Suzanne Samples

A Mad Girl's Love Song Suzanne Samples

You can't really trust E., the narrator of A Mad Girl's Love Song. Recently released from the hospital for an unknown illness, E. claims to be some version of Esther Greenwood, a contemporary iteration of Sylvia Plath's depressed, neurotic main character. However, this is the least of her problems. As she struggles to find her place in hip West Asheville, E. finds herself obsessed with two things: poetry and electrocution. So much obsessed, in fact, that E. stumbles into Doctor Id's Center for Poetic Dislocation and Disentanglement, where a sexy-but-elusive psychiatrist attempts to rid E. of her Poetry Problem and usher her into the Prosaic Priority, an electroconvulsive-based program designed to help writers benefit monetarily and emotionally from their progress. Central to E.'s journey is Alexx, Doctor Id's assistant who loves the 1990s and often disappears into clouds of fairy glitter, leaving E. and the reader to wonder just what--if anything-- happened at all.