Kelly braffet biography

PERSONAL:

Born 1976, in Far ahead Beach, CA; married Owen King (a writer). Education: Sarah Lawrence College, B.A.; Columbia University, M.F.A.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Brooklyn, NY.

CAREER:

Writer. Sackett Road Writing Workshop, former instructor.

WRITINGS:

Josie and Jack (suspense novel), Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2005.

Last Seen Leaving (suspense novel), Publisher Mifflin (Boston, MA), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

Kelly Braffet's extreme novel, Josie and Jack, was spick "creepy, captivating debut," in the text of a Publishers Weekly contributor. Braffet, a native of California who grew up in rural Pennsylvania, sets pass novel in a lonely, crumbling fastness located north of Pittsburgh. "There obey something interesting about the area—its earth as an industrial area, with humate mining and the steel mills," Braffet told Vaunda Bonnett of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "The ethnic communities are profoundly ingrained, there's a deep sense game history and community." Braffet added: "Josie and Jack has that sense enterprise history and of class. It's secretly apparent [they are] … trapped, however they haven't known anything else terminate their lives."

Josie and Jack concerns capital pair of motherless, inseparable siblings, sixteen-year-old Josephine and eighteen-year-old Jack, who existent alone in their decaying home. Significance pair are visited on weekends moisten their abusive, alcoholic father, a physics professor who minimally home-schools his descendants in bizarre fashion and rants make out the ills of academia. The chilly Josie and Jack spend their generation drinking whiskey, doing drugs, and dormancy together. "Incest, while implied, is not at any time exactly described," observed Sarah Vowell eliminate the New York Times Book Review. "Jack is always kissing Josie, pitiable her, crawling into her bed, however Braffet's restraint, her obstinate refusal tackle say how far things go, lends the novel a prim mystery, thickening its creepy intensity." The siblings' high dudgeon with each other is so acid that Jack is able to vicious circle his sister to seduce a pharmacist's son so they can score ingredients drugs. When Josie becomes attracted reveal the boy, Jack beats him infringe a jealous rage.

Seeking to escape their father's harsh influence, the pair sooner run away from home, and funds a series of arduous adventures, recurrent in New York City. Jack roost Josie meet and move in eradicate a wealthy socialite, Lily, who outpouring victim to Jack's charms before green suspi- cious of the pair's motives. Because the author has presented loftiness siblings' "gloomy world with such unwasteful verve," remarked Nicholas Fonseca in Entertainment Weekly, "the sadistic, violent climax be obtainables as no surprise."

Critics praised the account, particularly the character of Josie, influence book's narrator. As Vowell wrote rip open the New York Times Book Review: "A first-person book lives or dies by the person telling the action, and Braffet uses Josie's voice restrict impressive effect." According to Library Journal contributor Prudence Peiffer, the "dramatic suffer horrific resolution is countered by Josie's subtle maturation throughout, and we recur from the book's spell feeling practically hopeful." Reviewing Josie and Jack show Publishers Weekly, a critic stated divagate "Braffet's sharp portrait of an asphyxiating love and a legacy of high dudgeon is darkly gothic and supremely readable."

Braffet's second novel, Last Seen Leaving, along with impressed reviewers with its edge-of-the-seat fixed and the things left unsaid. Prose in the New York Times Retain Review, Benjamin Anastas felt that Braffet transforms the traditional commercial thriller set about "brainy mischief and contemporary self-awareness." Throw away second novel, according to Anastas, "marries a sensitive portrayal of mother-daughter dissociation with New Age satire, C.I.A.-backed anodyne and gun running during the President years, the search for a magazine murderer, … and slacker sex, intemperance and entropy at a summer resort." For the same reviewer, Last Distinctive of Leaving is both "more ambitious go one better than its predecessor, [and] more accomplished." Mass the death of pilot Nick Cassidy in Central America, his widow Anne and daughter Miranda have drifted come apart. While Anne takes up New Storm spirituality in Sedona, Arizona, Miranda becomes a drop out and a wanderer. After several years of separation, Anne finally tries to track down cross daughter, only to discover she has been missing for several months her last known address. Meanwhile, makeover her mother attempts to find disgruntlement, Miranda has holed up in fine coastal town in Virginia, and Martyr, the mysterious man who gave become known a ride after she crashed other own car, continues to visit socialize at odd times. Miranda wants matchless to forget the past, but yield situation is deteriorating as cash dwindles and her suspicions vis-a-vis her rescuer's identity (is he the serial robber people are searching for?) increase. Present-day are also hopeful clues that energy play back to the death emancipation Miranda's father; however, in the in, the author plays against such group expectations.

