Clown Girl: A Novel by Monica Drake
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Book Reviews of Clown Girl: A Novel
Book Review: One of the best books I read this year
Summary: 4 Stars
I did not expect to like this book; the opening chapter is surprisingly alienating. This is due to the fact that there is so little for a reader to hang onto that resembles anything remotely familiar, and I actually put the book down and read another one after reading that first chapter.
But then I decided to give the book another try, and I'm so glad that I did. The images and emotions evoked merely by the language used is reason enough to read the book. There is always a sense that there is more going on beneath the words on the page than what first appears. The narration of Nita (or Clown Girl) is witty and usually fun to read, and it is this first-person narration that finally drew me in, and once I began caring about what happened to Nita, I was hooked, and willing to accept that this novel is a complete caricature, a representation. It is one of the best-written, original, and satisfying books I have read in a long time, and I recommend it, knowing that the content will not appeal to everyone.
I have one small concern with the way one of the major themes of the novel is presented. Various internal monologues and conversations throughout the book indicate that Nita is coming to terms with the fact that she can make her own choices, that life does not or should not just happen to her.
This idea is presented attractively, if somewhat simplistically. The novel does such a good job of demonstrating (sometimes heavy-handedly) the fallacy of going too far to the opposite extreme-- that some people blame their circumstances and social situations for everything they personally do that is immoral or wrong-- that it ends up ringing somehow slightly false by not acknowledging the role that social life does play in shaping our choices and free will, especially considering the ending. Although, I found the ending and Nita's epiphany extremely empowering, realistically, it is doubtful that it would have occurred if she had not met police officer Jerrod in the opening chapter-- who not only suggested quite strongly several times that she could make different choices, but held himself out as a strong anchor of social support when she was finally ready to do so.
It is difficult to have an option in your range of choices that you are either completely unaware of or do not deem possible. Yet, because the book does not either directly or indirectly acknowledge this, it veers dangerously close to a mentality that, in part, blames victims for their own victimization. Nita is both an empowered actor, and an unfortunate victim, but she is not really given authentic credit for being either.
Despite this intellectual quibble, the book receives my high praise and should be widely read by those who are looking for something a little different.
Book Review: Hit my funny bone, but it just hurt
Summary: 3 Stars
"Finish the first fifty pages!," I kept saying. "You got through 100; that's a good portion." "Chuck, where are the laughs?" "Who didn't see this coming from a mile away." These were just a few of various comments I huffed and puffed as I made my way through this perfect example of forced dialouge and 'jokes.' I was all too thankful to finally read that...*spoiler alert*...they (I'll leave it as they) broke up. Take it from me, the ending serves as the perfect analogy to anyone thinking of picking up this book. This book is like a relationship: it's better to end on a good note than find out all its faults and decide only way too late that it wasn't the right fit for you. Of course, this comes after much self loathing and questioning of one's ethics and integrity. Avoid having to come up with all this relationship stuff and never pick up the book. Never. That being said, it's a fairly light read when you can actually start the page turning, but you will be forced to endure some very large pockets of very weak and boring, boring clown fiction. 3/5 stars is being nice.Book Review: Depressing, hilarious, unconventional, and universal all at once
Summary: 4 Stars
Journalist Charlie LeDuff wrote that "The job of the clown is to never reveal this one simple truth: life is horrible." Well, Monica Drake breaks this rule, along with many others of the "Clown Code of Ethics", in just about every chapter of Clown Girl.
You'll read in the Palahniuk introduction that this novel creates its own reality, and it definitely does. Drake pulls you into the hilariously depressing world of Baloneytown (adjacent to ForSalesville) and tells the story of a girl trapped in poverty, illness, and complete delusion. Nita, (aka Sniffles, aka Clown Girl) walks the streets in full clown attire as she desperately searches for solutions. She usually only self-destructs even more. She repeatedly ends up in hospitals, police stations, and bars as everything in her life goes wrong one step at a time.
The story starts out with Nita having practically nothing of emotional or material value. She lost her baby to a miscarriage and her parents to emancipation. She loses the rest, including her dog, Chance, and her rubber chicken, Plucky, within the first few chapters. As things get desperate, she compromises her sacred art of clowning by "clown-whoring" herself out to corporate clients and worse. As far as the romantic side of things goes, Nita can't get her mind off Rex Galore, the love of her life who took off for Clown College San Francisco and never calls back. She finds herself avoiding, yet still trying to sneak peaks of a blonde cop who seems to come to her rescue every time she's in trouble. All this while she's still trying to develop her clown acts, Nita gets distracted and despondent. She's a girl whose life is defined by abandonment, so she has that fake tough, self-reliant attitude to cover up her desperate need for help. In classic clown fashion, she shields herself with jokes and acts.
Drake uses tons of clown details and the book is radically bizarre in subject matter. Who knew there was so much to the life of clowns? You may find it hard to relate at first, but no doubt this book represents universal human struggles as well as any great modern novel. Baloneytown seems all too similar to a lot of American cities, and Nita is a character that seems all too similar to many American artists. Drake deserves lots of credit for taking something many people are unfamiliar with and making it absolutely real. The fact that it's so unconventional makes it that much sweeter when you're immersed in the reality of Clown Girl.
Will Nita find her lost Chance? Will Rex call back? Will she let the downtrodden culture break her? Will she blame society? You'll have to take the trip through Baloneytown yourself, and I highly encourage it.
Book Review: Dark, Dank and Delicious
Summary: 5 Stars
Recently I read somewhere that great novels aren't written anymore - certainly it's true that great novels aren't often published anymore. but Clown Girl stands as a shiny exception. Through spare dialogue, brutal imagery and divine comedy Drake pulls the reader into a vivid world that is mesmerizing, unkind, post-modern and somehow redeeming.
If I wrote, "Drake compromises no character to explore complex issues of identity, role and class stereotyping within the gen X slacker world" I would give only a partial impression of her novel. Within this matrix are witty observations and hyperbolic plot lines that additionally provide a surreal, captivating, and yet wholly believable narrative.
The clown who makes us laugh, makes us cry, the clown who laughs to cover her own tears are all here in a tale filled with tricks--in every sense of that word. In her crisp, poetic, slight-of- hand, Zen-like style she evokes a landscape where the images are drawn with only a few strokes of her deft ink brush. Rarely have I read anything so fresh, different, and curious.
As the person said, who lent Clown Girl to me insisting I would like it, "It is really good." It is not, of course "good" or "really good", it is brilliant and gives me hope that a new generation of talent is out there, pushing us forward, finding yet a different and fascinating way to tell a story.
Book Review: Funny concept, great voice
Summary: 4 Stars
There are a number of places that are laugh out loud funny in this offbeat first novel. I, too, found this book because I loved Geek Love so much. Indeed, it does not stand up to that book for depth of plot or character, but it is an entertaining read. As others have said, this feels like it started life as a short story and probably would work best in that format, or perhaps a novella, but I did enjoy it nonetheless. Some of the characters and story elements are a bit cliche, but it's a breath of fresh air from all the bestseller stuff that takes itself so seriously. If you like quirky and oddball, this one's for you.
I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next. Speaking of which, where's Katharine Dunn with a successor to Geek Love?