Narcisa: Our Lady of Ashes

The friend who recommended me this book asked me how I liked it. My response?“I’m not sure this is a book you ‘like’ or ‘don’t like.’ It’s compelling, it’s interesting, but there is little to like.”Sure, Shaw paints an incredibly detailed vision of the favela’s of Rio de Janeiro. He dives head first into what it means to be addicted, to live with it every day. He makes the reader complicit in what is going on, perhaps hoping that Cigano (the narrator, but one who is less protagonist and more audience surrogate) and Narcisa (less a character and more a force of nature) will come out the other end relatively intact.Cigano is a former addict and a thief, despite his claims at being a writer. Narcisa is a junkie, addicted to crack cocaine and wanting nothing less than to destroy herself and everything that comes in contact with her. The reader is treated to almost a day-by-day retelling of Cigano’s enrapture by Narcisa, of her destructive force in his life. Sure, Cigano gave up drugs on his own, but he becomes just as addicted to Narcisa, justifying it that he is trying to save her, one in a long line of saviors.Shaw writes with conviction, having survived his own addictions, and his own demons. He writes with unabashed clarity and leaves little room for apologies. He writes not so much for the Narcisa’s of the world, wrapped in addiction and destroying those around them, but for the Cigano’s, that they might extricate themselves from the dark nihilists of the world.My few complaints are that large chucks of the dialogue are all in bold and italic, which is meant to highlight the auditory assault of Narcisa on a full on rampage. The effect, however, is that the reader becomes numb and it loses effect. My other complaint is that the book drags on over long. Some of the segments could be condensed while still making the point and driving the plot. As a result, the book does read at times more like a diary then a novel. As a conceit, that works, but it also leads to fatigue for the reader where the same point is driven home more than once when it isn’t necessary.I highly recommend this for anyone who wants a glimpse at the horror that lies underneath the veneer in Brazil, those that want a book to grab them by the back of the head and see just how terrible addiction can be. It stands as a warning sign, but it’s a beautiful one.

If you read one book this year let this be the one. It will take you on the adventure of two people with different addictions. Being addicted to Drugs is what we most hear about but being addicted to another person has also a price to pay. When the Character Cigano is so obsessed with Narcisa he gets pulled into her world of destruction. In this book you will be able to feel his pain of love for this woman and how he would die for her but she is so consumed in her own addiction but in her way I felt she loved him as much as she could. It has some great steamy love scenes in there that will get your heart pumping. It might even make you laugh when she climbs on the back and have you saying go go go. It will make you cry and might even make you look inside yourself to see if you have ever been so obsessed with someone that you over looked the obvious doom. I think this Author is the one to watch and look forward to many more books from this author. I want to say the book came fast and in great shape. Wonderful Art on the cover. Now lets all take a ride and see this story from our own eyes. I really think some schools should put this out there for teaching students on what dangers are out there and we may learn a few things too while reading of what we might not see yet.

I’m not qualified to critique any writer’s work, but I will say that I’m glad I finally got around to reading “Narcisa.” Some of the reviews offered by celebrities suggested the story was much harsher and debauched that it turned out to be, but it was nevertheless grittier and more challenging than anything I’ve read in many a year. What I appreciated the most was the author’s ability to describe the Rio de Janeiro of his experience in such a way that it sounded 100% authentic. While “Cigano,” the main character, was very sympathetic I found “Narcisa” much less so even though I very much wanted to like her and cheered her chance at redemption. Overall, I feel that this story was essentially about a man who in the midst of overwhelming poverty, corruption and depravity was basically decent and generous, doing his best to love and rescue a young woman who wanted neither. I look forward to reading more of Jonathan Shaw's work and highly recommend this edgy, but heart-wrenching novel.

This novel...THIS novel... is one of the best written I've read in a very long time. Before Jonathan Shaw there were the classics, or new age beat writers trying too hard to capture the feel of the classics. Jonathan Shaw IS classic. A well told tale of inversion, perversion, addiction, triumph and defeat... slaying ones own dragons, and a self flagellation with love as the flagellum. Irresistible characters whose self indulgences reach a crescendo of mystic and nihilistic insanity. Though a novel, it smarts of that punch-in-the-face reality of addiction (no matter what addiction) that is identifiable to those who've been in it, dealt with it, or cleaned up the carnage. But wait for it!!!...there is such a depth of love and romance that seem to redefine the entire human experience... dark and dreadful... a Hydra on the rampage... yet a shining brilliance elevating hope to faith to forgiveness!

Uno sentiría que se torna aburrido el que tengan el mismo encuentro y desencuentro tóxico una y otra vez. Pero cuando uno entiendo que son adictos, ella al Crack y el a Ella, se comprende un poco más. No del todo.

Today on p.564 I threw in the towel and cut my losses with Jonathan Shaw's lamentable Narcisa.I had a dodgy suspect feeling when I saw the litany of "counter culture" celebrities providingadulatory quotes on the cover.Heck I even dry wrenched a little when I saw that Shaw describes himself as "a world travelling outlaw artist,gonzo journalist,witch doctor,anti folk hero and underground philosopher".This gonzo outlaw was in dire need of a gonzo editor.Essentially concerning the lives of two perpetually adolescent selfish lovers living in Rio in the midst of drug addiction and macho posturing Narcisa is perhaps one of the worst novels I have read in a long time.Absolutely no depth of character I felt nothing but chronic disdain and boredom for these lovers.Mostly I viewed it as nothing more then an insult to my eyes.One chapter opens thus;"you can tell how good a chick fourletterword by the way she sits on the back of a motorcycle"Then it's all the most embarrassing trite observations about life being a lonesome highway and how we are all governed by the "man".Narcisa bless her is without doubt the worst written female character I have ever read.She shrieks but obviously has a body to die for which Shaw's male protagonist takes many ethical liberties with.Pages and pages and pages of arguments punctuated with make ups.Open the page at any point and Narcisa will be screaming in broken English."AAAArgh!You HIT me!Fildo da puttaa!Hein"SIX HUNDRED LONG PAGES OF UTTER TEDIUM.In his opening intro Johnny Depp with his usual hyperbolic style compares Shaw to[get this]Hubert Selby Jr.,Ernest Hemingway,William Burroughs,Charles Bukowski..it goes on.Bukowski was a brilliantly gifted writer that could ring out all the raw truth and pathos of desperate situations or morally corrupt characters.He could make the ugly beautiful.Shaw even allows himself to comparisons with Celine!!!!!Journey To The End Of The Night is one of the greatest novels I have ever read.Bukowski would've guffawed.Burroughs emitted the most cynical of sighs.The character walks around seemingly plucking money from nowhere....pays the rent,buys the drugs,food,booze,local wares.I would not be surprised if Shaw himself was a trust fund baby buying a co opted lifestyle.Hazard a guess that he could've listened to a few too many Velvet Underground records.Why not write a book about a trust fund baby's quest for authenticity?Any reader with a passable knowledge in writers will be able to see through the vanity and conceits of this book.Desperate to stand in the shadows of giants is one thing but to actively believe in your own parody of a myth is quite staggering.Take all the quotes off and write.The outsider with a stream of celebrity pals.Come on dude.Complete waste of money,time and effort.Waaaaay too long.I learnt nothing and took nothing away.All rather parasitic.

If Bukowski had decided to write Nabokov's Lolita he would be writing Narcisa and would be called Jonathan Shaw.