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Monday
Jun232008

BOOKS: Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity

The B List -- Books I Like



Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity
by Kerry Cohen
(Hyperion, 2008)


Hardcover, 210 pgs, $21.95 U.S.

What it's about: Another difficult (subject), but fascinating book about dysfunctional families. The child of divorce and parents who never grew up enough to take care of their children, Kerry Cohen painstakingly recounts her coming-of-age in New Jersey in the eighties: divorce, drugs, drinking, dangerous behavior and promiscuity..."I slept with close to forty boys and men before I figured out doing so was not serving me well..." (page 1)

What I liked: Riveting as a grown-up girl who can identify with Kerry Cohen's desperate quest for love and stability in a life turned upside-down by divorce and abandonment. Equally intriguing to see her self-discovery and growth as a writer, as she mentions degree programs and writer's workshops she attended, where she found writing as "The first thing, other than boys, that feels meaningful to me, that I can feel in my veins, can literally feel moving its way through me like a drug." (page 157)

Why I didn't LOVE it: Equally as riveting, in a more horrifying way, as the mother of a daughter at just the same age Kerry was when her world fell apart and the endless quest began toward discovering her own strength and peace. Unfortunately, her path was a rough one, through neglect, drugs, sex and inappropriate behavior. This is not fun reading, nor a book you'd want to leave out on the coffee table.

You might like Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity, if you liked:
Lullabies for Little Criminals by Heather O'neill
Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls
Ophelia Speaks: Adolescent Girls Write About Their Search for Self

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