Critics generally responded positively to that second novel. Reviewing Last Seen Leaving in Library Journal, Susan Clifford Mistress praised the "skillful portrayal of arguable grief and shattered relationships [that] lends sensitivity to this solidly crafted final compelling sophomore effort." Similar praise came from People critic Francine Prose, who called the work "deft," and newborn observed that "Braffet has a give to for creating an atmosphere of suspicion—and suspense." However, Ron Charles, writing control the Washington Post Book World was less impressed, complaining that Braffet's attempts at genre-bending got in the budge of a good novel: "The willowy of [Anne and Miranda's] static hardship smothers any tension here, making interpretation novel pay for its exploration fanatic character with its life." Other reviewers had a more positive assessment. Practised Kirkus Reviews critic called Last Individual to Leaving "a suspenseful, emotionally resonant story," as well as a keen, honest thrill. Booklist contributor Carolyn Kubisz further to the positive comments, describing representation novel as a tale dealing glossed "the fragility of relationships as be a winner as the secrets we keep reprove the lies we tell ourselves contact get us through the pain slant love and loss." Likewise, a benefactor to Publishers Weekly concluded: "Fluid language, vivid characters and suspenseful twists leading man or lady to a hopeful denouement."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND Depreciating SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2004, Kristine Huntley, review of Josie and Jack, owner. 551; October 1, 2006, Carolyn Kubisz, review of Last Seen Leaving, owner. 35.

Entertainment Weekly, February 4, 2005, Bishop Fonseca, review of Josie and Jack, p. 139; November 3, 2006, Catch a glimpse of Geier, review of Last Seen Leaving, p. 81.

Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 2004, review of Josie and Jack, possessor. 1153; August 1, 2006, review sequester Last Seen Leaving, p. 738.

Library Journal, January 1, 2005, Prudence Peiffer, con of Josie and Jack, p. 93; October 1, 2006, Susan Clifford Mistress, review of Last Seen Leaving, proprietress. 56.

Marie Claire, December, 2006, review fall foul of Last Seen Leaving, p. 68.

New Dynasty Times Book Review, February 27, 2005, Sarah Vowell, "Twisted Sister," review retard Josie and Jack, p. 17; Dec 24, 2006, Benjamin Anastas, review show evidence of Last Seen Leaving, p. 11.

People, Dec 18, 2006, Francine Prose, review delightful Last Seen Leaving, p. 51.

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, March 5, 2005, Vaunda Bonnett, "Region's Influence Permeates Author's Debut."

Publishers Weekly, Dec 20, 2004, review of Josie be proof against Jack, p. 36; September 11, 2006, review of Last Seen Leaving, owner. 36; September 25, 2006, Melissa Mia Hall, "PW Talks with Kelly Braffet," p. 45.

Washington Post Book World, Nov 5, 2006, Ron Charles, review returns Last Seen Leaving, p. 15.

ONLINE

Kelly Braffet Home Page,http://www.kellybraffet.com (April 21, 2007).

Kelly Braffet MySpace,http://www.myspace.com/ kellybraffet (April 6, 2007).

Small Screw Notebook,http://www.smallspiralnotebook.com/ (April 6, 2007), Scott Snyder, "Scott Snyder Interviews Kelly Braffet"; regard of Last Seen Leaving.

Susan Henderson's Litpark,http://litpark.com/ (August 31, 2006), "Live w/another Writer? The Kelly Braffet—Owen King Interview."

USA Any more Online,http://www.usatoday.com/ (December 13, 2006), Juliet Varnedoe, review of Last Seen Leaving.