Clown Girl

Clown Girl lives in Baloneytown, a seedy neighborhood where drugs, balloon animals, and even rubber chickens contribute to the local currency. Against a backdrop of petty crime, she struggles to live her dreams, calling on cultural masters Charlie Chaplin, Kafka, and da Vinci for inspiration. In an effort to support herself and her layabout performance-artist boyfriend, Clown Girl finds herself unwittingly transformed into a "corporate clown," trapping herself in a cycle of meaningless, high-paid gigs that veer dangerously close to prostitution. Monica Drake has created a novel that riffs on the high comedy of early film stars -- most notably Chaplin and W. C. Fields -- to raise questions of class, gender, economics, and prejudice. Resisting easy classification, this debut novel blends the bizarre, the humorous, and the gritty with stunning skill.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Catapult
Published: 01/02/2007
ISBN: 9780976631156
Pages: 306
Weight: 0.90lbs
Size: 8.98h x 5.56w x 0.64d
Award: Oregon Book Awards - Finalist
Award: Independent Publisher Book Awards - Gold Medal Winner

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 12/18/2006 pg. 41
Booklist 02/01/2007 pg. 31
Entertainment Weekly 02/23/2007 pg. 103
Foreword 05/01/2007 pg. 57
Foreword 09/01/2007 pg. 1