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The Pink Institution
Interweaving visceral, atmospheric prose with historical photographs, images and texts, The Pink Institution traces four generations of Mississippi women from their run-down, post-Civil War plantations to the modern-day trailer parks that house the youngest generations. As the impoverished decay of the Deep South expresses itself through their bloodlines, a new impression of Southern history and heritage emerges. The lyrical gravity and singular style of this unforgettable debut novel will transform the reader in its wake.
Selah Saterstrom’s writing has appeared in 3rd Bed and Pitkin Review. She is the editor of Soul Collections, a collection of prose and poetry written by at-risk teenagers in North Carolina. Born in Mississippi in 1974, she now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she teaches at Warren Wilson College.
Selah Saterstrom’s writing has appeared in 3rd Bed and Pitkin Review. She is the editor of Soul Collections, a collection of prose and poetry written by at-risk teenagers in North Carolina. Born in Mississippi in 1974, she now lives in Asheville, North Carolina, where she teaches at Warren Wilson College.
140 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2004
2 people are currently reading
856 people want to read
About the author
Selah Saterstrom
9 books110 followersSelah Saterstrom is the author of the novels Slab, The Meat and Spirit Plan, and The Pink Institution, all published by Coffee House Press. In 2016 Essay Press will publish a collection of her essays on Divinatory Poetics. She is the Director of Creative Writing at the University of Denver.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
May 26, 2015
I want to read this forever.
March 8, 2016
I don’t know how I let this sit on my desk for a few months. Yes, I am overwhelmed with a hunger for books, buying bookshelves to clear out the endless stacks that surround me.
I heard about Saterstrom from GoodReads. That review had me buying it immediately. I have a problem in this arena of jumping in and ordering, but have to say I am rarely steered in the wrong direction.
I wasn’t roped in from the start when I got a copy and opened it. After picking it up a few more times and moving further into it I realized the power and brilliance of this novel. I read it through twice.
The signposts of structure that Saterstrom uses are pitched off a cliff. This is not to be missed. Narrative, poetry, song, that all provide a generational hell in Dixie.
I must add a quote:
“You will expel a seed. Bitch hip dripping operating theater table edge. Girl Confederates, ride out to war. Oxidize Stirrup Bridge with hotlamp vaginal curdle smell. Jowl quiver overhang. Wrap it round. Glove will snatch corner air laid into iodine tile. Fleshpink powder-sucked, he shall pop the milky glove. Rifling through pockets of bloody Rebs, you are women now.”
Okay, I’m off the cliff!
The Pink Institution unites poetic prose, historic photographs and text: Mississippi women from run-down, post-Civil War plantations to modern day trailer parks. A bloodline that clutches in deep and doesn’t let go. Read it! WOW! LOVE!
I heard about Saterstrom from GoodReads. That review had me buying it immediately. I have a problem in this arena of jumping in and ordering, but have to say I am rarely steered in the wrong direction.
I wasn’t roped in from the start when I got a copy and opened it. After picking it up a few more times and moving further into it I realized the power and brilliance of this novel. I read it through twice.
The signposts of structure that Saterstrom uses are pitched off a cliff. This is not to be missed. Narrative, poetry, song, that all provide a generational hell in Dixie.
I must add a quote:
“You will expel a seed. Bitch hip dripping operating theater table edge. Girl Confederates, ride out to war. Oxidize Stirrup Bridge with hotlamp vaginal curdle smell. Jowl quiver overhang. Wrap it round. Glove will snatch corner air laid into iodine tile. Fleshpink powder-sucked, he shall pop the milky glove. Rifling through pockets of bloody Rebs, you are women now.”
Okay, I’m off the cliff!
The Pink Institution unites poetic prose, historic photographs and text: Mississippi women from run-down, post-Civil War plantations to modern day trailer parks. A bloodline that clutches in deep and doesn’t let go. Read it! WOW! LOVE!
May 10, 2020
God I read this in one sitting like I was gasping for air, I loved it so much that my stomach aches.
April 24, 2011
i loved this - crossgenre southern gothic novel/memoirish/poetry/prose/everything. the form shifts as time advances. fascinating and beautifully done. creepy and horrifying often, and emotionally blank in parts. there is an extended section on a Transformers pencil eraser that is terrific. i'd quote it but i'm in bed and don't want to move to get the book even though it's on the ground right next to me. excited to read Saterstrom's other book The Meat and Spirit Plan.
June 27, 2007
I just really, really loved this book. I'm a sucker for fucked up Southern familes for one, but also, Selah S. just writes the most beautiful, cracked and violent poetry-prose. Recommended for those who like Anne Carson but with a side of bloody mary and a smack in the jaw from your Uncle Beau.
