If you read the Daily Dose then you know the picture in this entry comes from the reading/signing at Wild Iris with Michelle Tea. You also know we bought Rose of No Man’s Land, Tea’s first attempt at “fiction”. I read it yesterday and loved it.
Tea said at the reading that it was hard to write fiction, compared to memoirs, I can understand that. She also said she worried that she’d written characters nobody would care about or a narrator who was so obnoxious you wouldn’t want to read the story, this I don’t understand. I thought Trisha was terrific. And Rose, ah Rose, she wasn’t bad herself.
I can totally see this as a film. A cult classic for wild and alternative teen girls. Sort of like Virgin Suicides and Thirteen. Stuff parents do not want to see because it would give them nightmares about their daughters. What it ought to give them is nightmares about what men and boys do to girls everyday and what effect that has on girls.
No, it’s not one of those male-bashing feminist books. Not really. Tea did a nice job of putting across the mesage without slamming it down your throat. And, she gave her female characters the power to deal with the BS men dish out to them. Excellent.
This isn’t going to be any adult’s favorite book of all time. The writing just isn’t that great and the story is bouncey. It might, however, become your daughter’s favorite book – if she’s a fan of The Virgin Suicides, or Thirteen or anything by Francesca Leah Block.
I look forward to Tea’s next work of fiction – well not the comic book. Maybe the further adventures of Trisha and Rose (Trisha should be on Real World, imagine THAT!) or just a story about Rose? Whatever it is, I’m pretty sure I’ll smile my way through it – just like I smiled my way through Rose of No Man’s Land.
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