Ambitious, on occasion accomplished, but the question is still: Why?
British author Barnard (Poker Face, not reviewed) offers an anemic study of a young woman’s growing involvement in the world of London strip clubs.
Why does Belle George want to be a stripper? Take your pick: (1) She may be a lesbian and hopes that overexposure to female flesh will decrease her desire; (2) Ungainly and unfeminine, she thinks working as a costumed dancer might cure her oafishness; (3) She wants to be in show business like her glamorous mother, who hosts a popular television program; or (4) She’s an emotional masochist. Unfortunately, none of these explanations is explored in any depth, making it rather unlikely that a naive, upper-class young woman would suddenly decide on a career even her fellow strippers want to escape. As the narrative begins, Belle auditions at Xanadu with Sylvie, a teenager who hopes a brief stint at the strip club will garner her the union card she needs to pursue a proper acting career. Since Sylvie has nowhere to go, Belle takes the girl to her roach-infested flat, hoping they’ll become best friends. The two go to rehearsals, and Belle gradually improves, eagerly awaiting the day when she will graduate from the burlesque chorus to her own solo strip routine. But the on-the-job camaraderie she wished for never materializes; the other strippers view her as a poser who has better options but chooses to slum it for fun. She sexually pursues her boss and is puzzled when nothing comes from her obvious advances. Finally, it’s apparent that there’s only one explanation for Belle’s inability to reflect on her circumstances or interact with those around her: she’s just not very bright. Barnard’s portrait of the strip-club subculture is fascinating, as is her exploration of Belle’s co-dependent relationship with her successful mother, but these qualities simply can't overcome a poorly drawn lead character.
Ambitious, on occasion accomplished, but the question is still: Why?Pub Date: Jan. 15, 2001
ISBN: 1-86049-551-6
Page Count: 230
Publisher: Virago/Trafalgar
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2000
A presold prefab blockbuster, what with King's Carrie hitting the moviehouses, Salem's Lot being lensed, The Shining itself sold to Warner Bros. and tapped as a Literary Guild full selection, NAL paperback, etc. (enough activity to demand an afterlife to consummate it all).
The setting is The Overlook, a palatial resort on a Colorado mountain top, snowbound and closed down for the long, long winter. Jack Torrance, a booze-fighting English teacher with a history of violence, is hired as caretaker and, hoping to finish a five-act tragedy he's writing, brings his wife Wendy and small son Danny to the howling loneliness of the half-alive and mad palazzo. The Overlook has a gruesome past, scenes from which start popping into the present in various suites and the ballroom. At first only Danny, gifted with second sight (he's a "shiner"), can see them; then the whole family is being zapped by satanic forces. The reader needs no supersight to glimpse where the story's going as King's formula builds to a hotel reeling with horrors during Poesque New Year's Eve revelry and confetti outta nowhere....
Back-prickling indeed despite the reader's unwillingness at being mercilessly manipulated.
Pub Date: Jan. 28, 1976
ISBN: 0385121679
Page Count: 453
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Sept. 26, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1976
PERSPECTIVES
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.
Passion, friendship, heartbreak, and forgiveness ring true in Lovering's debut, the tale of a young woman's obsession with a man who's "good at being charming."
Long Island native Lucy Albright, starts her freshman year at Baird College in Southern California, intending to study English and journalism and become a travel writer. Stephen DeMarco, an upperclassman, is a political science major who plans to become a lawyer. Soon after they meet, Lucy tells Stephen an intensely personal story about the Unforgivable Thing, a betrayal that turned Lucy against her mother. Stephen pretends to listen to Lucy's painful disclosure, but all his thoughts are about her exposed black bra strap and her nipples pressing against her thin cotton T-shirt. It doesn't take Lucy long to realize Stephen's a "manipulative jerk" and she is "beyond pathetic" in her desire for him, but their lives are now intertwined. Their story takes seven years to unfold, but it's a fast-paced ride through hookups, breakups, and infidelities fueled by alcohol and cocaine and with oodles of sizzling sexual tension. "Lucy was an itch, a song stuck in your head or a movie you need to rewatch or a food you suddenly crave," Stephen says in one of his point-of-view chapters, which alternate with Lucy's. The ending is perfect, as Lucy figures out the dark secret Stephen has kept hidden and learns the difference between lustful addiction and mature love.
There are unforgettable beauties in this very sexy story.Pub Date: June 12, 2018
ISBN: 978-1-5011-6964-9
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: March 19, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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