Visible Amazement

by Gale Zoe Garnett

Book Overview

Meet Roanne Campbell - definitely not your ordinary teenage girl, a fascinating study in contrasts. Equal parts bold seductress and wide eyed innocent, smart-assed teenager and wizened sage, she is an... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684873060
• ISBN13: 9780684873060
• Release Date: March 2001
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.4" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

coolio

Visualize yourself a girl of 14 in British Columbia, whose mother is an artist, and sleeping with the professor you've just fallen for. This is the very first of a number of refreshing and exhilarating occurrences in the life of Roanne Chappell. Visible Amazement was an exceptional book, filled with rare adolescent maturity and humorous quirks. The main character's adventures are somewhat unrealistic but enjoyable non-the-less. Although some actions executed by our young heroine can be viewed by some to be premature and anomalistic, the author portrays her in such a fashion where these actions are expected but not condemned. For example, sleeping with a college professor who is twenty years older than she is, running away to California with seven-hundred dollars in her pocket are both extremely rash and impulsive. However, Gale Zoë Garnett has achieved a high respect in us for Roanne's decisions with her mastery of words and of the manipulation of the eager minds of her readers. The development of Roanne's character was notable smooth and progressive. She quickly evolves from the minor triviality expected of her age to the maturity that befits most adults. She is affected by the lesser characters of the story, growing wiser with each experience. For example, the homosexual dwarf, Didi, that Roanne idolizes for his stature as a cartoonist and outer serenity despite the deep loathing he has for himself is the major transition in her life from childhood to adulthood. He is the solid rock in her life, being without a father, and constantly moving around from province to province. Didi's home in the Redwood forest, Inn Nainity, is the small piece of heaven that we all really long for, and is the place where Roanne begins to truly understand how beautifully unique she is. This is where she can finally escape the rift between her mother and her that came shortly after their mutual involvement with the college professor, Marcus. After meeting Didi's giant sized half brother, Pascal, and going to San Francisco with him in Didi's absence, she falls in love with him. Sadly, he doesn't seem to return the feeling, being twenty-eight years older than she is. When she can no longer intrude upon Pascal's hospitality, Roanne relocates to the home of her clown-camp heart throb, Gabe. She learns how people are crushed by success and crush the dreams of others by living amongst Gabe's movie star religious zealot parents. And when Gabe's father dies in a Rebirthing prayer session, she helps him to realize his dreams. Back at Pascal's place, she meets the teenage supermodel, Gilbey, who becomes her best friend. While exploring the life of the rich and famous, Roanne falls even more deeply in love with Pascal, and now it seems that he loves her as well. Amidst all her joy, Gilbey gets involved with a sexual deviant whose sadistic practices nearly cost her her life. As Roanne nurses her friend back to health, she discovers she is pregnant and goes through an abor

visibly AMAZING

I begged my dad to buy me this book because of the cover and the review on the back that called Gale Zoe Garnett, the book's author, "a female Salinger." While Roanne is not exactly Holden Caulfield in a bra, I could totally relate to what she was going through. Roanne Chappell is a 14-year old Canadian girl who feels suffocated by her artist mother. She wants to be known by something other than "Del's daughter." She hungers for a world of her own, an existence entirely separate from her mother's. Roanne runs away to the home of D.D.A.(Didi), a renowned cartoonist whom she idolizes, and who turns out to be a lovable, gay, French dwarf.As Roanne continues her adventure, travelling to California and even swinging by Mexico, Roanne meets quite a number of unusual characters, including Pascal, Didi's photographer brother, Gabe, an old friend from "clown school," and Gilbey Tarr, a gorgeous, Southern "teenage goddess from outer space," who soon becomes Roanne's best friend. These people all help Roanne learn important life lessons, as well as find the wonderful individual hidden from beneath her mother's shadow. Roanne is unlike any character ever written. I think it is wrong to liken her to Holden Caulfield, for she does not possess Holden's jaded view of the world. Roanne truly is "visibly amazed" by everything she sees. Although the book's ending was quite abrupt, and the period in which the book is set was not clearly illustrated, I still consider this one of my favorite books. Like Roanne, I often feel the need to run away and forge a world that I can truly call my own. Roanne is not afraid to explore unknown territories, such as her sexuality. You'll be glad the book is written in first person, for Roanne's original blend of coined expressions and Canadian jargon will have you laughing out loud.Read the book. It will truly amaze you.

