“Unlocking Secrets: How Heather Bartel’s ‘Exit the Body’ Transforms Lost Souls into Unforgettable Journeys”
In exploring her subjects, Bartel makes use of unexpected references to the lives and work (including the use of lifted text in some instances, with detailed citations at the end of the book) of both historical and contemporary figures and cultural icons—including such seemingly disparate figures as Amelia Earhart, Sylvia Plath and the filmmaker David Lynch. She weaves these “real” people into her storytelling, including them as characters, using what is known and documented about their lives, and the body of work or record they have left behind, as touchstones from which she launches boldly into the territory of imagination, divination, speculation, particularly regarding matters where the “truth” can never be known with any degree of certainty.
