SHORTLISTED FOR THE BOOKER PRIZE
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
A fearless and heartbreaking novel about love, friendship and incarceration, from the author of the internationally acclaimed The Flamethrowers.
‘Astounding… this year’s must-read’ ANNE ENRIGHT
Romy Hall is starting two consecutive life sentences at Stanville Women’s Correctional Facility. Her crime? The killing of her stalker.
Inside awaits a world where women must hustle and fight for the bare essentials. Outside: the San Francisco of her youth. The Mars Room strip club where she was once a dancer. Her seven-year-old son, Jackson.
As Romy forms friendships over liquor brewed in socks and stories shared through sewage pipes her future seems to unfurl in one long, unwavering line – until news from beyond the prison bars forces Romy to try and outrun her destiny.
* Pre-order Rachel Kushner’s new novel, Creation Lake, now *
‘Breathtaking’ VOGUE
‘One of our most outstanding modern writers’ STYLIST
‘Gritty, empathetic, finely rendered’ MARGARET ATWOOD (on Twitter)
- ISBN10 1448190592
- ISBN13 9781448190591
- Publish Date 7 June 2018 (first published 1 May 2018)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher Vintage Publishing
- Imprint Vintage Digital
- Format eBook (EPUB)
- Pages 352
- Language English
Reviews
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The bulk of the story is about Romy, an exotic dancer who kills a man who is stalking her and is sent to jail for it for life. She's strangely dispassionate about it, except when she's thinking about the son she has left behind and will never see again. But even then, he eventually ends up to be more of a bargaining chip, a way for her to get attention. And like Romy's story, I liked the stories of many of the other characters that are woven in, even though I found everyone (including Romy) to be a stereotypical "type". My biggest problem was that nothing tied together in the end.
And speaking of the end, I hated it. I literally turned the "page" on my kindle expecting more and found nothing. I guess I'm not a fan of an ambiguous ending. I think it really added to my annoyance that I finished the book and immediately though "that's it?"
There are many, many stellar reviews of this book online, and it was long-listed for a Man Booker prize, so it's entirely possible that I'm missing something big here. I guess you'll have to read it yourself to decide.