Surviving Mae West - Softcover

RODD, PRISCILLA A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1933202076 ISBN 13: 9781933202075

Publisher: Vandalia Press, 2006

Synopsis

Tess, a West Virginian in New York City, finds herself among seedy brothels facing life as a prostitute. A number of trials test her in every way, leading to both understanding and misunderstanding among her friends and her family. Tess tells these stories of pain, joy, depression, loneliness, and endurance in her journal, and they will shock some readers and charm others. With the shadow of the Appalachians calling her back home, she desperately struggles to claim her individuality in a world of debauchery without the painful remnants of her past and fear of a fragmented future overwhelming her.

About this title

About the Author

Priscilla A. Rodd was born outside of Paw Paw, West Virginia, in an old farmhouse without running water or electricity. Her parents, who were Quaker activists, homeschooled Priscilla until she was eleven years old. She began public school the same year her family acquired indoor plumbing and a black-and-white television. Priscilla holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Pittsburgh. She currently teaches creative writing and lives in Charles Town, West Virginia, with her husband and fellow writer Deane Kern, and their two young sons.

From the Back Cover

Tess, a West Virginian in New York City, finds herself among seedy brothels facing life as a prostitute. A number of trials test her in every way, leading to both understanding and misunderstanding among her friends and her family. Tess tells these stories of pain, joy, depression, loneliness, and endurance in her journal, and they will shock some readers and charm others. With the shadow of the Appalachians calling her back home, she desperately struggles to claim her individuality in a world of debauchery without the painful remnants of her past and fear of a fragmented future overwhelming her.

From the Inside Flap

Tess, the protagonist/narrator of Surviving Mae West, is a young West Virginia woman, haunted by the trauma of a brutal rape. The novel opens on the day that Tess begins working as a prostitute in a New York City brothel, although her family believes she s an ordinary waitress in a Mexican restaurant. Rodd s novel utilizes a journal format, a structure that allows Tess to emerge with utter candor and realism as readers become privy to her secrets. Readers sink into Tess s complex inner world where intimacy is both dreaded and desired. Denise Giardina, acclaimed author of Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth, says of Tess: [She] can be exasperating, like watching a friend engage in self-destructive behavior. Yet we still care about her. Surviving Mae West is an uncensored story of survival and renewal, told by a narrator as unabashed as John Cleland s Fanny Hill (Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure), as flawed and plucky as Wally Lamb s Dolores Price (She s Come Undone), and as resilient as Dorothy Allison s Bone (Bastard Out of Carolina).

Edition details

• Publisher: Vandalia Press
• Publication date: 2006
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1933202076
• ISBN 13: 9781933202075
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208