Trashy Group Read: Now Accepting Nominations

Obviously my mind has been in the gutter for several days now. So . . . I propose a trashy novel group read. Since the novel will be trashy, it will not take up much of our collective time. We can broaden our horizons with our intellectual and cultural commentary on said book.

This challenge is only for the proud and few who can read anything. Rique, for example, is probably too weak to take on such a challenge. In any case he has retired we know not where.

I've never read Jacqueline Susann. Isn't she supposed to be ur-trash?

I've also never read Norman Mailer. He sounds like trash too.

I have read both writers. Of the two, Mailer is the trashier. Even I might not be able to stomach a Mailer Group Read. Should we decide on Susann, I would suggest straying from Valley of the Dolls to one of her more esoteric pieces such as Every Night Josephine - a memoir about her pet poodle or Yargo - her ambitious essay into the realm of science fiction. Yargo synopsis: Woman accidentally picked up by aliens - beautiful, wise, and practically perfect aliens. They meant to pick up Albert Einstein but missed. She spends a bit of time on Yargo. Meets the King - gorgeous, wise, kind . . . and read it for yourself.

I just might!

Do.

Never read Mailer. Read Valley of the Dolls in 7th grade, spring of 1969. I was in an honors English class with five other girls, two of whom were minister's daughters. We were assigned a classroom in the almost deserted basement of the school where we were to gather independently to research and write our papers on Chaucer and the Canterbury Tales. One of the minister's daughters stole the book from her underneath her mother's bed and we took turns reading it to each other. When read in such a manner, Jacqueline Susann's work can be quite appealing.

Damn thea,

Some people have all the luck. I never got to experience clandestine reading because my parents allowed me to read anything.

Nora Roberts anyone????

What about one of the Left Behind novels.

A christian romance novel?

Better yet, under the illustrious leadership of our very own copyedit, we could write a trashy novel and offer it as an Early Reviewer giveaway (etext only). Wouldn't Tim be pleased.

I draw the line at Left Behind. We can learn all about it at the Slacktivist website anyhow. If we're going to read trash can it be fun? How about the Vicky Bliss series by Elizabeth Peters (the Egyptology series is too damn long)?

anna,

I think a trashy group read should be fun. Who knows, we might even read a "happy" novel.

How about Answered Prayers, Capote's unfinished "get even" novel.

And no. Absolutely no Left Behind books. Gotta draw the line somewhere.

Does Answered Prayers really count as trash? Admittedly, it has the kiss and tell stuff, but there are a few lovely prose sections in the novel.

Okay, no Left Behind books. I haven't read any and obviously I shouldn't be reading any.

>15 urania1: Point.

I'll think of something else.

Okay, how about Peyton Place and Return to Peyton Place? Now those are the ur-trash.

How about OUR MUTUAL FRIEND with Silas Wegg and The Golden Dustman. We could even drop into poetry, as long as nobodies looking.

#9 - omg... I've read those too. And Terry Blackstock and Karen Kingsbury and oh, I think I'm gonna puke.

I'd read Peyton Place.

This is just a little Peyton Place and you're all Harper Valley hypocrites.

Well, guys have different tastes in trash. Any interest in The Wake of the Red Witch?

Or, one I've been pushing for some time with no luck, Cabinet of Curiosities. Actually, I don't consider this trash, just not literature, as the elites recognize literature.

Finnegan's wake

I reread Peyton Place in the past couple of years. It is not especially good or bad, but it has gotten a bad rap from people who need more to be heard than to read, starting with the would be blue bloods who claimed that sex couldn't happen among white people in New England. The book is not salacious even for its time, but the people who denounced it probably hadn't read it. They gave it a big name which it didn't deserve, and poor Grace Metalious died an unrecovered alcoholic of despair she didn't deserve.

Robert

If you stick to The Executioner's Song, you're guaranteed to avoid Mailer's trash.

I don't know if it's trashy or not, but it sure sounds trashy; ergo, I nominate Irene's Cunt. The book.

Really?

You mean about Mailer, Tani?

My point was Ex. Song is just plain perfect; some of his novels I've read are good but nowhere near the perfection of his profile on Gary Gilmore. I think only Harlot's Ghost was worth reading of what he published in his last two decades.

Sorry, EF, I have an aversion to books with "cunt" in the title after subjecting myself to this atrocity committed in the name of feminism.

No Peyton Place please. Peyton Place must be one of the boring books of the century.

No dice, Trojan Boy. The 'C' word is just about as offensive as it gets in my world. I think the only time I have ever laughed at that word was when Whoopie got Mary-Louise Parker to say it in Boys on the Side.

Hey CG... That pirate stuff is pretty funny. ;-)

CG: I read her other book, something about a blue eyed devil ??? (goes off to Google) Yes, Autobiography of a Blue-Eyed Devil. Hmm. No touchstone. She is kind of interesting to read but not enough to get me to read "Cunt". I don't like books that are just out to shock you.

It was a silly, silly book. A friend lent it (C*) to me after she'd read it, wanting my opinion. We both agreed it was awful, and made the issues she was discussing seem unrelated to anything but her own weird opinions. It is a terrible representative of feminist thought b/c it is so awkwardly done and completely unsubstantiated. If I were a reader on the fence about feminism, this book might turn me away.

So, I will definitely not be reading Blue-Eyed Devil; sounds like another mindless and aggressive rant.

I thought C** was rip-off of the much better Bitch by Elizabeth Wurtzel.

CG - ROFLMAO! Bitch looks like it could be about my life. ;p

There's always Ayn Rand -- The Fountainhead and Anthem are much shorter than Atlas Shrugged

How about a couple John D. Macdonald Travis McGee novels. Short and very trashy.

jane,

No Ayn Rand. She's beyond trash. She's torture.

;-)

Did this ever happen? >34 LisaCurcio: reminds me I have some Travis McGees I could contribute to the project.