Janet Kauffman, one of our finest writers, has earned a reputation for the magic of her language as well as for her ability to grasp and relate the unexplored depths of women's experience. The Body in Four Parts is a nonlinear passion play, an eloquent demand for a return to the roots of our being, our most ancient and elemental nature - air, earth, fire, water.This novel embraces a new vision of nature and an all-encompassing, unlimited wildness. In her multiplicity, Kauffman's central character embodies a radical redefinition of human nature:"I can say this about myself, and it could be said across the board: she is piece-meal, she is not herself, she's number-less, not numb, she cannot be counted out, she's gusted air, open fire, she is not watered down, she's dirt and debris. Also, she is a hank of hair, hacked.The Body in Four Parts is a strange and dizzying novel about the nature of human nature, about the physicality of language, about women reclaiming their various erotic, environmental, feminist, and political selves. Read Less