Dana Spiotta Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Dana Spiotta is one of the prominent authors of America who has won many literary awards for her successful novels. She was born in the year 1966 and is very well known for the success of her novels, Stone Arabia and Eat the Document. Both these novels have been the finalists of many national awards and the latter has even won the Rosenthal Foundation Award presented by the American Academy of the Letters and Arts. One of the other novels written by her, the Lightning Field, went on to become the Notable Book of its publication year by the New York Times. Author Dana has also won the Rome Prize for her excellent contribution in literature. During the initial days of her writing career, she was able to obtain a couple of fellowship from popular institutions like the New York Arts Foundation Fellowship and the Guggenheim Fellowship. As of today, author Dana lives happily Central New York along with her husband and a daughter.

Other than being a noteworthy author and writing full time, Dana also teaches in the MFA program at the Syracuse University. The first novel written by author Dana was published in the year 2001 by the Scribner publishing house. It was titled as Lightning Field and was described as the debut novel by a wonderful and exceptionally gifted author with an uncanny feeling towards the sadness and absurdities of the contemporary life, by the New York Times. It also described her as having an unerring ear about the way people try to talk and cope in today’s world. Such positive reviews from The New York Times as well as from a number of other reviewing magazines helped the novel to become a notable book and the Best Book of the West by the Los Angeles Times. After the success of her first novel, author Dana penned down her second novel after a gap of five years in the year 2006. It was called as Eat the Document and just like her first novel, this novel too received many positive reviews from various reviewing magazines. The New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani described the novel as a stunningly written book that possesses a ferocity similar to that of the essay by Joan Didion. She also described it as having a razzle-dazzle language and a historical resonance like the novels by author Don DeLillo. This was followed by the third novel written by author Dana Spiotta which was titled Stone Arabia.

One of the initial novels written by author Dana Spiotta was titled ‘Lightning Field’. It was released by the Scribner publishing house in the year 2001 as a paperback edition. The plot of this novel is set in Los Angeles and revolves around the lives of the main characters Mina and Lorene. Author Dana has given the description of Los Angeles in this novel as a land of Miracle Miles and Spirit Gyms, and a center-less region where reference chains do not matter and often get lost. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, Mina is depicted as living with her husband, who is a screenwriter by profession. He works at the highly successful restaurants of Mina’s best friend Lorene. The restaurants of Lorene are often known to exploit the idiosyncrasies and unconscious desires of one of the rich and chic clientele. Mina is believed to have acquired a couple of lovers in her life almost inadvertently. She is also required to deal with some other men in her life, like her father who is a washed up director of Hollywood films and running away from his debtors by hiding in a yurt.

Mina also has a disturbed younger brother named Michael, who desperately attempts to reconnect with her and tries to force her to consider that she might still possess a heart. But, she could believe him only if she remembers where she had lost it. On the other hand, Lorene seems to be interested only in the charting of her own impending decays and perfection, in between her Spiritual Detoxification and Exfoliation therapies and her extreme devotion towards her stylish living. Even though Lorene appears to be extremely confident in her own ways, she too begins to fray at the difficult edges of her life. There is another character named Lisa, who is described as a loving mother working as a house cleaner. Lisa often scrapes by and seems to have frequent dreams about the child abductors and the food terrorists. Even the most innocent events in her life hint her towards the darkest possibilities. The novel appears to explore the language tics of the present culture, the self-obsession, the consumerist fetishes, etc. Author Dana has made use of an unsentimental, cutting and funny prose to expose the contradictions prevalent in the contemporary lives. She has described the identities as the collection of references and hints at overcoming not only the despair but also the ambivalence. On the whole, the novel proves to be a playful, dire, poetic, and a raw description of the new voice of American fiction.

One of the other novels written by author Dana Spiotta was titled ‘Stone Arabia’ and was published by the Scribner publishing house in the year 2011. The plot of this novel deals with memory, obsession, family, and the urge of creation. It revolves around the lives of the primary characters, Denise Kranis and her brother named Nik, and is set in Los Angeles. In the opening sequence of the plot of the novel, the author has described that there are no seductions, first impressions, and no getting familiar with each other in the sibling relationship. This is what Denise Kranis believes and for her as well as her brother Nik, no other relationship is as important and significant as their own. Both of them are now in their forties and have grown up in Los Angeles during the late 1970s and 1980s. Nik has always been an artist, writing and playing music for his band.

But now, he has chosen to make his arts privately. He obsessively tries to document his work and does not feel the urge to try it out in the world. His only audience is his sister Denise, who remains acute and passionate about his work. She even displays herself as the first defense of her family against the fragility of the world. Denise seems to be haunted by the individual tragedy of the death of her friends, her mother’s memories, the global catastrophe, and the mind travels. And when Denise’s daughter Ada decides to make a movie based on the life of Nik, the vulnerabilities of everyone begin to escalate. The success of this novel has helped author Dana establish herself as a provocative and powerful writer. She often seems to be fierce and original in her work. Even this novel appears to be an unnerving, beautiful, strange, and riveting. It helps to explain the readers what it means to be a hard working artist and the also redefines the ties that hold the artists together.