Towelhead: A Novel (平装)
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品牌: Alicia Erian
基本信息出版社:Simon & Schuster (2008年7月15日)外文书名:阿拉伯佬平装:336页正文语种:英语ISBN:1416589309条形码:9781416589303产品尺寸及重量:20.8 x 13.7 x 2.5 cm ; 295 gASIN:1416589309商品描述内容简介The year is 1991. When Jasira's mother finds out what has been going on between her boyfriend and her thirteen-year-old daughter, she has to make a choice -- and chooses to send Jasira off to Houston Texas, to live with her father. A remote disciplinarian prone to explosive rages, Jasira's father is unable to show his daughter the love she craves -- and far less able to handle her feelings about her changing body.Bewildered by extremes of parental scrutiny and neglect, Jasira begins to look elsewhere for affection. Saddam Hussein has invaded Kuwait, and high school has become a lonely place for a "towelhead." When her father meets, and forbids her to see, her boyfriend, it becomes lonelier still. But there is always Mr. Vuoso -- a neighboring army reservist whose son Jasira babysits. Mr. Vuoso, as Jasira discovers, has an extensive collection ofPlayboymagazines. And he doesn't seem to think there's anything wrong with Jasira's body at all.Painfully funny, tender, and sexually charged,Towelheadis that rare thing: a gloriously readable novel unafraid to take risks. The story of a girl failed by her parents and by a conflicted America,Towelheadis an ultimately redemptive and moving work that none of us can afford to ignore.编辑推荐Amazon.com Review
Thirteen-year-old Jasira wants what every girl wants: love and acceptance and the undivided attention of whoever she's with. And if she can¹t get that from her parents, then why not from her mother's boyfriend, or her father's muscle-bound neighbor, Mr. Vuoso? Alicia Erian¹s incandescent debut novel,Towelhead, will ring true for readers who remember the rarely poetic transition from childhood to young adulthood. Jasira is a creature of contradiction: both innocent (reading romantic intentions into the grossest displays of lust) and oddly clear-sighted, especially when it comes to the imbalance of power, and the things we do for love. When her mother exiles her to Houston to live with Jasira's strict, quick-to-anger Lebanese father, she quickly learns what aspects of herself to suppress in front of him. In private, however, she conducts her sexual awakening with all the false confidence that pop culture and her neighbor'sPlayboymagazines have provided.Jasira tells her story with candor and glimmers of dark, unexpected humor--as when she describes her mother's boyfriend Barry's assistance in her personal grooming: "A week later, Barry broke down and told her the truth. That he had shaved me himself. That he had been shaving me for weeks. That he couldn't seem to stop shaving me." The freshness of her narrative voice setsTowelheadapart from the sentimental or purely harsh treatment of similar subject matter elsewhere, and makes the novel a promising follow-up to Erian¹s well-regarded short story collection,The Brutal Language of Love.--Regina Marler--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.
From Publishers Weekly
Erian (The Brutal Language of Love) takes a dogged, unflinching look at what happens as a young woman's sexuality blooms when only a predatory neighbor is paying attention. After 13-year-old Jasira is sent to live with her father in Houston ("I didn't want to live with Daddy. He had a weird accent and came from Lebanon"), she finds herself coming of age in the shadow of his old world, authoritarian ideas, which include a ban on tampons (they're for married women, he insists) and a friendship with a boy who's black. Trapped between her father's rigidity and a wider culture that seems without rules, Jasira is left to handle puberty on her own, as well as her budding sexual desire and an ongoing longing for love and acceptance. Her creepy neighbor, Mr. Vuoso, senses her desires, and she responds eagerly to his sexual overtures. His willingness to eroticize her is heightened by how exotic—as well as distasteful—he finds her, a half–Middle Eastern child living in America on the eve of the first Gulf War. He hires Jasira to baby-sit for his son, and it's clear that their relationship will destroy them. The writing is not subtle—indeed, it can be quite clunky—but as a meditation on race, adolescence and alienation, the novel has moments of power.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.
FromBookmarks Magazine
Much of the debate overTowelheadcenters on its controversial title, a racist slur referring to Arab-Americans. It’s just one risk of many that Erian takes in her first novel. Most critics praised the mix of blunt sexuality and humor, as well Erian’s depiction of racism of all sorts, from the classmates who call Jasira "towelhead" to Jasira’s own father, who makes bigoted distinctions between North African Arabs and African Americans. A few, however, found the graphic sex gratuitous and the larger political issues unexplored. They also disagreed about whether Jasira’s continued naiveté throughout the novel was poignant and sad, or merely tiresome and annoying.Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.
FromBooklist
Barry, the boyfriend of 13-year-old Jasira's mother, enjoys shaving Jasira's pubic hair. After Jasira's mom finds out, she ships Jasira off to live with her Lebanese father, whom Jasira has never liked. While Barry fetishized Jasira's body, her father seems disgusted by it--he yells at her, for instance, when she comes to breakfast before fully dressing and is clearly appalled when Jasira gets her first period. Their new next-door neighbor proves an even graver threat than Barry--soon, he sexually assaults Jasira, who feels like she can't go to her father since he already finds her body disgusting and regularly hits her for failing to follow his arcane rules. Jasira's narration is so relentlessly focused on her sexuality and the horrifying abuse she suffers that it becomes hard to read. The historical context--the novel is set before and during the first Gulf War--may be intended as parable, but Jasira's pain consumes the novel so fully that it overwhelms political symbolism. Instead, it is Jasira's straightforward, understated voice that gives power to this heartbreaking, utterly realistic story.John Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to theHardcoveredition.
Review
'An arch, coyly sexy book that's as nervy as its title! Erian gives this gutsy book its full share of unthinkable questions' -- New York Times 'Sexy, sad and subtly written! a ferociously funny, tartly individual voice' -- Scotland on Sunday 'At once innocent and knowing, childlike and sinister' -- Independent--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"Alicia Erian is one of the finest young writers to come along in a decade -- fierce, smart, funny, and wise. AndTowelheadis an extraordinary debut novel. It's sexy, disturbing, joyful and deep, and maybe just a little too real for comfort."-- Bill Roorbach, author ofBig BendandThe Smallest Color
"Alicia Erian's gripping debut novel fearlessly enters love's gray areas and darkest corners. The character's voice casts a slow and subtle spell. Before you know it, you're convinced the bad guys are good guys and the heroes are villains. I couldn't put it down."-- Cathy Day, author ofThe Circus in Winter
"Alicia Erian's unflinching depiction of a teen's survival is accurate and artful, and it offers a glimpse of true triumph. This marvelous book further confirms Erian as a writer to admire."-- Darin Strauss, author ofChang and EngandThe Real McCoy
"InTowelheadAlicia Erian accomplishes an extraordinarily difficult thing: She illuminates a timeless, ageless theme, our inevitable human struggle for selfhood and meaningful connection to others. This is a brilliant first novel."-- Robert Olen Butler
