Why do I hate novels with this kind of plot? And why are so many of them being written these days? The "young girl who leaves home without a plan and no clue novel" is everywhere This is the plot summary for Fay a novel by Larry Brown. Read on:
Fay Jones had no education, hardly any shell you can't call what her father's been tryin’ with her since she grew up "love." So, at the ripe age of seventeen, Fay Jones leaves home. She lights out alone, wearing her only dress and her rotting sneakers, carrying a purse with a half pack of cigarettes and two dollar bills. Even in 1985 Mississippi, two dollars won't go far on the road. She's headed for the bright lights and big times and even she knows she needs help getting there. But help's not hard to come by when you look like Fay. There's a highway patrolman who gives her a lift, with a detour to his own place. There are truck drivers who pull over to pick her up, no questions asked. There's a crop duster pilot with money for a night or two on the town. And finally there's a strip joint bouncer who deals on the side. At the end of this suspenseful, compulsively readable novel, there are five dead bodies stacked up in Fay's wake. Fay herself is sighted for the last time in New Orleans. She'll make it, whatever making it means, because Fay's got what it takes: beauty, a certain kind of innocent appeal, and the instinct for survival.
I don’t mean to be disingenuous. I really don’t know why these match girl novels, almost exclusively written by men, are all over the place.
Is it simply a function of male boomers who now have daughters working out their conflicted feminist schadenfreude?
SK
Hahahahaha- totally. These "authors' are total pervs. I hope no one is unfortunate enough to have to call one "dad."
Posted by: Jennifer Justice | February 15, 2008 at 10:47 AM