Loved Visible Amazement

I thought it was an insightful book about relationships and I was amazed by Garnett's development of Roanne's character in the midst of a circus-like collection of characters. As the novel progresses and Roanne matures, the author subtly alters the character's voice and the reader experiences what's happening as though you were there. It is not your usual "coming of age" novel by a long shot. All the characters are risk-takers and it's how they interact that makes this novel adventurous, erotic, scary at times, but essentially life-affirming. I eagerly await Ms. Garnett's next novel.

Gale Zoe Garnett is a brilliant writer

I still have an essay, which I've saved from many years back, that Gale Zoe Garnett wrote for the TORONTO STAR newspaper, about Gordon Liddy. She wrote it when she was a distinguished member of the judges panel at The Toronto Film Festival, which also happened to be the same year that Gordon Liddy announced to the world that he was an actor. I believe Mr. Liddy had recently been released from jail where he'd served time for doing illegal things for his boss, President Nixon...Even thinking about this devilishly tongue in cheek article makes me shake with laughter and I have been a fan of her writing ever since. I've read Ms. Garnett's article, about Gordon Liddy, the actor, to many people over the years and have thrilled to the satisfying shrieks of laughter it elicited. In her first novel, VISIBLE AMAZEMENT, my admiration for Ms. Garnett's writing increases. Her heroine, thirteen year old Roanne, is someone I totally identify with, and someone anyone can identify with; 'I think when you move around a lot and don't relate really well with kids your own age, books can be an important alternative to suicide.' (VISIBLE AMAZEMENT pg 23) Don't let Roanne's age fool you--this is a woman in the making, no question about it, with all the attendant confusion about sex and desire and 'relationships.' Roanne's journey made me laugh out loud and often. I laughed so hard I cried. Ms. Garnett has a gift for describing the absolutely ridiculous in all of us. I am an avid reader of detective novels. I adore detective fiction and most especially, Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe series. Rex Stout is a globally recognized master of mystery and what I like best about his writing style is his breeziness and casualness. He tosses off barbs and wit like a Dorothy Parker. Ms. Garnett posesses the same skill. She can write the way Cary Grant could act. Effortlessly and without a care in the world and yet, she can break our hearts as well as make us laugh. This is writing at it's best. Nothing heavy handed here--all wit and therefore highly skilled. You'd do yourself a great service by curling up with this book, (a few hours will get you through it as it's only a couple of hundred pages,) and letting Roanne's journey envelop you for a while until you come to realize you're also thinking of your own life's journey right along with hers. Ms. Garnett brings to life the beautiful California coastline, a cartoon drawing dwarf, a dashing French photographer, a beautiful Malibu princess, a rolicking, British rock band, and a time in America in the late 60's before MTV, computers and Nike, 'pre-corporate' as Mike Meyers has said, where everything in life seemed new and exciting. She has beautifully drawn Roanne's fragile, teenage time of transition which she calls '"on the point"...When you're not where you were and you don't know yet where you're going to be instead.' (page 75, VISIBLE AMAZEMENT) This book is for anyone who is on any kind of a journey--and that's just

An Amazing Debut

Roanne is a 14-year-old wise woman-child whose journey of self-discovery along the Pacific Coast is witty, funny and poignant. This is a sweet tale of a girl not afraid to tackle any of life's great mysteries, from cartoon artwork to sex to rock and roll. The people she meets are among the most memorable characters in recent fiction and will stay with you long after finishing this amazing first novel.Gale Zoe Garnett has created a lead character who is unlike any other. Roanne is a creation that succeeding generations will delight to discover as they come of age.