Eros and
Thanatos 2002
Have You Seen Me?
Laura Denham
Carroll & Graf Publishers, New York
Publication date: 2002
245 pp. $12.00
It’s easy to see why Have You
Seen Me?, the debut novel by San Francisco writer Laura Denham, has
been chosen as an autumn 2002 pick for Barnes and Noble’s Discover Great
New Writers series. Though the actions, characters and accoutrements of the
story tend towards the seedy and vile, the writing itself is clean, effective
and unpretentious. The first person protagonist, Juliet (yes, Juliet),
remains a compelling and sympathetic character throughout, despite tramping
through the various climes of erotic dance, pornography, prostitution, and worst
of all, hippy-style commune living. (I know—you can almost feel the collective
shudder.)
The wicked spiral starts early for
Juliet. At sixteen, a somewhat voluntary deflowering at the hands of her father’s
best friend leads to an involuntary case of Hepatitis B, but it also infects her
with a sense of the power dynamic inherent in the sexual act. Leaving her Santa
Cruz home for a deathtrap apartment in the “groin” of Frisco, she embarks on
a journey of inverted empowerment—read: sex, drugs, very little rock and roll.
Yet through all the endless hotel rooms, money shots and opportunities for
mercenary abasement, the character of Juliet remains largely unstained thanks to
the extraordinary control of the author. Denham’s laconic prose flows dry and
biting as a Sapphire martini sans vermouth, lulling and intoxicating the reader
until he/she is incapable of holding Juliet accountable to any sort of common
moral standard. Yes, she looks at the world through a pair of self-centered,
irony-tinged spectacles, but her gaze is most scathing when she directs it
towards the mirror, and it is the unsentimental realism of the reflection that
engages our sympathy without ever stooping to beg for it. (How can you not feel
a tug for a twenty-three-year-old whose cheesecake shots are so pallid and
appalling they’re sold to a porn magazine entitled Over Forty? This is
funny, human stuff.) Have You Seen Me? is rife with stark humor and
masterful perceptions about the human animal. Given that this is only her debut
novel, the wise among us would be well advised to be on the lookout in the
future for some truly amazing things from Laura Denham.
Perhaps a better title would have
been Have You Read Me?—because you really should read this book.
Highly recommended.
– CAW –
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