SOURCE: A review of My Mother: Demonology, in Review of Contemporary Fiction, Vol. 14, No. 1, Spring, 1994, pp. 213-4.

Below, Friedman offers a favorable review of My Mother: Demonology.

The themes in Kathy Acker's newest book will not surprise followers of her delirious prose. Schizophrenic juxtaposition again organizes her text. A section entitled "Rape by Dad" begins: "In the following paragraphs I would like to try to highlight various recollections from my childhood. My parents were nevertheless very kind. They never beat me." These sentences are followed by the father's rape of the narrator. Also many of the obsessions that are the signature of her texts recur. A catalog of these would include: the father as patriarchy: "For me the past sits in the form, the actuality of the father: I don't want to meet my father. He left me before I was born." Appropriation of other texts: One of...