Missy: A Novel [Hardcover]

Chris Hannan (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2008

Missy is laudanum, or liquid opium. Missy is Dol McQueen, a nineteen-year-old “flash-girl” traveling the arduous wagon trail from San Francisco to the boomtowns of the Sierra Nevada. Her purpose: to fleece the silver miners and to have a marvelous time.

Permanently gonged on missy, Dol and her entrepreneurial instincts wake up only when she comes into possession of a rum crate full of pure opium. But the crate has several owners, each more brutal than the last. Soon, instead of selling the boodle and opening her own establishment, Dol is fleeing across the salt flats and wastelands of the monumental American Southwest, where Civil War renegades, Native American mule thieves, and gangs of feral kids make hanging on to life a job for both hands.

 

Chris Hannan has mixed the irresistible Mark Twain of Roughing It with Annie Proulx’s brilliantly macabre wordplay, and the result is a historical novel of startling originality, in which every detail rings true. Dol McQueen is the most engaging antiheroine since Becky Sharp, and she makes Missy a debut of terrific energy, freshness, and delight.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. This wildly entertaining first novel from Scottish playwright Hannan takes place in the down and dirty Wild West and features one of the most bombastic, fantastic heroines in recent memory. Nineteen-year-old Dol McQueen is an intelligent, strong-willed hooker with a weakness for liquid opium, or "missy." "Sometimes when I'm gonged," says Dol, "I have an immense feeling inside me that I can govern Chaos." And chaos is just what she gets when a crate of choice opium lands under her bed, stashed there by a grisly pimp called Pontius who warns her to keep quiet. Dol carries on with her business and gets increasingly attached to that fortune beneath her bed. The real pandemonium is unleashed when a spooky, brutal gang enlisted by the rightful owners of the opium arrives in town bringing mayhem. Dol-along with her mother, Pontius and the opium-flees into the desert, the escape slowed by lack of water, mule-pinching Indians and Dol's withdrawal from her missy, an experience that leaves her clearheaded but vulnerable to the truth about what she has become. Hannan nails the setting, crafts a sizzling plot and, with Dol, gives readers a lovable, larger-than-life star. (June)
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Review

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2008

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; First Edition first Printing edition (June 10, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374199833
• ISBN-13: 978-0374199838
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,339,169 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sex and Drugs in the Olden Days, December 14, 2008

By 

Doug "dcb" (Holladay, Ut United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Missy: A Novel (Hardcover)

I enjoyed the book a lot. I guess it was a historical novel, but it was also a study of the world of drug addiction. Here are some of my miscellaneous thoughts about the book:

1. Many books are great along the way and it's not the destination that is so good, but the journey getting there. I would say that the destination in this book, where our main 19 year old opium addicted call girl realizes finally, that her whole existence and actions were seriously tainted by her addiction, was the thing that makes the book work so well. I knew that her actions were tainted by drugs along the way, but the final chapters somehow made the whole book more relevant and topical and good to me as this revelation comes to her.

2. The historical parts were excellent. The descriptions of the reactions to different murders, how the "law" operated, the tolerance for bad behavior, good men seeing call girls, good women being "flashers", and just how ribald the times really were in these mining towns, were insightful and seemed correct. Almost laughable and somehow endearing compared to today.

3. I loved the relationship Dol has with each of the other flashgirls. There is a "Sex in the City" element here that was very enjoyable and sometimes touching.

4. Dol, our narrator, is a hilarious and very intelligent girl with her insights into human behavior and comments about living the sober life away from the all night drug enhanced parties she is part of. Made me wonder if I've been too sober myself.

5. The grittiness of travel with handcarts, covered wagons through mud and muck, up huge mountain ranges in the desert was well done. In a way, it didn't fit in with the light natured life they lived otherwise, but it added to the believability of the book.

6. Dol's relationship with her mother was very interesting and insightful. We want things to be different for both of them, but it was a huge struggle for Dol and obviously for the mother. There was no sugar coating to be found in the book.

I gave the book 3 stars instead of 4 because I felt the plot sometimes moved along too slowly with some of the main themes being repeated over and over again. And yet, as I re-read my own review, I think if you read the book, you will find a lot of great and rewarding stuff.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every sentence is a gift, August 7, 2008

By 

Lesley Ward (Venice, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Missy: A Novel (Hardcover)

Man, this guy can turn a phrase. It's always impressive when a writer is able to completely voice a character (especially of the opposite sex) believably. But here, it's so much more than just that. Dol is a fascinating character, and every sentence that she spews forth has layers of meaning. The plot is fast-paced, and the story is told with great economy, and yet the pay-off is complete and totally satisfying.

2.0 out of 5 stars Boring & predictable - don't be misled like me, December 30, 2008

By 

Heather (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Missy: A Novel (Hardcover)

The description of this book & the positive reviews (especially the one from Entertainment Weekly in which they said, "An adventure so hair-raising it makes Deadwood look positively staid in comparison. There hasn't been a fictional character this appealing and outrageous in a long, long time.") led me to purchase this book. Unfortunately, after reading the book, I feel completely misled & would caution everyone else before purchasing. I did not find the story hair-raising or exciting at all. It was rather dull & predictable. I've seen Deadwood & there is nothing new or more exciting in this story. The lead character, Dol, while different & sometimes interesting, is not appealing or outrageous in any enjoyable way. I did not care about her or her fate. I actually ended up more interested in her friend Ness & would have enjoyed her story more. The book had potential, but fell completely flat for me. Don't be enticed by reviews that mention a sizzling plot or a lovable hooker - the book was none of those things. Plus, at $24 (retail) for a 300 page book I think it is a complete rip off. At least wait for it to come out in paperback.