Back when she was calling herself Kerry Cohen Hoffmann, the author of Loose Girl: A Memoir of Promiscuity wrote her first young adult novel Easy. It's the story of a self-destructively promiscuous girl who has a sister, a needy post-divorce mother and a father with a new girlfriend. Fast- forward a publishing cycle or two, and we have Loose Girl, Cohen's memoir of a self-destructively promiscuous girl who has a sister, a needy post-divorce mother and a father with a new girlfriend. I think we see a pattern emerging, as Hillary Clinton might say. I'm not sure why Loose Girl was necessary. The title, the cover photo and the back-cover excerpt ("I slept with close to 40 boys and men before I figured out doing so was not serving me well") intend to titillate. Problem is, such a book necessarily serves a double purpose. On one hand it wants to entice. On the other it delivers a moral payoff: The sex was bad. Such a contradiction would be hard for any writer to manage, and Cohen can't make it work. Rather than a compelling tale of modern sexuality, Loose Girl is a milquetoast rendering of crappy sex and icky moments. Maybe I've just had a shit erotic life, but there was nothing in the book I found especially disturbing. Additionally, some of Cohen's assumptions about gender are reductive and offensive. I guess she's not quite over it all. On her website there's a photo of one of her "boys," as she calls them. Next to it she's written: "I had to distort Eli's face to protect his privacy, but, believe me, he was hot." Kerry, honey, we don't care. We just wanted a good read. Oh well.
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1. A Reader said... on May 21, 2008 at 09:52AM
“The author of this ... review? Can you call it that? Made not one single substantive critique of the work. Instead she attacked the author as a person. Translate this one into: Hello, I'm 12 and I'm jealous and I don't know how to get over it so I'll just make some broad and empty statements, not back them up with any thought, and end with a personal insult. Liz, grow up.”
2. swthrtalma said... on Jul 4, 2008 at 05:51PM
“I disagree with Liz on her review. Its to be expected though, not everyone can relate. She might be caught in her own world, not wanting to accept that women have and continue struggling with finding their identity and wanting to feel accepted, by men. I loved the book.”