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girls: A Paean
by
Nic Kelman
girls is an erotic spree, a journey into the most forbidden corners of male desire, a story about men who have been rendered numb by their power, who have sacrificed everything for success, who have lost their souls and can find meaning only by living vicariously, obsessively through young women.
Paperback, 240 pages
Published
December 1st 2004
by Back Bay Books
(first published 2003)
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A tough, dirty, and significant, little book. As obnoxious and disgusting, as ruthless and as amoral as the voices of the narration are - it is also nearer to the bone of the truth of inner male dialogue than most are willing to admit to or want to admit to. I certainly wouldn't admit to thinking this dastardly about the fairer sex, especially the nubile targets of the narrator(s) of girls.
Overall this thing is disturbing. Woven throughout is good writing, undeniably interesting, sometimes even...more
Overall this thing is disturbing. Woven throughout is good writing, undeniably interesting, sometimes even...more
OH MIO DIO.
Credo di essere appena reduce dal libro più osceno che abbia mai letto in vita mia. Probabilmente per riprendermi dovrò leggerne uno completamente innocente e ingenuo, ergo un libro per bambini.
Girls è un porno sotto forma di libro. Esiste la definizione di libro erotico, ma questo ha qualcosa di più nobile e dignitoso, il porno è un qualcosa che ha lo scopo di eccitare i maschietti concretizzando sulla carta o sulla pellicola tutto ciò su cui si sono ritrovati a fantasticare più vol...more
Credo di essere appena reduce dal libro più osceno che abbia mai letto in vita mia. Probabilmente per riprendermi dovrò leggerne uno completamente innocente e ingenuo, ergo un libro per bambini.
Girls è un porno sotto forma di libro. Esiste la definizione di libro erotico, ma questo ha qualcosa di più nobile e dignitoso, il porno è un qualcosa che ha lo scopo di eccitare i maschietti concretizzando sulla carta o sulla pellicola tutto ciò su cui si sono ritrovati a fantasticare più vol...more
5 likes · like · see review
view all 5 comments
May 15, 2013
Diana
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
erotico,
letteratura-americana
La versione maschile di 100 colpi di spazzola prima di andare a dormire.
Sarebbe anche scritto in modo scorrevole ed accattivante (sebbene un po' sconclusionato), ma i contenuti sono talmente discutibili che la recensione non può che essere pessima!
Il tono del narratore è estremamente irritante, le situazioni descritte spesso assurde o quanto meno improbabili (ma forse non vivendo in quel mondo non lo conosco a sufficienza, fortunatamente!).
Tutto il libro è comunque permeato da un alone misogen...more
Sarebbe anche scritto in modo scorrevole ed accattivante (sebbene un po' sconclusionato), ma i contenuti sono talmente discutibili che la recensione non può che essere pessima!
Il tono del narratore è estremamente irritante, le situazioni descritte spesso assurde o quanto meno improbabili (ma forse non vivendo in quel mondo non lo conosco a sufficienza, fortunatamente!).
Tutto il libro è comunque permeato da un alone misogen...more
Someone told me this would make me hate men, but it doesn't, so if you are trying to hate men, go to a bar or something. However, if you're as into reading about graphic and unromantic sex with hookers and friends' teenage daughters as I am, this one's for you!
Reminded me very much of Michel Houellebecq, which is high priase.
The book is written with no chapters. Just a series of paragraphs - some contain stories of men - sleeping with Thai prostitutes and doing unsavory things to them and feeling soiled in the morning, sleeping with Students, sleeping with friends underage daughters. The theme is that all men crave youth and the powerful men can attain it.
Interspersed with these stories are facts to back up the story and quotes from Homer, which add l...more
The book is written with no chapters. Just a series of paragraphs - some contain stories of men - sleeping with Thai prostitutes and doing unsavory things to them and feeling soiled in the morning, sleeping with Students, sleeping with friends underage daughters. The theme is that all men crave youth and the powerful men can attain it.
