The Stories of Devil-Girl

By Anya Achtenberg

"Poignant and fierce, this book is moving, beautifully written, and urgently relevant."

"Devil-Girl's stories are all of our stories, all of the 'discarded and demonized', all of us who have had to fight to survive, to fight to tell our truths. Achtenberg's wise survivor, Devil-Girl, is witness and seer, and her words are sustenance. There is much pain in this book, much wisdom, and a kind of beauty that sears itself into memory, a fierce beauty that is as necessary as air. Read this book."
--Lisa D. Chave, Author of Destruction Bay; In An Angry Season

"Achtenberg is a cutting-edge voice in the literature of the postglobalization age, an era in which we are uprooted geographically and spiritually, and redefining what it means to be home. What a superbly written book! Read it and be changed."
--Demetria Martinez, Author of Mother Tongue

"Stunning and original! Powerful 'make it new' language that creates-through the runaway energy and precise detail of the storytelling voice--a disturbing world in all its particularities, only to transcend it by grappling with what's at stake in the larger world."
--Stratis Haviaras, Founder and former editor of Harvard Review

"An amazing piece of bravura writing! Devil-Girl takes us from destitution to seedy glamour as a homeless vulnerable young woman tries to survive the savagery of the streets. Poignant and fierce, this book is moving, beautifully written, and urgently relevant."
--Kathleen Spivack, Author, Director: Advanced Writing Workshop

Book #1 in the Reflections of America Series
Learn about the author at www.AnyaAchtenberg.com
Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com
an imprint of Loving Healing Press

• Language: English
• Publisher: Loving Healing Press Inc
• Release date: Jul 8, 2008
• ISBN: 9781615999927

Anya Achtenberg

Anya Achtenberg is an award-winning fiction writer and poet. Her publications include the novel "Blue Earth", and autobiographical novella "The Stories of Devil-Girl", both with Modern History Press; and poetry books, "The Stone of Language", published by West End Press after being finalist in five poetry competitions; and "I Know What the Small Girl Knew" (Holy Cow! Press). Her short fiction has received awards from Coppola's Zoetrope: All-Story, New Letters, the Raymond Carver Story Contest, and others. She is at work on History Artist, a novel centering in a Cambodian woman born of an African American father and Cambodian mother at the moment the U.S. bombing of Cambodia began. This work received a grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She is also writing a book of poetry and short prose, The Matadors at the Crossing. Anya teaches creative writing workshops and classes around the country and online with growing international participation, and offers manuscript consultations and coaching for fiction writers, memoirists, and poets. She also organizes groups of writers, artists, filmmakers and educators to travel to Cuba. Along with her numerous fiction and memoir workshops, she developed and teaches a series of multi-genre workshops on Writing for Social Change (Re-Dream a Just World; Place and Exile/ Borders and Crossings; and Yearning and Justice: Writing the Unlived Life), which she has started writing into a movable workshop. Visit Anya at www.AnyaAchtenberg.com

Reviews for The Stories of Devil-Girl

[novelnympho · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was certain I'd written a reviewed this book after receiving it, but maybe my negative review was deleted? The strange lyrical poetic prose was difficult to follow and impossible to connect with. I was completely turned off by the style of writing, grammar, prose and story. Unfortunately, not a book I'd even pass along...it was just not there for me. It looks like it was a better fit for some other reviewers. That's great! I'm glad it has received some positive accolades.

[menagerie_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Achtenberg's primary calling is poetry and that is obvious in every page of her debut novella. Her prose is lyrical, ebbing and flowing like an epic poem. Sometimes the lyricism distracts from the story, but given how brutal the story is, it may be a necessary distraction. Devil-Girl is about a young woman who goes from a grim, abusive childhood to to an even bleaker adulthood. Homelessness, rape, and pornography are all part and parcel of Devil-Girl's life as she tries to find a home or at least a place to be safe. Achtenberg is short on the details of how her protagonist pulls herself out of the muck, but somehow she does and moves to the relatively safe environs of academia in Minnesotta before returning to face her demons in NYC. Achtenberg makes no promises of happily ever after but she does assure her readers that at least the worst is behind Devil Girl.This work is steeped with suppressed emotion and offers a very bleak view of the world. Achtenberg seemed to be intentionally vague on the basics of the story (who, what, where, when and why) but highlighted snatches of the horrible experiences that her protagonist endured. I frequently felt like I was supposed to guess what the character was doing or thinking. The whole book seems to be enveloped in fog and I was constantly casting about trying to figure out what was going on. Overall, Achetenberg seems to have taken the idea of "less is more" a little too far. She needs to flesh out her writing to make it true prose. Devil-Girl is somewhere between poetry and prose and that is a tough place for both reader and writer.

[littlebear514_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

While I can't say I appreciated the writing style (very, very poetic and artsy), if you can get past that, the story is a very good one; though it is hard to extract most of the time. I think if it was written differently I would have a much greater opinion of it.

