Culture Watch
Shop Girl A Novella
by Steve Martin Hyperion; 130 pages; $17.95
This slight, sexy, smart, funny little book is touted as a novella, but it's really like an expanded short story. Anyone familiar with Martin's pieces in the New Yorker won't be surprised to discover that he can write, but what does surprise is his ability to get inside the heart and mind of his female character and make her so believable. Shop Girl is no confessional, first person tale. It is all author-as-omniscient-narrator who tells us not only what happens, but what each of his characters is thinking, often to great comic effect.
If you're offended by multiple use of the "f" word, or by direct descriptions of various sex acts, this isn't the book for you. Martin isn't trying to be prurient, but his matter-of-fact take on the world of singles on the make may offend some readers.
Julia Sneden is a writer, teacher, wife, mother, grandmother and care-giver. She lives in North Carolina. She can be reached by email.
