We Disappear

by Scott Heim

book data

138 ratings, 3.64 average rating, 40 reviews (more data...)

rating	frequency	%
5		23%
4		33%
3		31%
2		7%
1		4%

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published

March 1st 2008 by Harper Perennial

binding

Paperback, 293 pages

isbn

0061468975 (isbn13: 9780061468971)

description

The body of a teenage boy is discovered in a Kansas field. The murder haunts Donna-a recent widow battling cancer-calling forth troubling details from...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 250)

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02/06/08

Frederick rated it:

bookshelves: heim--scott, novels

Read in March, 2008

In my view, Scott Heim's three novels form a triptych. MYSTERIOUS SKIN, IN AWE and WE DISAPPEAR are not connected, but they are variations on a theme. Each book involves a search, and the searchers are outcast souls whose kinship, through blood or experience, is ghostly. If you set the characters of Williams's GLASS MENAGERIE in search of the moment everything shattered in their house of glass, you'd get an idea of the stage on which Scott Heim sets his dramas. The two disparate souls of Truman ...more In my view, Scott Heim's three novels form a triptych. MYSTERIOUS SKIN, IN AWE and WE DISAPPEAR are not connected, but they are variations on a theme. Each book involves a search, and the searchers are outcast souls whose kinship, through blood or experience, is ghostly. If you set the characters of Williams's GLASS MENAGERIE in search of the moment everything shattered in their house of glass, you'd get an idea of the stage on which Scott Heim sets his dramas. The two disparate souls of Truman Capote's A CHRISTMAS MEMORY could perch themselves comfortably here among these broken memories.
A lot of people try for the effect Scott Heim has achieved in each of these novels. A lot of people get close. I can watch an episode of SIX FEET UNDER and almost feel what I feel reading Scott Heim. I have a feeling a current Broadway play I haven't seen, Tracy Letts's AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY, might have something of this effect. But what is generally atmosphere for others is almost holy when Scott Heim treats it. He describes a wall of magazine, postcard and greeting card images of angels without signaling the reader what he thinks of it or what he thinks we should think of it. Stephen King, who knows this world, would definitely have somebody shuddering at the sight of such a wall. But, by not saying whether this wall is tacky, or somehow beautiful, Heim conveys the idea that someone took the time to clip the images and put them on display. That this wall forms a counterpart to the many surfaces throughout the book on which the faces of the missing have been taped, stapled or tacked goes without saying, and it goes unsaid. Almost any other writer would draw arrows, bring up the background music or have someone comment on the similarity.
This highly visual book, dealing with doubt, is, nevertheless, naturalistic. It is attuned to mood. Scott Heim's writing reminds me of photo-realist painting. If done right, a painting which looks like a photograph can be startling in a way a photograph cannot. So, what is real is not necessarily the point of WE DISAPPEAR. Ambiguity isn't even the point. But if we allow ourselves to look, we can sometimes see ourselves.

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04/04/08

LARRY rated it:

bookshelves: fake_ho, literature

Read in June, 2008

As posted in [http://www.amazon.com]:

*We Disappear* is a haunting novel about a mother and her grown son poring over missing children cases.

A young boy has gone missing, which Scott gets a call from his mother, Donna, asking him to come down to Kansas from Manhattan to solve this crime together. Addicted to meth, Scott relents and because his mother is sick with cancer.

However, he soon discovers, after his arrival, that his mother was once a victim of abduct...more

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06/07/09

Daniel rated it:

I just love Scott Heim's style of writing: the depth and verisimilitude of his characters, and how his pacing and momentum kept me so engulfed in this book that I read it pretty much in one sitting. You can feel how personal this story is to Scott, not just by naming the characters after himself and his mother, but also how he writes about their story with such intimacy and delicacy.

This almost read like a mystery novel to me, which I really enjoyed. It was like I was watching an epis...more

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05/09/08

Ray rated it:

Read in May, 2008

I read "Mysterious Skin" possibly when I was still in high school and really liked it. It was a fresh and different take on gay men's fiction (amidst a lot of boring coming out stories) and it was hard hitting and emotional and interesting.

"We Disappear" is Heim's first book in a while, and it seems to have emerged from the success of the film version of "Mysterious Skin."

It handles a mother-son relationship in a refreshing way for gay ficti...more

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03/26/08

Christopher rated it:

Read in August, 2008

This story of a mother and son is one of those "is it or isn't it?" stories of crypto-autobiography, in which the author names the main character after himself and inserts certain factual elements of his life, but leaves readers scratching their heads over what elements of the story are truth or fiction.

