I found this novel deeply compelling and written with a level of complexity and attention to detail with enough absurdity (the absurdity inherent to human relationships, whether they be the romantic entanglements you find yourself in or between you and a tired ass doctor you only visit when you're at the height of your crazed eras) and unrealistically neat ending that was still worth the whole wild ride all the way through. was it a perfect portrait of the loneliness and despair of a queer woman not over her breakup with a beautiful but ephemeral woman, in a relationship with another woman she despised but also couldn't stop committing to long terms plans/having sex with, the unresolved childhood trauma of an absent father and the abandonment of a mother, and the banalities and stress of owing her drug dealer money she doesn't have while working as a dishwasher at an upscale London restaurant and bar with a boss who calls her 'Puppy'? YES!!!!! I adored how this novel, following the blueprint of My Year Of Rest and Relaxation (sorry, I know, an overused comp title for sure), gives us a glimpse into the psyche of a highly disturbed, deranged, and unlikeable main character, a young woman on the run from her feelings, constantly chasing what has already been lost while stewing in her unresolved past. Frances fears she may never escape the relationship, so, given no choice, she makes the obvious decision: She will sedate Elaine.Ī story as enthusiastically madcap and funny as it is smart and emotionally surprising, Sedating Elaine introduces a roster of unforgettable characters and an indelible, wildly exciting new voice in fiction. Unfortunately, this seemingly romantic overture makes Elaine even more sex-crazed and maniacal with love. Now, faced with mounting pressure from her drug dealer, Dom (and his goon, Betty), Frances comes up with a terrible idea: She asks Elaine to move in with her for real. But somehow (it involved a steady stream of beer and weed, as things often did with Frances) Elaine ended up in Frances’s bed and never left. She was, in fact, looking to drown her sorrows in a pint or twelve and nurse a broken heart, shattered by the gorgeous, electric Adrienne. An exuberant dark comedy about love, grief, sex, guilt, and one woman’s harebrained scheme to tranquilize her voraciously amorous girlfriend for a few days so that she might pay off her drug dealer, make soup, and finally get some peace and quiet.įrances was not looking for a relationship when she met Elaine in a bar.

Sedating elaine by dawn winter