false 22286 1 <div>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 &#8212; most notably Chaplin and W. C. Fields &#8212; 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.</div> 2667475 4 1 2007 Clown Girl: A Novel total:489|5:3|4:5|3:7|2:2|1:1| 489 1724 863 125 3 9 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 08:12:27 -0800 2008 Fri Feb 15 08:20:01 -0800 2008
I've talked here before concerning the surprising things I'm learning about books these days, now that I've been a daily critic myself for about nine months now, and especially two factors that more heav...more...]]> 1 7 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 04 15:24:49 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 15 15:47:56 -0800 2009 once more...]]> 2 3 false false Mon Jun 16 11:42:06 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 04 20:33:21 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 11:42:06 -0700 2008
It was neither subtle no...more...]]> 1 3 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri Nov 30 19:51:47 -0800 2007 Fri Nov 30 20:07:21 -0800 2007 more...]]> 2 3 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 17:06:51 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 19 17:13:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 2 false false Wed Jun 06 17:12:03 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 24 20:55:23 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 2 false false Sat Aug 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Aug 18 16:04:17 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 03 09:04:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 2 true false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Sun Apr 22 16:37:06 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 22 16:55:42 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 2 false false Tue Jul 08 09:20:23 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 08 09:51:41 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Feb 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Aug 08 16:38:43 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 07 19:09:34 -0800 2009 1 more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed May 14 09:13:51 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 03 21:27:34 -0700 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Thu May 08 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed May 07 03:46:23 -0700 2008 Wed May 21 07:11:13 -0700 2008 Only a few ideas repeated over and over pointlessly: the clown ethics, how I miss my boyfriend, sickness. Once you get into the schema, you can tell 10 pages in advance what is going to happen - oh yes now she's going to get into troubles with that. It tries to ...more...]]> 3 1 false false Fri Aug 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Aug 12 12:59:07 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 20 22:08:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Feb 05 23:49:13 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 06 01:13:03 -0800 2008
I knew this book wouldn't be a straight-up comedy when I bought it and I didn't expect many laugh-out-loud moments, but I gotta say I was pleasantly surprised that Clown G...more...]]> 3 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 08 10:33:54 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 08 10:33:54 -0700 2009 1 4 1 false false Fri Aug 15 12:48:46 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 15 13:05:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 21:49:23 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 21:57:16 -0700 2007 Clown Girl tells the story of Nita/Sniffles/Juicy Caboosey, a performance artist working as a clown who loses her boyfriend, her ...more...]]> 2 1 true false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Feb 07 09:02:00 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 10:02:03 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 1 false false Thu Apr 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Apr 10 21:32:11 -0700 2008 Thu May 01 18:31:29 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Fri Oct 24 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Oct 13 19:16:24 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 25 17:41:26 -0700 2008 Clown Girl. I found Nita reminiscent of Steve Urkel in her propensity for doing the exact wrong thing predictably in every situation the novel places her, but...more...]]>