The Bride Stripped Bare (Paperback)

by Nicki Gennell (Author) "Your husband doesn't know you're writing this..." (more)
Key Phrases: sexy sex, thudding heart, Gabriel Bonilla

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
A series of diary entries charts the sinuous paths of marriage and sexual desire in this artful book, a bestseller in the U.K. The author of the entries, a nameless 30-something housewife, has disappeared, leaving behind what amounts to 138 "lessons," written in the second-person, for her fellow archetypal "good wives." At first, the gimmick is jarring, but as the protagonist's personality emerges and flowers, readers will be seduced by this sometimes subtle, sometimes overwrought novel set in modern-day London. At first, marriage equals safety to the woman ("it's a relief, to be honest, this surrendering..."), but the sex is humdrum, and Cole, her husband, is remote and fastidious—only oral sex offers a surefire way to orgasm and sometimes he'd just rather watch TV. To make matters worse, he may have engaged in an affair with her best childhood friend. Beginning work on her long-planned book might cheer her up—and so will an affair with lovely Gabriel, of the "cathedral-wide" chest and silky young skin. Thus she commences erotic adventures previously unimaginable. She also becomes pregnant, and the anonymous author is cannily perceptive about the vicissitudes of pregnancy and new motherhood; she writes strikingly of the surprising erotic passion, emotional upheaval and anger that can flare during pregnancy. This unusual but strangely compelling novel offers an intimate chronicle of change and self-discovery, of a woman who makes a final and unexpected choice.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"An intensely honest look at a woman’s inner thoughts and desires." -- Dallas Morning News

"Artful…cannily perceptive…this unusual but strangely compelling novel offers an intimate chronicle of change and self-discovery." -- Publishers Weekly

"Escapist fiction as its intriguing best. ‘The Bride Stripped Bare’ is sexy with a capital X." -- Jill Davis, author of A Girl's Poker Night

"Simply too beautiful...a mesmerizing and disquieting novel that will deserve to be read again." -- Vogue Australia

"Titillating…like an artful striptease, "The Bride Stripped Bare" ensnares us with its rawness." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"Wonderfully sensuous...witty in its construction...a subtle portrait of a modern marriage." -- Independent --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: HarperPerennial (March 1, 2004)
• ISBN-10: 0007163541
• ISBN-13: 978-0007163540
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,297,988 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Provocative and Disturbing - A Must-Read!, August 17, 2007

By	Warmaiden "Warmaiden" (Chattanooga, TN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bride Stripped Bare: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

A gem, for any of you folks who haven't seen it on the Target shelves yet: Nikki Gemell's The Bride Stripped Bare.

Written in Lessons instead of chapters, the novel begins with, "Your husband doesn't know you're writing this. It's quite easy to write it under his nose. Just as easy, perhaps, as sleeping with other people. But no one will ever know who you are, or what you've done, for you've always been seen as the good wife." From there, Gemmell takes us on a journey through a woman's erotic and frightening self-discovery. The narrator moves from boring housewife to experimental secret-keeper upon the discovery of an Elizabethan manuscript that describes women's secret desires. Intrigued that another woman so far removed had felt the same urges and longings, the narrator careens through testing the limits of marriage, dragging the reader through the rabbit hole with her into a world where a bored, naive housewife quickly learns to weave lies and deceit to manipulate those around her.

Fans of poetry, you're in luck - the rich imagery and gorgeous use of language melts on your mental tongue as you read, and though many of the sentences are short, they're rich - I have to admit a tendency to blow through books and then have to go back to read for digestion. This novel, however, had me gasping with exhaustion at the end of every few chapters - it's gut wrenching, in a subversive, disquieting way. The second person voice "you" this, "you" that - the narrative voice intimately involves the reader, turns the reader into a shadowy accomplice during the length of the book. Does each of us have the capacity to blur the boundaries between fantasy and reality, and are we willing to pay the price that comes with it?

The way Gemmell captures what a woman thinks when she's got the semi-ideal life but dark yearnings makes this one a must-read for anyone interested in the workings of the mind of a woman. Note that the Amazon reviews I've seen so far have hated the book - but I do believe they came from the wrong perspective. I don't believe it is intended as a heartbreaking take of a good wife; the sex scenes were not meant to throw the book into the 'erotica' cache of reading, and it is not intended to be a novel addressing what EVERY woman wants, desires, and is willing to do - it's more about the boundaries one woman chooses to cross, and what it does to her as a person. Whether you like or dislike the narrator is almost immaterial - the journey is the thing.

