Confessions of a Cowbird
Document Type
Thesis
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (MFA)
Major/Program
Creative Writing
First Advisor's Name
John Dufresne
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Chair
Second Advisor's Name
Bruce Harvey
Third Advisor's Name
Campbell McGrath
Date of Defense
3-14-2002
Abstract
The novel, CONFESSIONS OF A COWBIRD, offers an irreverent look at family life within America's consumer culture. When the narrator, Asta Veridian, working mother, real estate broker and Vice-President of the Women in Business Association, meets Mattie Moreau, an eccentric young man who's fighting his own war against day care, the foundations of Asta's world are shaken. Although Asta and Mattie are fierce ideological opponents, their relationship escalates to a passionate level, and along the way, crimes are committed, families fall apart, suburbia is skewered, the depths of guilt are plumbed, capitalism is critiqued, sensuality and spirituality collide and unite. Underlying the action in this tragicomic, quasi-epistolary novel is the tension between self-realization and self-sacrifice, which rises to the surface when Asta realizes she may have to destroy Mattie to save her relationship with her children.
Identifier
FI15101434
Recommended Citation
Francischine, Alexandra Bartel, "Confessions of a Cowbird" (2002). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 3331.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/3331
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