[djupstrom · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I think this book suffered from trying to be too many things, and not accomplishing any of them. It would have been better as a book of collected poems or short stories, or a memoir, but it is none of these. It is marketed as a novel or novella. I didn't get it at all.

[bookcrushblog · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Don't let the slimness of the book fool you. The Stories of Devil-Girl, by Anya Achtenberg, is a densely constructed set of very wordy stories. Each vignette is short but far from easily digestible.When I learned that the writer's previous works are mostly poetry, this book made much more sense to me, as it reads like wandering prose poetry. I often found myself continuing to read only because I was hoping to find another pretty phrase or metaphor -- not because I was invested in the story.I like to consider myself a fan of "experimental" fiction or "literary" fiction -- whatever you'd like to call it. But I do think there is a fine line between breaking the rules of the novel for story sake and breaking the rules of the novel for writer sake. I'm not convinced that Achtenburg landed on the right side here.That said, her writing is beautiful, and I look forward to checking out some of her poetry -- based upon The Stories of Devil-Girl, I'm pretty certain I'd be a fan.

[afyfe_5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I wasn't a huge fan of this book, and I feel that with this book it is a little hit or miss, either you would like it or you wouldn't. I can apprectiate the writting style and I thought the author did a fantastic job with this. However it was a very depressing book and I didn't like some of the chapter/stories topics, although I realize they all need to be in there to make it complete but there were definately some that I liked more than others. Some of it got a little too weird for me but there were also some parts I really connected with, unfortunately, there were more parts I didn't like then ones I did. I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys this sort of poetic writting and wants to read something dark and depressing. I think it was a good book, just not enjoyable for me.

[bplma_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There is so much to say about this slim novella, but i have trouble finding the words. Devil -Girl grows up in a cold, disfunctional home, neglected by a physically and emotionally abusive mother. Brief descriptions of her father drift in and out of the work, and i get the impression that he abandons devil girl and the rest of the family. A loveless, unhappy home---devil girl is repeatedly told --and comes to believe--she is worthless of any thing good and worthy of all the abuse she gets--almost seeking it as a young adult. She moves or is thrown out of hte house, then becomes homeless, a drunk, drug addict, petty criminal, prostitute whore, eventually marrying an abusive man. Similar in many ways to Sapphire's PUSH, Devil-Girl eventually finds community, friendship, purpose and self worth in education, at a school in Boston and later in Minnesota. She is saved, redeemed, renewed. In fact, my only complaint about the work is that Achtenberg does not tell us more about the road to recovery...does not go into more detail and carry us along on the recovery route...That will be the next Devil-Girl novella, perhaps?? Beautifully written --lyrical, musical language that moves --rich in imagery ..."Fatherless, I roam. Dead-tongued kisses lodged in my throat." Achtenberg correctly states that this work sounds like poetry and reads like prose--part diary, part memoir, part storytelling, The Stories of Devi-Girl is beautifully written but difficult to read. It is not for everyone-to be sure, but i really liked it and enjoyed reading some parts aloud-- Anya Achtenberg is a very strong writer.

[reader247_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Reading Anya Achtenberg is like a sculptor creating something beautiful out of a lump of hard, cold stone. The chips of pain fall away as the narrator slowly escapes the confines of her childhood. Piece by piece fall away revealing more and more truths about life. Not since reading The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls have I felt the pain and torment of this kind of childhood. Eventually as the real person evolves we see the freedom that is in the heart really revealed. Lovely!

[wolson_16 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was a huge struggle to get through page by page. Not saying though that is was horrible just very hard to understand defiantly not a light read.The Stories of Devil Girl is about a child that is raised in an abusive home that leads to more terrible things in her life from very young she is forced to think that she is a terrible child and in turn feels that she does terrible things. This leads her down a life of homelessness, prostitution, and poverty. It is only many years later that she is able to drag herself out of this repetitive cycle that she lives and move to a more respectable lifestyle.This is one novel that I would have a hard time recommending. I think it takes a certain type of reader to read this type of novel and I don't believe that I am one of them.

[lisalynne_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Anya Achtenberg calls [The Stories of Devil-Girl] a novella, but it reads more like a poem - a wild, surreal poem that occasionally bursts out in pain, in suffering so clearly described that it's painful to read. The stories are not straightforward, but it is easy to pick out the threads - abuse, both physical and sexual, poverty, rape, prostitution and the struggle to make something of her life. They are told bluntly, with language that is sometimes fanciful, sometimes blunt. It is beautiful in the way that sad, haunting music can be beautiful.

[connielc_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is a book I received from Early Reviewers. I'm not a big poetry fan and this is short novel with almost a poetic style. I found the story vague due to the language and difficult to follow. However, it was interesting, a challenge and there are beautiful descriptive phrases.