From the Italian-born author, now a Paris resident, an unappetizing
little tale about a young woman; this is Jabes' first book to be
published in the U.S.When Alice saunters through the streets of
Rome, old men and boys on scooters stop to stare. When another
woman compliments her on her extravagant high heels, Alice offers
shy, but pleased, thanks. When she looks in the mirror, Alice loves
what she sees - until her father tells her, "If you're a woman,
you're either beautiful, or you're nice You are not beautiful, so
you must be nice." In an attempt to restore the sense of self
destroyed by this casually cruel statement, Alice begins eating. In
her effort to be nice to men, Alice becomes a prostitute. These two
phenomena coalesce - rather stickily - in a unique sexual
specialty: Alice performs fellatio while eating. This makes her
very popular with a very specific clientele for a time, but,
ultimately, Alice becomes so squalidly voluminous that her
customers dissipate. Out of money and out of food, she finally
turns herself into a grand meal for two escaped mental patients.
That contemporary young women are unhealthily concerned with their
appearance should come as a surprise to no one. This is one of the
rare points on which feminist psychologists and "family values"
types agree, and Jabes doesn't offer any new perspective on the
issue with her greasy, gruesome little fable. Nor does this novella
function as erotica; it's useful neither as food porn nor as the
more traditional type. Alice's feasts of calamari fritters, spiced
olives, gorgonzola and raspberry ice cream are rendered as mere
grocery lists, and the sex scenes are equally perfunctory. Indeed,
pretty much everything in this story is abbreviated - not in the
universal and resonant shorthand of myth or fairy tale, but with a
rather presumptuous carelessness. The publisher offers this slender
volume as part of a series of "short European fiction," and they're
not kidding about "short": Even a slow, attentive reader should be
able to get through it in under an hour. The food here is terrible,
and the portions are too small. (Kirkus Reviews)
There is nothing wrong with Alice. She is beautiful, young,
intelligent and happy, living in Rome, enjoying its sights, food,
fashion, and gleefully casting aside any man who dares to show an
interest in her. She is untouchable and revels in the natural power
she holds over the opposite sex. As she elegantly struts down Romes
busy streets, her legs whisper "catch me if you can." Then her
father tells her one day she is "no Marilyn Monroe" and that she
"must be nice to men" in order to find her prince. The pathway to
self-destruction opens up immediately for the self-obsessed beauty
queen, whose self-image quickly takes a nose dive. Wounded by these
hurtful comments from a father she barely sees, Alice begins to
fill her gaping hole of anxiety with food: calzone and mozzarella,
flavoured ice creams, chocolate tarts and pizza. Growing huger by
the day, Alice loses all sense of refinement and allows herself to
be used by countless men. Some pay her with money and others with
food, which she eats as she offers her body and her speciality the
ice cream cornet. Is this what being nice means? Presenting matters
of body image and the self, Alice is a surreally comic tale with
dark undertones and serious links to body dismorphia, depression
and madness. It casts an interesting and original light on the way
the female body is presented in society today, and subtly displays
the connection between apparent image and self-esteem.
General
Is the information for this product incomplete, wrong or inappropriate?
Let us know about it.
Does this product have an incorrect or missing image?
Send us a new image.
Is this product missing categories?
Add more categories.
Review This Product
No reviews yet - be the first to create one!
Welcome to Loot.co.za!
Sign in / Register |Wishlists & Gift Vouchers |Help | Advanced search
