Fiction. In the 80's a young woman advertises her services as a model to photographers; she discovers their weaknesses, seduces them, then extorts them by claiming to be under-age. In the 90's a 40-something man is married to a doctor who only views him as a sex object. In these two reversals of sexual harassment and gender-inferiority, Mazza explores such issues asthe lnaguage of bodies, sexual desirability, latent adolescence, plus whatever the genders share...and what they can never share.
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Editorial Reviews
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Literary sitcoms from hell....Ms. Mazza is subversive, anarchistic, hardly forgettable. -- Wall Street Journal
Mazza is one cold comedian. -- Kirkus Review
Talent jumps off her like an overcharge of electricity. -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
Mazza is one cold comedian. -- Kirkus Review
Talent jumps off her like an overcharge of electricity. -- Los Angeles Times Book Review
From the Publisher
Cris Mazza has taken on gender politics head-on in an expose which reflects back to us what we were doing with our bodies in spite of our speech in the late 20th century.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Mazza's Best,
By Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Many Ways To Get It, Many Ways To Say It (Paperback)
Cris Mazza, a writer long known for her psychological novels and insights into sexual politics, has written another arresting novel. Divided into two parts, as suggested by the title, Mazza delves into the empty lives of Lorilee, a bus driver whose possibly impotent husband lives on dreams and not much else, and of Clay, a teacher leading teenagers on a cross-country bus trip and whose physician wife sees him only as a sex toy. Both Lorilee and Clay are desperate to break out of their proscribed circumstances. They want something new, a high, anything to break the monotony of day to day life.
Structurally, the novel can be seen as two novellas connected by a common character: Lorilee. The first "novella," Many Ways to Get It, is stronger than the second, primarily because Lorilee's point-of-view is more compelling than Clay's. Lorilee is quirky and complex; she watches every episode of "I Love Lucy" and has girlish fantasies about romance -- and then throws it all out as she calculates how she can get what she wants. Clay, though believable as a character, simply does not have the dynamism that Lorilee has, partly due to his submissive relationship with Val. Even when he tries to take charge, it is without conviction. In fact, the set-up of Lorilee's character in the first part has much to do with the success of the second since the reader is as intrigued with Lorilee as Clay is. Many Ways to Get It, Many Ways to Say It is one of Mazza's strongest books. It centers on the unfulfilling, restless lives of these protagonists and how they seek to make up for their failings through sexual encounters. The sexuality in the novel is far from erotic; it is desperate, utilitarian, and necessary. At the heart of most of Mazza's novels, there is a general bleakness, and this novel is no exception, although here it is less crippling than in Exposed. Watching Lorilee plunge into her desperate encounters is like watching the proverbial train wreck: readers will not be able to look away even as they wish they could stop it from happening.
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