Fresh Girls and Other Stories [Paperback]

Evelyn Lau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1995

A collection of stories by the author of the critically acclaimed Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid draws on her shocking, seductive memories of the dark underside of life to probe the lives of women on the edge of society, sexuality, and sanity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Lau's ten short stories depict both emotional and physical pain. They all involve young women working as prostitutes in Vancouver, Canada, many of whom are emotionally involved with older married men and are suffering in their relationships. The feelings of the women toward their clients and toward their lovers are shown with honesty and clarity. Lau's stories also show the seamy side of life in the city. In "Fetish Night," a scene involving whipping and domination in a night club is described in detail. The title story, "Fresh Girls," portrays the feelings of the older women as they are replaced by newer, younger prostitutes. Although the subject matter is controversial, the stories are compelling and extremely well written. Recommended. [Lau's nonfiction Runaway: Diary of a Street was a best seller in her native Canada.-Ed.]-Stephanie Furtsch, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y.
--Stephanie Furtsch, New Rochelle P.L., N.Y.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

The pursuit of pleasure through pain is a mystery to many, but Lau, in her stark and disturbing stories of sadomasochism and prostitution, makes it comprehensible, arousing our compassion in place of disgust. A Canadian, Lau translated her experiences as a teenage prostitute and drug addict into the best-selling Runaway: Diary of a Street Kid. Here she delves further into the rage and gnawing emotional hunger that lead men and women to violent sexual extremes. Lau's narrators are drained of all emotion except loneliness and the desire for the frisson of clarity that physical pain ignites. In one tale, a dominatrix changes from her work clothes, black leather and spikes, to white lace and pink ribbons only to suffer the humiliation of being jilted by her married lover. An 18-year-old lets a pill-pushing psychiatrist hurt her; two young women watch a flogging at an S&M club, another whips herself with a chain. Lau conjures this claustrophobic, visceral, and wrenchingly human realm with glass-clear eyes and a steady hand, and we reel with the terrible beauty of her vision. Donna Seaman

Product Details

• Paperback: 109 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion (March 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786860588
• ISBN-13: 978-0786860586
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,587,006 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A page turner, I loved it., September 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Fresh Girls and Other Stories (Paperback)

this was such a great book. I first saw this book at a friends house and proceeded to pick it up. I was drawn in, and couldn't put it down. I had trouble finding it, but I odered it and It took me a few hours to read it from start to finish. I can't tell you how wonderful and exiting it was to read about someone who has a liking for s and m and related material. I found that I really related to this book, especially for someone who deals with depression every day. Lau is a great writer and I plan on buying all of her books. Highly reccommended, but as a warning, it does contain explcit material.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars an okay book, June 12, 2003

By 

K Scheffler (Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fresh Girls & Other Stories (Hardcover)

I didn't really find this book all that interesting and appealing, although it wasn't that badly written. Basically the stories deal with prostitution and sexuality, and are influenced by the author's own experiences as a child-prostitute. Her writing was a big thing on the Canadian literature scene a while back, her being relatively young when her first works were published. If you want to sample her writing, I guess this is a good place to start; the book is relatively easy to find secondhand and is pretty short. Should only take an hour or two to read.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing Collection that You'd Wish Never ended...., August 16, 2011

By 

ssfahrer "ssfahrer" (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fresh Girls and Other Stories (Paperback)

I purchased this book when it was featured in one of the catalogues of the several book clubs I am a member of (upon its initial U S release), read a bit of it and put it on my bookshelf. Recently, I ran across her back catalog (which I didn't even know she had)! But the name clicked something in my mind, found the thin work still on the bookshelf (it's about as skinny as she might have been back then!) and reread it from cover to cover with delight. Perhaps (now that I am the age of the men she was encountering as barely a teenager in the mid 1980s), I can better appreciate the buzz about her stuff. Upon this second reading, I realize how erotic her work was. Because each short story is just a few pages long, the book is basically a bunch of "quickies" for someone to reach orgasmic release.

"Fetish Night" brought me back to the night I went to an S/M night at a West Side (NYC) nigth club called "Paddles" in which I was part of a 'slave auction'. Being a former member of the Eulenspiegel Society, I knew about the S/M scene from the outside and inside (as a bottom). Evelyn's story caught all aspects of the scene-- the fantasy inside and the reality outside-- as if she had been there herself. Definitely my favorite; but there's not a limp one in the bunch!

Can't wait to get more of her stuff and wish I could meet her to congratulate her for surviving it all and thriving afterwards!