Interspersed with these stories are facts to back up the story and quotes from Homer, which add l...more
Brutal.
Nobody walks away from this one unscathed. Men will recognize a negative caricature of some of those thoughts we think when no one else is around. Women will recognize those fears they always suspected were true, but never gave voice to them because they were too "over the top".
Women are treated as playthings and shrewish icons while men are painted as depraved life support systems equally devoted to their blind ambitions and their cocks...
It's a broad, dark brush...both true and horribly...more
Nobody walks away from this one unscathed. Men will recognize a negative caricature of some of those thoughts we think when no one else is around. Women will recognize those fears they always suspected were true, but never gave voice to them because they were too "over the top".
Women are treated as playthings and shrewish icons while men are painted as depraved life support systems equally devoted to their blind ambitions and their cocks...
It's a broad, dark brush...both true and horribly...more
2 likes · like · see review
This book is written from the perspective of a very bored man who couldn't stay faithful if it killed him. He babbles on about all kinds of rationalizations for his behavior. I find the narrator of this book pathetic and disgusting. There is no denying that the writing is incredibly well done. Its the points of the book I take issue with. There are plenty of men who manage to make it through their first marriage, to speak to and continue to love their wives and do it all without having sex with...more
Judging by some of the other reviews, I may be the only woman who actually enjoyed girls. Yes, at times it was uncomfortable and disturbing to read, which was likely exactly the reaction Kelman wanted when he wrote of such politically incorrect subjects, taboos, and extremes. Any book that earns such a visceral reaction gets major points with me.
Going beyond the examples of extreme male thought and behavior, girls presents a range of subtler scenes, less likely to outright offend the female aud...more
Going beyond the examples of extreme male thought and behavior, girls presents a range of subtler scenes, less likely to outright offend the female aud...more
L'uomo che racconta mi da i brividi. Scoprire che dietro la mente maschile ci sono certi pensieri, che alla mia età non penseresti mai, mette davvero tanto i brividi. Eppure l'ho letto in un fiato, perchè più andavo avanti e più volevo scoprire di più. E' un tour nei meandri più sporchi del sesso, e soprattutto raccontato cinicamente. Devo ammettere che l'ho adorato, anche se per qualche tempo vedevo ogni singolo uomo con occhio cattivo.
Deeply unsettling. Shined a light into my shadows.
Possibly the dirtiest book I've ever read. You really can't overestimate the explicit depth of the discussions of sexuality. An unnerving turn-on.
Important because such naked examinations of male sexuality are almost non-existent. Mailer. Roth. Miller (especially). David Guy. And this Nic Kelman, who'll probably never write anything like it again.
Possibly the dirtiest book I've ever read. You really can't overestimate the explicit depth of the discussions of sexuality. An unnerving turn-on.
Important because such naked examinations of male sexuality are almost non-existent. Mailer. Roth. Miller (especially). David Guy. And this Nic Kelman, who'll probably never write anything like it again.
MIT author. Premise is great - the Lolita fetish. Unfortunately, the author tried too hard interspersing material from classical literature (Aeneid, Odyssey) and psychology. Read more like a dissertation than novel. Not to say there were not some good passages but not very deep. Otherwise, I was in accord with his view on women's treatment of themselves and men with money.
Not for the faint of heart or those that would worry about being struck by lightning for reading something this open and vulgar. Not for any woman to read. I haven't met a woman that has tried to and has actually liked it.
It does contain the bitterness and twisted psyche a man may run across in his life despite it being about older men with power and money...it reflects in a very negative way how men look upon sex and women. It reflects in a very ugly way how women respond to men with money.
It i...more
It does contain the bitterness and twisted psyche a man may run across in his life despite it being about older men with power and money...it reflects in a very negative way how men look upon sex and women. It reflects in a very ugly way how women respond to men with money.
