Clown Girl: A Novel

Clown Girl: A Novel
by Monica Drake

Clown Girl: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Monica Drake
Introduction: Chuck Palahniuk
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-01-04
ISBN: 0976631156
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Hawthorne Books

Book Reviews of Clown Girl: A Novel

Book Review: Just trust the good ratings for Clown Girl....
Summary: 5 Stars

I heard of Clown Girl while looking for something new to read. With Chuck Palahniuk being my favorite writer I of course checked his site recommendations, and there it was. It took me awhile to finally get my hands on but good ole Amazon.com helped me out. When I finally got it I was psyched, even though I knew virtually nothing about it except who the author was and that it was about clowns.

The book summary on the front flap totally misled me as to what the story actually was. I thought that the book was about a town called Baloneytown where everybody was a clown and 'clown girl' was just your average run of the mill clown struggling to keep up with all the other clowns around her. It's actually set in a regular town with regular people, and 'clown girl' is an artist turned clown who lives in a part of town everyone refers to as Baloneytown (because baloney is the best meat anyone in the area can afford) She's doing whatever clown gig comes her way so she can save up the money to send her clown boyfriend to clown college.

The book starts off with 'clown girl' ,or Sniffles, working just another clown gig on the side of the street. She explains how she specializes in religious balloon tying (which shows us how she is trying to do something more artistic rather than clowning with her life) the kids are too demanding, it's too hot, and when she asks for some water she is ignored because clowns aren't supposed to talk. So of course she suffers a heat stroke and falls to the ground leaving everyone, not concerned, but disappointed. (which shows us how badly her life is going) When she is saved by a cinammon scented policeman and taken to the hospital the book starts showing her life as it goes from bad to worse. She developes a strange attraction to the police officer(which is unacceptable in her neighborhood), she does her best to live with her drug dealing ex boyfriend and his new weightlifting girlfriend(though that environment gets worse and worse for her little dog Chance and herself as the new girlfriend developes a hatred for her), she severly injures herself during a private gig(which brings a mysterious "Clownophile" into her life), and her two clown buddies keep pushing her into more corporate gigs(which by the end veers dangerously close to prostitution)

So to conclude, the book is good and that's why I gave it five stars. Even though there isn't a huge plot that unfolds the more you read, if you feel like a goofy, semi-depressing story then I suggest you read Clown Girl. A very good debute by Monika Drake, I hope she hits us with something new in the future. LATE

Summary of Clown Girl: A Novel

Clown Girl lives in Baloneytown, a seedy neighborhood where drugs, balloon animals, and even rubber chickens contribute to the local currency. Against a backdrop of petty crime, she struggles to live her dreams, calling on cultural masters Charlie Chaplin, Kafka, and da Vinci for inspiration. In an effort to support herself and her layabout performance-artist boyfriend, Clown Girl finds herself unwittingly transformed into a "corporate clown," trapping herself in a cycle of meaningless, high-paid gigs that veer dangerously close to prostitution. Monica Drake has created a novel that riffs on the high comedy of early film stars ? most notably Chaplin and W. C. Fields ? to raise questions of class, gender, economics, and prejudice. Resisting easy classification, this debut novel blends the bizarre, the humorous, and the gritty with stunning skill.

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