Synopsis
This is a startling novel - as much for the power and beauty of the writing as for its vivid, searing tale of life on the road as a stripper in Canada.
Sarah is the product of a university family that blew angrily apart and the survivor of a childhood disease that meant lonely years spent in the grip of an insensitive medical establishment. Now, scarred in more ways than one, she is a seventeen-year-old high school dropout trying to make a living in the recession. Prospects are dim, and soon she is "Tabitha," heading out on the circuit of motels and strip-bars through the mining towns and suburbs of a seemingly bucolic West Coast.
On-stage, dressed in elaborate costumes, she offers a vision of a sex and beauty. Off-stage, she tries to befriend the bikers and strippers and populate her life on the road, but friendships are fleeting when home is a Greyhound bus or a room behind a neon sign on the highway.
Diana Atkinson paints a poignant, darkly humorous portrait of the reality behind voyeurism and desire. Delving into the shadowy moments of sex and survival, her work flashes with loss and beauty and a true empathy for those who live on the margins.
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About the Author
Diana Atkinson was born and raised in Vancouver. She is currently studying at Concordia University in Montreal.
From the Back Cover
"An unprecedented Canadian novel--a startlingly confident account of the female experience in the underbelly of Canadian society... A literary achievement." --The Globe and Mail
"[Atkinson] takes us on a remarkable journey into the heart and soul of a woman who attempts to survive with dignity... An important new writer." --Caryl Phillips
"This brave and beautiful book is testimony to the power of language to transform our lives, to keep us whole. It lays bare a society we ordinarily avoid seeing, and makes us look." --Isabel Huggan
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From the Inside Flap
artling novel - as much for the power and beauty of the writing as for its vivid, searing tale of life on the road as a stripper in Canada.
Sarah is the product of a university family that blew angrily apart and the survivor of a childhood disease that meant lonely years spent in the grip of an insensitive medical establishment. Now, scarred in more ways than one, she is a seventeen-year-old high school dropout trying to make a living in the recession. Prospects are dim, and soon she is "Tabitha," heading out on the circuit of motels and strip-bars through the mining towns and suburbs of a seemingly bucolic West Coast.
On-stage, dressed in elaborate costumes, she offers a vision of a sex and beauty. Off-stage, she tries to befriend the bikers and strippers and populate her life on the road, but friendships are fleeting when home is a Greyhound bus or a room behind a neon sign on the highway.
Diana Atkinson paints a poign
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Highways and Dancehalls
Seller: ThriftBooks-Dallas, Dallas, TX, U.S.A.
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Paperback. Condition: Very Good. No Jacket. May have limited writing in cover pages. Pages are unmarked. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less. Seller Inventory # G0394281624I4N00