Description
“Highly entertaining . . . [Hagedorn] is an exceptional storyteller.” —The Boston Globe
A bold new novel about the intersection of art, love, fame, and money from the acclaimed author of Dogeaters
Jessica Hagedorn's ferociously entertaining new novel centers on two women who are neighbors in Manhattan's West Village: Mimi Smith, a filmmaker whose only screen credit is a notorious low-budget slasher movie, and Eleanor Delacroix, a legendary, scandalous literary figure now nearing eighty. Their personal and artistic lives begin to converge in unexpected ways as Eleanor grieves over the death of her longtime lover, the renowned painter Yvonne Wilder, and as Mimi confronts the challenges presented by the mysterious disappearance of her boyfriend, by her newly sober if still somewhat loopy brother, and by her wayward teenage daughter. Toxicology is a fearless, playful, and savagely funny novel about the collision of art, fame, money, love, desire, and mortality.
About the Author
Jessica Tarahata Hagedornwas born (and raised) in Manila, Philippines in 1949. With her background, a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Filipino-Spanish father with one Chinese ancestor, Hagedorn adds a unique perspective to Asian American performance and literature. Her mixed media style often incorporates song, poetry, images, and spoken dialogue.Moving to San Francisco in 1963, Hagedorn received her education at the American Conservatory Theater training program. To further pursue playwriting and music, she moved to New York in 1978.Joseph Papp produced her first play Mango Tango in 1978. Hagedorn's other productions include Tenement Lover, Holy Food, and Teenytown.In 1985, 1986, and 1988, she received Macdowell Colony Fellowships, which helped enable her to write the novel Dogeaters, which illuminates many different aspects of Filipino experience, focusing on the influence of America through radio, television, and movie theaters. She shows the complexities of the love-hate relationship many Filipinos in diaspora feel toward their past. After its publication in 1990, her novel earned a 1990 National Book Award nomination and an American Book Award. In 1998, La Jolla Playhouse produced a stage adaptation.She lives in New York with her husband and two daughters, and continues to be a poet, storyteller, musician, playwright, and multimedia performance artist.
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