Self-Portrait of Someone Else

General Fiction

By Vincent Eaton

Publisher : Hidden People Limited

ABOUT Vincent Eaton

Vincent Eaton
Vincent Eaton is a storyteller in words, images and performance. His novel, SELF- PORTRAIT OF SOMEONE ELSE, was first published by Viking Penguin, New York, in 1989 and was re-issued in 2009. His humor book, “HOW TO FIND YOURSELF (or a reasonable facsimile)” was also pupblishing in 200 More...

Description

Tim Buckles appears to be leading a normal life.

He works as a lifeguard; he has a girlfriend.

Yet he also has his past.

Psychologists are studying him.

People are starting to drown in his pool.

Alisa, his girlfriend, is pregnant and moves in with him.

The business world begins training him for its own ends.

His father is slowly dying under his care.

His boss has been assaulted.

The police have issued an all-point bulletin.

Tim Buckles appears to be leading a normal life.

As someone else.

From the New York Times Sunday Review: Vincent Eaton's dark, angry and intense first novel uses police documents, psychological evaluations, interviews, straight narration and interior monologues to chronicle the self-destruction of Tim Buckles. At 28, Buckles appears at first to be leading a normal life. He has a steady job as a lifeguard, a bungalow in Los Angeles and a loving girlfriend named Alisa. The problem is, he feels as if he's living someone else's life. When Alisa becomes pregnant, she encourages him to take a job in her father's business. Tim's feelings of alienation escalates. A drowning and then a disastrous visit to his elderly parents, who have become more miserable with the years, push Tim over the edge. ** “...striking first novel.... ...the devastating consequences of Tim's traumatic family dynamics, captured powerfully in dialogue and brief vignettes, provide a powerfully destructive counter force, with devastating consequences. Eaton's harsh, unsparing tale jolts the reader, holding us uncomfortably close to Tim's commingled criminal insanity and humanity. o Publisher's Weekly From Publisher's Weekly “...striking first novel.... The devastating consequences of Tim's traumatic family dynamics, captured powerfully in dialogue and brief vignettes, provide a powerfully destructive counter force... ...unsparing tale jolts the reader, holding us uncomfortably close to Tim's commingled criminal insanity and humanity. From Bridgeport Post Mr. Eaton concocts a puzzle out of a depraved childhood, multiple murder mysteries, flashbacks, hallucinations, a love story and self-analysis. ...a brave literary debut about an intelligent man who, struggling to understand and control his rage at his past, ''realizes himself away”.

From the New York Times Sunday Review:

Vincent Eaton's dark, angry and intense first novel uses police documents, psychological evaluations, interviews, straight narration and interior monologues to chronicle the self-destruction of Tim Buckles. At 28, Buckles appears at first to be leading a normal life. He has a steady job as a lifeguard, a bungalow in Los Angeles and a loving girlfriend named Alisa. The problem is, he feels as if he's living someone else's life. When Alisa becomes pregnant, she encourages him to take a job in her father's business. Tim's feelings of alienation escalates. A drowning and then a disastrous visit to his elderly parents, who have become more miserable with the years, push Tim over the edge.

**

...striking first novel.... ...the devastating consequences of Tim's traumatic family dynamics, captured powerfully in dialogue and brief vignettes, provide a powerfully destructive counter force, with devastating consequences. Eaton's harsh, unsparing tale jolts the reader, holding us uncomfortably close to Tim's commingled criminal insanity and humanity.

  • Publisher's Weekly

From Publisher's Weekly

“...striking first novel.... The devastating consequences of Tim's traumatic family dynamics, captured powerfully in dialogue and brief vignettes, provide a powerfully destructive counter force... ...unsparing tale jolts the reader, holding us uncomfortably close to Tim's commingled criminal insanity and humanity.

From Bridgeport Press

Mr. Eaton concocts a puzzle out of a depraved childhood, multiple murder mysteries, flashbacks, hallucinations, a love story and self-analysis. ...a brave literary debut about an intelligent man who, struggling to understand and control his rage at his past, ''realizes himself away”.