Nude Men: A Novel [Paperback]

Amanda Filipacchi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1994

Jeremy Acidophilus's life is going nowhere, until he meets a beautiful woman in a coffee shop. Lady Henrietta paints new nude men and wants Jeffrey to pose for her. But things get complicated when Henrietta's precocious, voluptuous 11-year-old daughter seduces Jeremy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its playful language and goofy big-city surrealism, this wonderfully peculiar first novel has more than a little in common with Francesca Lia Block's "Weetzie Bat" YA novels and Banana Yoshimoto's Kitchen ; its particular brand of sly naivete, however, is all its own. The madcap tale begins when its narrator, a gloomy would-be fact-checker named Jeremy Acidophilus, is approached in a Manhattan coffee shop by Lady Henrietta, an artist who paints nude men in a manner she describes as " 'the more beautiful than life' style." Jeremy, it seems, is a near perfect example of an Optical Illusion Man; in Lady Henrietta's words, "he's almost something but not quite, or maybe he is and it's impossible to tell if he is or isn't." After agreeing to pose for the beguiling painter, Jeremy's life grows increasingly bizarre: he is seduced by Lady Henrietta's 11-year-old daughter and later becomes involved with Laura, a self-styled dancing magician who, according to the National Enquirer , "has stated in her will that when she dies she wants her entire fortune to be spent on having someone stand at her grave at all times and clap forever, or until her money runs out. Shifts are allowed." Exuberantly inventive, this inscrutable shaggy-dog tale wanders on, defying the reader's expectations at every turn. The willfully childlike language, coupled with the meandering fairy tale narrative, could easily have become coy and predictable. Here, however, thanks to the author's evident love of storytelling, as well as a certain zany earnestness, the result is droll, mesmerizing and unexpectedly memorable.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Jeremy Acidophilus, a 29-year-old fact-checker for Screen magazine and extraordinary only for his depths of low self-esteem, becomes ensnared in several bizarre, complicated relationships when a beautiful artist, Lady Henrietta, approaches him in a restaurant and invites him to model nude for her. Thrilled with imagined, if unlikely, possibilities, he accepts. At the sitting Jeremy meets Sara, the lady's daughter, who is extremely precocious and possibly the most sexually aware 11-year-old in literature. Sara sets herself the task of seducing Jeremy, and, after much protestation on his part, succeeds. Disturbing as this sounds, the presentation is so deftly comic and ingenuous that it seems appallingly right. Other marvelously zany characters and quirky episodes decorate this author's tragicomic first novel, which is intelligent, imaginative, and, with every page, increasingly surreal. Recommended for general fiction collections.
- Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (June 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140178929
• ISBN-13: 978-0140178920
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #782,550 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Brilliant and Full of Yogurt, March 30, 2000

By 

Elizabeth Karmenzind (Hammond Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nude Men: A Novel (Paperback)

I read this book quite a few years ago and I LOVED this book. It has stuck out in my head forever. I lost my origional copy and couldnt find it ANYWHERE! And now I have. This book, unlike any others,is a book that I can read over and over and over again. I highly reccomend this book. This is a book you can lose yourself in and come out of with a totally different perspective on life and reality. I would thoroughly love to be able to correspond with the author as i find her utterly compelling her mind must be a vast land of stories and humor. READ THIS BOOK!

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Strangely charming, even with the awkward subject, January 26, 2003

By 

Glen Engel Cox (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nude Men: A Novel (Paperback)

This was one title that was a joy to ask bookstore clerks for: "Do you have Nude Men?" I'm reminded of the Monty Python skit where the customer keeps asking for books by Charles Dickens--the one with two "k"s. The looks that the clerks give you at such a question is priceless.

Terrorizing bookstore clerks aside, Nude Men is worthy of attention for all that lies within its covers as well. I first heard about this book by following a thread on rec.arts.books about novels of humor. (This is a reoccurring thread on r.a.b that you can bet on to pop up at least once a year.) The classics (Wodehouse, Jerome K. Jerome, Twain) always get mentioned, but I follow the thread for those one or two books that no one's ever heard of before. In this case, I was especially intrigued by the title and the poster's description of the plot as concerning a fellow who is seduced by an eleven-year-old girl. I thought, "If someone can make this funny, it's got to be good."

Good it is, although funny, it should be noted, is not the main thrust of this book. Yes, there's quite a bit of humor, unexpected and sometimes audacious, as in the seduction scene, but it is the characters--the self-absorbed main character, Jeremy Acidophilus; Lady Henrietta, the painter he thinks he is in love with; her daughter, the precocious nymphet; and his ultra-conservative girlfriend, Charlotte--and their interactions, sometimes funny, sometimes painful, and one whopper of a strange plot that continually surprises, that mark this book as different. It is, of course, a first novel. I say of course because only beginners challenge the status quo of acceptable practice and subjects quite as strongly as this. Even though Nabokov wrote a classic on the subject, this is one area that still is taboo, especially treated as anything other than sexual abuse. While I might find it hard to recommend this novel for its humor potential alone, as a work both strange and comical, it is daring and magical.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Original and very funny, June 4, 2000

By 

Duncan (London, UK, and Houston, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nude Men: A Novel (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this, it was recommended to me a few years back and I have since recommended to others. everyone has enjoyed it. But I've never met anyone who has heard of it independently. It's one of the few books that has made me laugh out loud. I hope her new book is as good. [e-mail]