March 19, 2009
This incredible book was given to me by an incredible man. It was an experience that was at the same time cleansing and poisoning. I can't recommend this book enough
November 30, 2024
If you're looking to read a plot driven story that has a clear beginning, middle, and end, with the purpose to figure out the end, then this is not for you, but wow was this incredible (and the end gets realized so well).
The Pink Institution is a scrapbook of words. In one sitting to read (about an hour), it takes these small portraits and puts them together in a way that makes something whole, even though it doesn't quite look like it makes one picture on the surface.
The best way I can describe Saterstrom's writing is simultaneously distant and so close. I don't know how she does it, but it's incredible. Like, She covers such long time spans and describes events in such a sparse amount of words, but somehow, you feel like she's describing things so closely and intimately. Despite not having gone through the things in The Pink Institution, I felt so close to it all. By the end, I "understood."
I first read The Meat and Spirit Plan, which is different from this book's plot and narration, though similar in language (and another book I love, and one that has inspired my own writing), but I definitely like the ending in TPI better.
Anyway, if you love books that turn poetry in some sort of scattered and beautiful and raw story, then this is for you. In some ways it reminded me of Love by Maya Eaten and The Suiciders by Travis Jeppesen, so if you're interested in those, then check this one out too.
The Pink Institution is a scrapbook of words. In one sitting to read (about an hour), it takes these small portraits and puts them together in a way that makes something whole, even though it doesn't quite look like it makes one picture on the surface.
The best way I can describe Saterstrom's writing is simultaneously distant and so close. I don't know how she does it, but it's incredible. Like, She covers such long time spans and describes events in such a sparse amount of words, but somehow, you feel like she's describing things so closely and intimately. Despite not having gone through the things in The Pink Institution, I felt so close to it all. By the end, I "understood."
I first read The Meat and Spirit Plan, which is different from this book's plot and narration, though similar in language (and another book I love, and one that has inspired my own writing), but I definitely like the ending in TPI better.
Anyway, if you love books that turn poetry in some sort of scattered and beautiful and raw story, then this is for you. In some ways it reminded me of Love by Maya Eaten and The Suiciders by Travis Jeppesen, so if you're interested in those, then check this one out too.
March 20, 2022
If it lingers in your thoughts well after you’ve finished and set down the book, then you know it’s good writing.
I think what I appreciated most from the form was the transition from past to present; the reflection of the disjointed and yet mirrored trauma experiences across these generations of women.
The beginning is marked by large spaces between individual words, there’s so much omitted and the image is fuzzy. As you move through the narrative, these women become more clear, the writing more compact. There is a sense of focalizing to a single point—the present, but you keep the scope of the past that comes before.
I think what I appreciated most from the form was the transition from past to present; the reflection of the disjointed and yet mirrored trauma experiences across these generations of women.
The beginning is marked by large spaces between individual words, there’s so much omitted and the image is fuzzy. As you move through the narrative, these women become more clear, the writing more compact. There is a sense of focalizing to a single point—the present, but you keep the scope of the past that comes before.
April 29, 2024
One of the most imaginative and masterful books I've ever read. Everything by Saterstrom is gold, but there's a special place in my heart for The Pink Institution since it was the first of her works that I read. Prepare to have all your notions of what a novel "is" completely challenged.
July 18, 2025
I bought this book because it was assigned reading for a workshop. I could relate to the stories the author shared as a former resident of a state that has a Southern culture. The writing style is unlike any I've encountered; I'd classify it as experimental.
September 2, 2017
Short and intense. The way it was structured, was confusing at times though.
August 25, 2017
breathtaking
November 28, 2017
I have no idea what I just read.
July 8, 2018
Holy shit, this book was good.
I read it a few years back and I think I enjoyed it even more on a second read.
I read it a few years back and I think I enjoyed it even more on a second read.
April 8, 2019
Um, I don’t even know what this. To call it a novel seems like more than a stretch. If it weren’t short enough to read in 1 day, I would not have finished it.
December 1, 2020
a southern gothic; a reckoning
February 25, 2021
Bodies, sweetmeats, generational trauma, depression like a hug, a gentle choking. It helps to have experienced a mental disorder to “get” this book, and I say that in the nicest way possible.
April 4, 2019
I would give this more like 3.5 stars. I want to explain why... this is my first review! There were passages that moved me so, the language.. just stunning. Poetry interwoven with prose. I think any woman should read this book about generations of women growing up in the South during a trying time in American history. It gives a unique spin on the travesties of post Civil war America, the patriarchal world in which women are often imprisoned. The book’s strength is also where it lacks at times... I found myself perplexed at what the author tried to say here and there, having to reread passages and even then, I had to just guess “maybe she means....” and move forward so I don’t wrack my brain haha. Almost too poetic, that it lost some of the narrative for me. But overall, a real gem of a read. Saterstrom definitely has a voice. I want to read more.
May 12, 2013
Impressions of Horror
Saterstrom, Selah (2004). The Pink Institution. St. Paul, MN: Coffee House Press.