It i...more
Even though I read this book three years ago, I still think about it occasionally. Disturbing is the only word that I can come up with that conveys the open mouthed revulsion which compelled me to read this in one night. It's like a car crash you can't look away from and I passed it around to both female and male friends for months after reading it, because it was somehow satisfying to see the glazed look of either (in men's case) guilty resonance, or in women's case revulsion and fascination.
I...more
I...more
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Not a book girls that think their man is unique and loyal should read. Some of the scenes in this small book were so degrading and disturbing that I even stopped reading for awhile. However, it was very interesting to get into the head of a man. So many men and even woman are worried and wondering about how a woman's thought process works that most people overlook the mystery of a man's. Very insightful read.
Very interesting. Like a glimpse into the shared imagination, desires and collective truths that have, heretofore, remained unacceptable to articulate. I was riveted.
Read a long time ago. Disturbing, twisted and highly descriptive.
As a woman, I found it depressing, but I couldn't put it down.
nic kelman is truly brilliant.
Twisted. Explores the idea of pedaphilia... Or maybe just the concept of men of power attracted to women too young to have realized their own ambition.
He continues to quote paragraphs and even pages of Greek literature throughout the book. He plays with voice - from 2nd person to 1st person - in a way that is completely annoying and difficult to follow.
This is a book that wanted to explore a theme, but could not focus.
Yet creepy enough to make you finish and make you think about it afterwards.
He continues to quote paragraphs and even pages of Greek literature throughout the book. He plays with voice - from 2nd person to 1st person - in a way that is completely annoying and difficult to follow.
This is a book that wanted to explore a theme, but could not focus.
Yet creepy enough to make you finish and make you think about it afterwards.
Disturbing book...but couldn't put it down.
Utter trash. Middle-aged, rich, sociopathic babies gallivant around the world on private jets and sleep with underage women and complain how nobody gets them, especially their ex-wives. Just terrible.
a sick twisted way that men think...no woman reading it will like it. It makes men look like pervs and makes you wonder if they all think this way. It also makes women look money hungry which is true for some but not all. I guess in the book the women and men match pretty good. It's about the worst in both gender. Maybe someone should write about the best in both and call it.......what? Girls II?????
Mar 26, 2008
Dunny
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
single women in San Francisco
This book is absolutely disgusting, and deeply fascinating. I would give it five stars if my mother wasn't a member of Goodreads. Kelman creates a believable perspective for some truly despicable men. I lived near the Marina/Cow Hollow in San Francisco when I read this and it could be almost every guy you see out on the weekends after a tough week in "the trenches" of the financial district.
In una parola:ripugnante.
1 like · like · see review
This book was interesting, it took a long hard look into the eyes of the typical man. How women and sex seem to hold a power over all the differant men in the book was disturbing. The writing style was differant, i was kind of hoping for an actual story not just snipets of differant peoples lives. But all in all it was okay, just a little depressing for any hopeless romantics out there.
The white, pasty-faced corporate guys on Wall Street - this is what they dream of when they've made it. Unless they're gay (ahem). Ladies, don't say I didn't warn you. This isn't pretty.
Jul 14, 2008
Alexis
added it
very precise writing, but a disturbing look at the mind of a man. should be titled, boys, as it only seems to discuss men in their most primitive sense.
if you pretend to be shocked by the behavior of men, read this book. i am not condoning the actions/stories, but i understand more.
This is an amazing book. It was a little scary how much I related to a significant portion of the ideas expressed in this book.
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“It's because they don't understand good sex has nothing to do with equality.”
—
1 person liked it
“And if they don't like it if you use those words and they stop moving put their hand on your mouth say "Don't say thatdon't use that wordI don't like it " if they say they don't want to try being handcuffed to the towel rack in the bathroom they're never any good in bed. They may be nice. They may be witty charming etc. etc. They may be doing something for women's liberation (over what? over whom?). But they're never any good in bed.”
—
1 person liked it
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