titular drop, the one that’s always just about to happen, the one we all know from childhood dreams. Renée Branum writes with great insight about the complex ways our sense of ourselves is unavoidably shaped by family. She is a storyteller of unique talent, wit and perception about the intricate details of the human experience. The wonders of this beautiful novel come to you the way ghosts do, almost invisibly, and from the past. The voice is haunted too, by family secrets, the history of Prague, an addiction, and much else. But its central subject is that of falling--and everything that falling can imply. This is a fine and wonderful book. Renée Branum is a weaver of light, a writer of extraordinary sensitivity and insight. Her obsessions are contagious, and her prose is electric. Expand reviews