The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents) [Paperback]

Michelle Tea (Author)

Book Description

Series: Semiotext(e) / Native Agents | Publication Date: November 1, 1998

Passionate Mistakes helped catapult the nascent queer girl culture of San Francisco's Mission district to the world. The novel charts the turbulent adventures of one girl in America as she moves from Boston's teenage goth world to whoring in New Age Tucson before finally arriving in San Francisco’s dyke underground.

Honest, sarcastic, lyrical and direct, Tea's writing is possibly the most literate and sophisticated treatment of underground dyke culture ever written and circulated. She is a reincarnation of when Jill Johnston used to be cool.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"At 27, Michelle Tea is an ex-prostitute, ex-Goth, ex-drummer for Dirt Bike Gang, ex-straight girl, ex-lesbian separatist vegan, ex-Catholic schoolgirl, and ex-resident of Chelsea, Boston's working class slum. She is poised, with this breakthrough debut volume, to become the spokesperson for America's young queer girl mutant horde."
— New Books Weekly

"The legacy of thirty years of feminism... Rollicking and blistering, pained and hilarious, wired and wild-eyed and smashingly good. The narrator, diving into fourteen, trying to be an INXS groupie, feeling grossed out by the role but wanting experience that doesn't have a name."
— Laurie Stone, Village Voice

"... a gem of endangered narration from a loud and highly marginalized subculture, in particular the third wave of feminism. Tea's work resists categorization, and like all surprising vanguard literature, it's the news—a hunk of lyric information that coolly, then frantically, describes the car wreck of her generation and everything that surrounds it."
— Eileen Myles, The Nation

About the Author

Michelle Tea is the prolific author of the Lambda Award-winning Valencia, the graphic novel Rent Girl, the "inspired queer bildungsroman" Rose of No Man's Land, and other books. She was a 1999 recipient of a Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers' Award for fiction. Her critically acclaimed books have appeared on "books of the year" lists in publications ranging from the Voice Literary Supplement to the San Francisco Chronicle. She lives in San Francisco.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Semiotext(e) (November 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1570270740
• ISBN-13: 978-1570270741
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,268,779 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Coulda Been a Contender, May 15, 2000

By 

Jennifer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents) (Paperback)

This supposedly radical tale of adolescence, shallow political conviction, lesbianism and prostitution was a letdown. Tea's prose reminds me of those girls who will natter incessantly to anyone who will listen about their self-inflicted degradation with all the gory details but not a point to be found. Lacking introspection and only rarely showing flashes of wit, this one's a simplistic catalog of truly sad events. It is not helped by its affected prose style, featuring teen-girly exclamations, run-ons, and erratic capitalization. This is beneath Tea, who doesn't seem willing to write at her obviously high intelligence level. She does a great disservice to this material, which could have been incisive literature rather than the forgettable trash it is.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars worth a read if you like ms. tea, October 18, 2005

By 

just some "guy" (philadelphia, pa) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents) (Paperback)

although this wasn't a life changing, earth shattering book by any means i thought it was worth my time. it was fun and personable. a good first attempt and worth a read when you consider the effect she has had on young, queer liturature. don't expect perfect prose or classic liturature, but if you're looking to kill a few hours with a "querky" queer gal or want to read the debut by the author of valencia, than give this book a shot.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Heard a lot of hype about this book, and I was disappointed., March 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Passionate Mistakes and Intricate Corruption of One Girl in America (Native Agents) (Paperback)

This book was mildly entertaining, especially since I could relate to many of the author's experiences. However, the book lost steam about halfway through. The writing is pretty shallow, and it seems like the author got lazy towards the end. Maybe her next book will be better.