Hypnotism Made Easy

Part voyage of self-discovery, part tale of eroticism, masochism, and sexual adventure, Hypnotism Made Easy is narrated by Cora, a young woman who comes across a book entitled Hypnotism Made Easy. Hypnotism becomes the device for the girl's adolescent rebellion, through which she begins to perceive the world and develop her growing talents as hypnotist. Slowly, Cora's sexual energies awaken, "hypnotizing" those around her. Beginning with the first pages of the novel, where Cora quotes from the manual on hypnotism, she literally attempts to entrance the reader ("...You are calm, you are getting sleepy..."). Then, at age sixteen, Cora encounters the self-proclaimed "King of Hypnosis" - the magician Katz, who takes her on as an apprentice, forcing her to degrade herself in public. Nimier disguises serious messages under ample coatings of wit, spirited writing, and sardonic commentary on the middle class. Hypnotism Made Easy is at once charming and frightening. It is about a woman's sexual awakening, and about the dangers - social and sexual - we encounter as we become adults.