Flesh and Bone

Fiction. In an earlier era, these mesmerizing vignettes might have been termed "character studies," although that same era might have banned them for their subversive and off-beat fixations. "Character," in Chadwick's writing, usually reveals itself through the filter of simple actions (sneaking into a church, returning to a childhood home) or the filter ofobjects (an eyelash trapped under a contact lens, an inferior lithograph given as a gift). However, these filters never entirely obscure another character, Chadwick's narrator, who slowly reveals her iconoclastic views on art, politics, sex and the after-effects of 60's California culture. "FLESH AND BONE is saturated with mysteries. These stories are sexy, religious, and relentlessly intelligent, as impervious to denial as a finger cut that refuses to heal" -- Barry Gifford.