Penetration

I realise the Ick factor of a post titled thus.

But I am going to leave it there. Becayse in this case it works.

In My Skin is the memior of Kate Holden. Again, reading the memiors of someone I know very little about. Apparently she is some contributor to The Age or something.

Holden has a beautiful crafty way with words. Her imagery is striking and original, and stunningly evocative.

It is another book in the trend of Prostitute writings (Belle, and the Manhattan one too. I guess you could include Geisha, but I hated it. So I won't). But mixed in is The Junkie tale. I always find the stories of The Working Girl really interesting - especially when it is an educated woman with feminist leanings who is being entirely honest about using her body as her means of employment. I mean, we all prosititute ourselves. I should know. I worked in advertising. But the Junkie stuff just doesn't push my buttons. Possibly because addiction is such a repetetive subject.

I cannot find a bad review of this book. The first few pages are full of pull out quotes from glowing reviews, it is kind of nauseating. It seems to be on bloggers lists of My Favourite Book all over the internets.

And sure, I love they WAY she writes. But I found the structure unnessicarily confusing - turning back on itself to tell an anecdote that happened 6 months before. And of course the repetetive nature of turning tricks and scoring tastes needs to be reflected in the story, but it all got a bit samey for me.

I do love the title. The motif throughout the book of needles and men getting inside her, through the membrane of her body, simulatneously not affecting her, but drastically changing her. These two types of penetration defined her, gave her a sense of identity and belonging (there is that word again...), but at the same time, a part of her character - or her mind, or her soul or whatever - was clinging to the idea of who she was as a person. Daughter. Sister. Lover. Writer. Reader. Friend. Person. Underneath the User and the Whore, she was still trying to keep Kate.

I also love the cover on this edition. But as gorgeous as her composition and description is, I can't see myself using excerpts at The Boy Factory to hone their skills in adjectives and metaphors...