girls [Hardcover]

Nic Kelman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2003

Kelman was a Burchard Scholar at MIT where he studied Brain and Cognitive Sciences as an undergraduate. After spending a few years working in independent film, he attended Brown University on a full fellowship for his MFA in Creative Writing and where he was awarded the James Assatly prize for graduate fiction. He now writes and teaches in New York City.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The three jaded, wealthy protagonists of Kelman's sexually explicit debut have spent a lifetime battling other men for money and status in the cutthroat business world. Having sold their souls for the kind of success that spells easy access to women, they find they're less drawn to them than they ought to be-instead, they prefer enthusiastic young girls, who have not yet become the calculating gold diggers that adult women are. Fortunately, there are plenty of dewy-often underage-strippers, prostitutes, club kids, daughters' friends, friends' daughters and miscellaneous nymphets eager to have their innocence despoiled by middle-aged men with sports cars and Cuban cigars. Kelman chronicles the resulting debaucheries in minute detail, writing in a detached second-person voice that barely individuates his nameless male characters and often reduces the female characters to anatomical figments of a collective male libido. Amid all the sex there is a commentary on sexual politics drawn from snippets of sociobiology, statistics on the prevalence of divorce and infidelity and philosophical ruminations on the origins and linguistic indeterminacy of dirty words. The whole is given a mythic overlay by the insertion of excerpts from Homer, in which warriors confront each other at spear point for the possession of slave girls, archetypes in the dog-eat-dog struggle for power and women that is the essence of a man's life. Kelman's blend of Penthouse-grade sexual transgression, Nietzschean bombast and Sinatra-esque rue is a vigorous rendering of a certain misogynist mindset of masculine privilege, but for all its artfulness, it never quite transcends the cliches it wants to dissect.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

This sure-to-be-controversial first novel is told entirely in the second person by a series of nameless, interchangeable high-level businessmen. All of them share a predilection for young girls, which they describe in pornographic detail. A banker on a business trip to Korea follows the advice of his older boss and orders a hooker from room service. He is shocked by the fact that she is barely out of adolescence, but that seems to fuel his passion, and although he knows he should feel guilty, instead he feels fantastic. A CEO who is vacationing with family friends starts having sex with their teenage daughter; his obsession leads to his own divorce and a lawsuit from his former friends. Kelman's scenarios have an undeniable erotic charge, which he then defuses with innumerable quotes from the Iliad, whose connection to the story line remains murky. This pretentiousness makes the writing seem dishonest, as if Kelman were trying to distance himself from his amoral characters. Disturbing erotica that is sure to draw requests. Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 1st edition (October 1, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316711535
• ISBN-13: 978-0316711531
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.3 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,108,684 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hadn't realized other people felt this same way..., January 13, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: girls (Hardcover)

I thought this book was excellent. I had not expected to relate so well to the content, but to me the topic semed less about underage girls and more about the struggle against boredom and apathy that comes with success. In the end, I'm not sure if I felt like less of an ass because others feel the same way I do, or more of one given the brutal portrayal men receive in this book.

The only parts that didn't work for me were the excerpts from the Iliad. They didn't detract from my overall enjoyment, but they did not add anything to it either.

The use of second-person form is a bit unsual, but for me it actually worked quite well since the material was so easy to relate to. I felt the "you" he wrote about could quite plausibly be me, were I in the given situation. And at times I wanted it to be that way, and at times I felt that showed my own flaws and insecurities.

Oh, just a word of warning on this one -- not sure if women will like it. Don't be fooled by the title, the book is all about men. And ladies, if you do read this, I warn you in advance that YES -- men really do think like this. Kelman is not just some lone deviant.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Riveting, December 5, 2004

By 

Kristie Doherty - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: girls (Hardcover)

What a sensational read! I read this in a couple of hours - couldn't put it down. It's a bit of a car crash scenario, you don't want to look but you don't want to look away.

This novel works on two levels, as a trashy thrills and spills read and as a social commentary.

A very interesting exploration of the male mind, society's obsession with youth, success and apathy. Dark, erotic and fascinating.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You will second that, March 27, 2005

By 

Nada Adan (Lynchburg, VA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: girls (Hardcover)

You read a favorable review for girls in Esquire magazine so you drop by the local Barnes and Noble and great, they have three copies. You make your purchase and head home and dive in. You can't say it is completely satisfying but you are not disappointed, either. You like the episode in St. Barths near the end. You wish you had made it through the Iliad and the Odyssey, though, that might have helped, and god knows you tried, you tried. You chuckle when you get to the Reading Group Guide at the back. WTF? A Reading Group Guide? This ain't no oprah book, you think, and you don't -- never will! -- belong to a reading group. You know that good reading is like good running, a solitary activity. You might make recommendations, yes, but you will never discuss, and especially not in a group. You know that's the code and you will keep it always. And you discover that you love this second person thing, you can't get enough of it. You love it so much in fact that you vow from now on to use it only. It's so easy, you think. You are set free, a new day has dawned, and you owe it all to girls. That and much more.