Caveat - sexually explicit, unapologetically erotic, and searing honesty characterize Gemmell's work in this one. While many women will report that they have had none of the darker wanderings of the mind that characterize the novel, from conversations with close friends and my own experiences, enough of us have to make this one a very worthwhile read. Highly recommended with maximum starrage - if you're not afraid to read a novel with a provocative cover that only hints at the turmoil and emotionally disturbing text, this one is a must-read. A must re-read. A must-share-with-my-best-friend-and-a-few-men-I-know read.

Gemmell is now on my list, and I'll have to go grab her other work - The Bride Stripped Bare is beyond fantastic - it's disturbingly real. Let me know what you think of it!

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Striking and thoughtful, February 23, 2005

By	Michele Zurbo (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bride Stripped Bare: A Novel (P.S.) (Paperback)

When I saw this book on the shelf of my local bookstore, I actually almost blushed. "Erotic" was the key descriptor in almost every review sited on the cover...and I am not normally a fan of erotica literature. But the story sounded just too seductive to pass up. It focuses on a newlywed woman who feels discontented with her new life. Her husband is very plain and business-like, the opposite of her. Despite their happy companionship, they are rarely intimate and she yearns for something more. After meeting a handsome stranger in a local cafe one day, her entire world changes. She comes alive, gets in touch with her sexuality - and the reader anxiously follows her awakening. It's exciting, graphic, and heartbreaking all at once. Her life is not an easy one, but what woman's is? I would highly recommend this book to anyone who's ever been in love, been in lust, or has dreamt about being in either sometime in their life.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stripping the Reader Bare, December 12, 2004

By	Jennifer M (Duluth, MN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Bride Stripped Bare: A Novel (Hardcover)

If you're American, you may have a little trouble finding it. Thus far, the publisher has only distributed it in London and Sydney. But The Bride Stripped Bare by Nikki Gemmel (published anonymously by 4th Estate in 2003) is surprisingly worth the hunt.

The story jetes off the premise that the anonymous diarist's mother found the text after her daughter and grandson disappeared under mysterious circumstances, leaving only their car at the top of a cliff. Their bodies were never found. From there follows the inner secrets of the ostensibly perfect housewife - from her Marrakech honeymoon to her illicit Sevillian affair and her descent into a sexual awakening at the hands of strangers.

The book closes with an open letter from Gemmel explaining that she intended the book to be published without any connection to her due to "personal reasons". She quickly adds that the story is not autobiographical and berates the media for sniffing her out and "forcing" her to put her name to it. One would think the paparazzi had taken great interest in slapping her face on the cover of every tabloid. Given that without this tangential letter most readers would not associate the book with Gemmel, a cynic would wonder if this was all a marketing stunt.

Gemmel takes some fabulous stylistic risks - most notably in writing the entire diary in the second person. The effect is, at worst, a psychological distance created between the reader and the anonymous narrator that reflects the narrator's own internal separation from herself. She doesn't know who she is and, despite reading the most intimate thoughts in her head, neither do we. At best, when the ideas hit home, when they reflect something in the reader's own life or with which she can identify, the second person style gives the eerie sensation that the diarist is reading her interloper's mind. Not only is the anonymous bride stripped bare, but her reader as well.

Each chapter - dubbed "lessons" in the text - begins with a pithy quote from Household Science: Readings in Necessary Knowledge for Women by the Reverend JP Faunthorpe or A Woman's Words to Women on the Care of Their Health in England and India by Mary Scharlieb. These little dictums for women's lives include "making
a comfortable bed is a very important part of household work" and "girls can never be too thoughtful". As might be expected, the content of each quote loosely corresponds to the content of the ensuing chapter with a gruesome, if cliched, irony.

In fact, very little about this book is NOT cliche and, surprisingly, it works in spite of this. It tells a story that certainly wouldn't shock the reading public unless it had been published a good sixty years ago. When Lady Chatterley's Lover was first published by DH Lawrence in 1928, a woman's sexual secrets were uniquely titillating, but Gemmel's playing to a much more jaded readership these days. Even every possible feminist angle on the story has been done to death - unfulfilled housewife....trying to find herself...has a sexual awakening... *yawn*

The reader is left with many unanswered questions, not the least of which is why this anonymous woman chooses infidelity in a seedy sexual underground. Her husband holds no particular allure for her, but is, by her own account, attentive and kind. If he doesn't understand her, there's little indication that he's a cad. She suspects him of having an affair and he doesn't want her to work outside the home, but seems no more controlling or callous than the average person - which may have been Gemmel's point. Perhaps the narrator is simply bored. She has found the husband and baby to which so many women aspire and now she is looking down the long descent into dailiness and apathy and is looking for something to once again quicken her sense of vitality.

For whatever reason, the tension builds over the question of whether and how long the narrator can keep her secret life a secret. This book is so readable because it functions almost as a psychological deconstruction of its central character and leaves us asking how well we know the people close to us. For that matter, how well do we know ourselves?