I Smile Back

In her latest novel "I Smile Back", Amy Koppelman conveys through Laney a state of emotional strangulation that may be best described as a psychological version of "locked-in syndrome", the neurological condition in which the body is almost completely paralyzed, but by some cruel form of grace, the intellect is spared. Laney is imprisoned inside a body that is not inert but that cannot stop itself from a self-destructive cycle of drug taking, alcohol abuse and promiscuous sex. Unlike most people with these psychological symptoms, however, she is not a narcissist who uses these activities to avoid emotional connection and feeling. Laney has a crystalline insight, into herself and those in her midst, that never deserts her. So she is the helpless witness to her own downward spiral, and to the impact of that spiral on others, especially her young son and daughter. A prisoner as well of the memory of her own childhood, she knows full well that her children's evolving selves will grow up with different shapes, no longer straight but bent, no longer whole but with empty spaces that cannot be filled in later, as they feel the impact of that spiraling descent. This unusual empathic ability, conveyed through Ms. Koppelman's precise and economical prose, is so completely on target that it takes one's breath away---especially the breath of anyone who has ever been a mother. Ms Koppelman is a writer of enormous artistic and psychological gifts, who can take us through Laney to visit some very dark places in the soul---places that probably exist to some extent within most of us--- but who also makes sure she is there to accompany us on the return trip. Carla M. Solomon

Koppelman does the astonishing--she has followed up her first novel, A Mouthful of Air, with one that is even more fierce, haunting and original. Koppelman delves into the underbelly of modern life to craft a portrait of a woman that is as disturbing as it is unforgettable. The writing is gorgeous--like nothing you have ever read before--too.

The word "gripping" gets bandied about quite a bit in book reviews, but this book earns it. First it grips your heart, then your stomach, then your throat. The main character, Laney, is at once abused and abuser, protagonist and antagonist, victim and villain. And more than anything... real. Koppelman's style is hypnotic... the reader spends most of the book inside Laney's head... and we inhale every hope, defeat, doubt, fear, truth and lie. A book that stays with you.

I loved this book. After having read both of Amy Koppelman's books, it is hard to pick a favorite! She has a masterful way of grabbing your interest from the first few words until you feel as though YOU are a small character in her stories actually watching the events take place. Amy pens a slice of the reality of life that exits, to some degree, in every home...and in every walk of life. She forces us to comprehend her characters and therein to take a good look at ourselves in the process. Laney proves that we become more of what we already are... not less; and that life just is what it is. Amy forces the reader to comprehend Laney's viewpoint by using the clever "thought processing sentence structure", which makes us concentrate even harder on Laney's message. And even if we feel Laney is a might self-indulgent...she opens her up so that we can fully understand how she has gotten to this place. We cannot go through our own lives without meeting a Laney or a Bruce. That is exactly what I love about Amy Koppelman's writing. She is brutally honest and very gifted as a writer. Bravo.

It doesn't take long for readers to understand that Laney Brooks, an alienated and affluent suburban housewife, suffers from a disastrous self-image. Promiscuous, alcoholic and drug-addicted, Laney careens on a self-destructive course in Amy Koppelman's exceptional second novel, "I Smile Back." Koppelman does not shy away from depicting the latent despair and existential loneliness her protagonist embraces; in brutally frank and often graphic descriptive passages, the author suggests that Laney is an unspoken, if often disregarded, archetype for a significant number of disaffected American women. "I Smile Back" is an unusual "novel in acts," and the intermission, during which readers may catch their breath from the awful wreckage of Laney's life, provides illumination as to why Laney suffers so. In what appears to be a cryptic anecdotal recounting of a significant childhood event, Laney despondently admits the internalization of her father's reaction to a relatively innocuous incident regarding the bullying of her brother. His advice -- to act as if the hurtful incident did not even occur, transforms itself in Laney's mind. In advising her to swallow anger, her father indirectly encourages Laney's tendencies towards self-abasement. After her father divorces her mother and leaves the family, Laney perceives herself as "something not worth fighting for." Perniciously, this sense of worthlessness intertwines itself with an anguished feeling of abandonment, and Laney, as a mother, feels doomed that she will repeat the same process with her own children. Koppelman is relentless in her discussion of the emotional consequences of childhood trauma. Are we in effect programmed to repeat the mistakes of our childhood in our adult experiences? To what extent do children, and the adults they become, have genuine choices in remaking their pasts? Is our tendency towards self-destruction greater than our capacity to nurture? It is with abject horror that Laney discovers her young son's propensities towards personality disorganization. Will his "mechanism of choice," a muffling of anger and compensation with forgiveness, cause him to "forget that he ever cried himself to sleep" while his mother spent nearly a month hospitalized in a half-way house after a suicidal episode. Koppelman is at her very best when she compels her readers to look at life through Laney's eyes. A devoted husband becomes an insufferable bore; her doting children become tasks to be worked through, jobs to be completed. As Laney depersonalizes others, she does the same to herself. What could be a vibrant, enticing personality emerges as a husk. However, the novel does have some minor problems. There are far too many staccato-like paragraphs, too many sudden changes of voice. Even the final paragraph contains commentary as if written by a stage director. Yet these flaws are few compared to the enormous emotional power of "I Smile Back." Amy Koppelman's sophomore novel