Nelly Arcan's "Whore"
Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 2:28 pmBack in July, when I referred to Nelly Arcan's autobiographical novel Putain, I didn't know it had been translated in English: Whore (exactly what the French title says). It could be a useful antidote to all those "happy hooker diaries". Note how the critic quoted on the Amazon page describes her as "hateful" and a "misanthrope" (he may have wanted to avoid "misandrist") for daring to describe what it really feels like without pandering to male fantasies about "the life". [Edit: the Amazon.com preview contains potentially triggering passages.]
Edited to add: I'm not thrilled by the cover illustrations they chose for both this translation and the latest French edition. The first edition had no image, just the title in black letters on a crème background. I don't know how much control Arcan had on it, though.
Edited to add: I'm not thrilled by the cover illustrations they chose for both this translation and the latest French edition. The first edition had no image, just the title in black letters on a crème background. I don't know how much control Arcan had on it, though.