This experimental novel is a story of four generations of Mississippi females, stretching from around 1940 to the early 2000’s, although “story” is too strong a term for what is presented, a set of impressions, poems, quotations and old photographs that imply lives of ignorance, filth, decay, brutality, alcohol, sickness and death. The girls are born into poverty, live in rot, are uneducated, abused, and confused, but somehow survive (most of them) into adult lives of poverty, alcohol, ignorance and abuse. Few rise above the subhuman level of a community that makes Yoknapatawpha county look aristocratic.
Much of the description focuses on body products and body functions, from sexuality (all kinds: marital, extramarital, childhood, rape, prostitution, masturbation, homosexual) to vomit, spit, piss, blood and poop. The mood is so unrelentingly bleak that a reader must wonder what the point is. Are we supposed to be shocked? It is not possible to shock a modern reader: everything’s already been said. Is it a sociological display about the unbreakable transgenerational cycle of poverty and ignorance? Well, that’s kind of old too.
On the plus side, this pointless excursion is presented in an extremely interesting way, with non-traditional typography, suggesting, for example, that the large spaces between words represent horrific experiences that cannot be articulated. Included are poems, pictures, and quotations, all of which contribute to the impressionistic mood. The genre of such storytelling is the category of prose poetry, I would say. The book itself is very handsomely constructed.
Overall, as an exemplar of prose poetry cum novel, the work is very successful. As a story, it isn’t.
Saterstrom, Selah (2004). The Pink Institution. St. Paul, MN: Coffee House Press.
This experimental novel is a story of four generations of Mississippi females, stretching from around 1940 to the early 2000’s, although “story” is too strong a term for what is presented, a set of impressions, poems, quotations and old photographs that imply lives of ignorance, filth, decay, brutality, alcohol, sickness and death. The girls are born into poverty, live in rot, are uneducated, abused, and confused, but somehow survive (most of them) into adult lives of poverty, alcohol, ignorance and abuse. Few rise above the subhuman level of a community that makes Yoknapatawpha county look aristocratic.
Much of the description focuses on body products and body functions, from sexuality (all kinds: marital, extramarital, childhood, rape, prostitution, masturbation, homosexual) to vomit, spit, piss, blood and poop. The mood is so unrelentingly bleak that a reader must wonder what the point is. Are we supposed to be shocked? It is not possible to shock a modern reader: everything’s already been said. Is it a sociological display about the unbreakable transgenerational cycle of poverty and ignorance? Well, that’s kind of old too.
On the plus side, this pointless excursion is presented in an extremely interesting way, with non-traditional typography, suggesting, for example, that the large spaces between words represent horrific experiences that cannot be articulated. Included are poems, pictures, and quotations, all of which contribute to the impressionistic mood. The genre of such storytelling is the category of prose poetry, I would say. The book itself is very handsomely constructed.
Overall, as an exemplar of prose poetry cum novel, the work is very successful. As a story, it isn’t.
January 28, 2008
It's been a while since I read this book, but since I'm currently reading Saterstrom's latest offering - The Meat and Spirit Plan - I wanted to give The Pink Institution a big thumbs-up. This book was a surprising find when I first read it and all the pieces I've read from Saterstrom since then (particularly in Sleeping Fish) have maintained the same high level of originality. Well worth your time.
December 7, 2007
If you like highly fragmented lyric fiction, check this out. If you don't, stay away. I love the Southernness of this story, the way Saterstrom tracks the generations through the females, the constant pulling together and breaking apart. Innovative.
January 28, 2008
I loved the end parts of this book which were in first person narrative, but most of the beginning and middle in third person were just too jumbled for me to care about the characters at all...interesting cross-genre text, though...
October 24, 2009
A visceral blend of poetry and prose, 1st and 3rd person, that loosely follows four generations of women's lives in the brutal, poverty-stricken post-Civil War South to the present day. Stark, beautiful, disturbing, and unique...
July 6, 2007
An amazing example of how a writer can provoke so much emotion and thought with so few words! The text is intimidating at first, but just dive in and experience it!
August 1, 2007
Poetic, sort of autobiography. Interesting
February 24, 2008
Brilliant. Inventive. Disturbed & disturbing. Can't wait to read her next book, The Meat and Spirit Plan. A truly exciting new writer.
May 7, 2009
This, Selah Saterstrom's first book, plays on some of my greatest fears, yet it is masterfully written, innovative, disruptive and new.
July 23, 2009
The Pink Institution is an fascinating hybrid text, both experimental and highly readable. She has a gift for pungent, matter-of-fact narration with austere yet vivid detail.
August 7, 2009
Short, brutal, affecting.
Combination of poetry and prose - language is fierce and lyrical.
Combination of poetry and prose - language is fierce and lyrical.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews