THE LIFE SWAP

by Nancy Weber ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 1, 1974

Weber gets a lot of mileage out of a cheap gimmick: if she wore someone else's perfume and nail polish, did her exercises, followed her diet, slept with her bed partner, could she perchance become that other person? In between her free-lance assignments for Viva, New Ingenue, Cosmopolitan and Gentlemen's Quarterly and soirees at trendy bars about town, she places a personal classified ad in The Village Voice: ""LET'S SWAP LIVES. . . Why? I want to know if people can get out of their skins."" After some jealous haggling over how to split the profits on the projected book that will tell all, Weber agrees with a radical feminist sociologist to go through with the whole cockamamie thing. Before the week is out, her alter ago begins to crack and imagines she has a mission to help ""Nancy -- bitch -- Machiavelli -- Pollyanna -- Barbie doll -- girl -- cunt -- sex object -- writer -- woman -- friend -- sister (and last real-life flapper)"" to be reborn, ""to 'see' for the first time in your life (as Don Juan does in Castaneda's books)."" Slander and recriminations on both parts take up the remainder of the account, and since it's Nancy's idea and Nancy's own book, naturally she gets the edge on the lying, deceitful flipped-out feminist. She concludes: ""Either it's plain what this book is about, or it will never be plain."" . . . It's the latter, isn't it, dear heart?

Pub Date: May 1, 1974

ISBN: 0595378218

Page Count: -

Publisher: Dial

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1974

Categories: NONFICTION