I was excited to see a new Scott Heim book had been published, since I was a fan of his first novel and it's been years since he's cranked out anything new. Because of this,...more

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12/27/07

Marcelo rated it:

Read in April, 2008

So much dies with people when their bodies cease to live. Memories. Secrets. Desires. A monumental moment in one's life can over time whittle away, as witnesses move away, forget, or die, as one grows old and replaces details as the years go by. The memories of countless lives disappear without a trace this way. Last week I got an e-mail from my mother that a cousin in Ecuador, only 31 years old, had just passed away suddenly from cancer. It's been 10 years since I saw this cousin, and in...more

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03/26/08

Sean rated it:

Read in April, 2008

I had higher hopes for this one too, based on what a phenomenal film "Mysterious Skin" was. And this one had the same surreal and depressing Kansas vibe to it. It starts out with an interesting enough premise. And was getting mildly intriguing and twisted. But then it just stalls and continues to go nowhere. Whatever whiff of a mystery that propels the first half of the book is essentially abandoned and vaguely wrapped up. Ultimately this is an elegy to the author's mom's final days o...more

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03/30/09

DC Hann rated it:

bookshelves: gay

Read in October, 2008

I found this book to be a drag to read, slow and drawn out. The story for me was strangely structured and difficult to appreciate and in the end I was just so disappointed with the book after having so much enjoyed Mysterious Skin.

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08/23/08

Paul rated it:

Read in September, 2008

recommended to Paul by: IOBC

"... sleepy as a breather of poppies", "... the sounds of geese: the doorhinge creak of their throats", "... her backyard garden with its doomed rosebushes and militant weeds", "... lipstick so thickly red it seemed she'd kissed ketchup". Scott Heim's beautifully poetic style captivated me from the first few pages. Wrapped in this wonderful style, though, is the gift of a marvelous story.

Scott, the protagonist, is a drug addict who travels ...more

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04/14/08

DJ TweakyClean rated it:

Read in April, 2008

Admittedly not the easiest read, because of the subject matter for me. However, I found myself engrossed completely, and finished it quickly. It's the story of a mother, dying from cancer, and her drug-addicted son, who returns home to Kansas from NYC, to care for her. While caring for her, he becomes obsessed with helping her solve the mystery of her own 7 day "disappearance" when she was a young girl. I liked the dream-like quality some of the scenes have, balanced with the star...more

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05/13/09

Efg rated it:

Read in March, 2009

This author definitely has a distinctive voice. Although I haven't read Mysterious Skin yet, the movie was one of my favorites of all time, and I know it closely parallels the book. I look forward to more novels from him.

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12/01/08

Ethan rated it:

Read in August, 2008

Stark but fertile, like the Midwest in winter. (Ha! I'm so pithy!) Seriously, a great and complex novel about coming home, memory, facing demons, and the imperfection of human relationships.

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05/26/08

Bruce Russo rated it:

Read in May, 2008

There is something so elusive and mysterious about people disappearing. Was it suicide? Were they kidnapped? Are they still alive? In this (dare I say meta?) novel the protagonist returns home to Kansas to take care of his dying mother who happens to be obsessed with disappearances. Both reader and protagonist want to fill in the blanks about Donna's own disappearance while she was a young girl coloring in a dinosaur coloring book in a park. Newspaper clippings are tapped to the glove compartmen...more

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06/11/09

Vestal McIntyre rated it:

Read in January, 2008

Dark, weird, heartrending: A terminally ill mother and her meth-addicted son reconnect though their obsession with a missing boy. This absolutely deserved the Lambda Literary Award it received.

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12/14/08

Erin rated it:

Don't bother. A boring, convoluted mystery with an ending that made no sense. This is why I generally tend to stay away from mysteries.

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04/08/09

Taylor rated it:

bookshelves: 2009

Read in April, 2009

There's a messy sense of a plot in this. Yes, it's there, and I believe Heim thought hard about it, but that doesn't save it from appearing very, very scattered. Despite this, We Disappear is an enjoyable read, quick and easy, despite the fact it appears Heim wasn't entirely sure where he wanted to go with his plot, and likely didn't get the intended effect when he finally decided on his path.

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03/28/08

Tyler rated it:

Read in March, 2008

A few pages into We Disappear, I thought to myself, "this is definitely Scott Heim." That's a good thing. As with his other two novels, I found bits of myself in this book, which served to make me feel really connected to his writing. I waited years for Heim to put something else out, and am quite glad that it showed up, but I also lament the fact that it's over already. I demand that authors produce endless amounts of entertainment for me!

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06/20/08

Liz rated it:

Read in June, 2008

Scott Heim also wrote "Mysterious Skin," which didn't surprise me as this novel is equally cinematic. The writing is beautifully vivid and the story haunting. The use of kidnapping as a metaphor for both loss and the complex nature of love was thought provoking, if a bit overdone. I was fairly impressed with this novel, but I think some of the themes here hit a bit too close to home for me to give it an objective read.

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04/24/08

Pamela rated it:

Read in April, 2008

I was excited to read this after reading Heim's previous novel, Mysterious Skin, which was an excellent read. This one started slow but managed to turn around half-way through. It has successfully started my new focus of reading material: methamphetamine addiction. Although depressing subject matter, quite "addictive" as well.

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02/20/08

Renee rated it:

Read in August, 2008

so this author is fascinated with childhood trauma and growing up as a gay male. He has a very dark take on trauma (is there a light side) and his characters seem stuck in places they do not even know....the subject matter isn't for everyone and perhaps it is my dark side leaning but I enjoyed the book.

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