Difficulty Is Satisfying

Lover of Leaving (Pig Roast, 2025), the latest book by literary iconoclast and DIY savant Lisa Carver (aka Lisa Suckdog), ends with her friend Frances launching into an interpretive dance in a white nightgown next to a dead rosebush before falling in and letting the thorns rip into her skin. She eats a decaying flower and strips naked, continuing to dance as she moves further into the dark. Carver continues to feel Frances’s spirit even as she grows distant. This is what it’s like to finish reading Lover of Leaving: Carver is naked, bleeding, slowly dancing away from the reader, and we can still feel her presence resonating within us.