The inconsistent, contradictory ramblings of Scarlett the Harlot

I have an obsession with authors that are willing to write about things that make "normal, regular people" squirm. Same with movies and television. There's something about a work of fiction or art or music that makes you stop and think. Or stop and question. A while back I had my aura read and the lady that did the reading told me that my purpose in life was to "ask the hard questions" and "make other people think". Which is all well and good, but it also means that I've a serious penchant for finding the dark side of humanity.

That's not to say I want to live in the seedy underbelly, but I'm certainly going to point it out when I see it.

Enter Towelhead by Alicia Erian.



I heard about this book because it got turned into a movie.

I heard about the movie because it stars Aaron Eckhart, who I've got a passing obsession with but I can never decide if I like or not. He's a lot like Viggo Mortensen in that he'll do all these really random roles, but unlike Viggo, he doesn't have that whatever-it-is that makes me willing to look past the evil. When Mortensen plays a villian it's usually a villian I've got a crush on because there's something redeemable about him. When Eckhart plays a villain it's an irredeemable bad guy that I don't just love to hate, I loathe with the flaming passion of a thousand suns.

Which I guess would make Aaron Eckhart the better actor. Although it also sorta makes me look at him all squinty eyed and go "you're a baby-toucher in real life, aren't you?" 

Which is just all kinds of ironic considering his role in Towelhead.

The novel is about Jasira, a thirteen-year-old girl who's mother sends her to live with her father in Texas after her mother catches her own boyfriend shaving Jasira's panty line. Her mother doesn't send Jasira away because she's afraid for her daughter, she sends her away because she's jealous her daughter is getting the attention. Yeah. Digest that.

Jasira is sent to live with her father who works for NASA. She doesn't want to go because her dad has "a funny accent" , he's Lebonese and the story takes place just before the Gulf War. Her father is very authoritative and Jasira experiences culture shock upon first moving in. Her dad has a strange dichotomy. He's obsessed with appearing American, but so many of his ideals and values are from his upbringing that it's interesting to watch him and Jasira interact. He wants her to be American, but when she expresses herself in this way she's punished. 

I was also taken aback at Jasira's father's corporal punishment. I mean, okay, I was spanked as a kid. Most of my friends were. I think it's a product of being raised in the South and having uber-Christian parents that come from the "spare the rod" mentality of child rearing. However, it was never an out-of-the-blue thing. I had always very clearly broken a rule and there was a kind of ritual to it. Like, I got in trouble, my mom would make me go get the paddle, et cetera. The first time Jasira's father slaps her, literally without serious provocation, I was so shocked I had to stop reading for a second. Her offense? Coming to the breakfast table in her night-shirt. 

This is one of those books that you feel you have to apologize for enjoying. Not liking it, but enjoying it. The subject matter is so squirm-worthy you almost don't want to admit you liked it. But it is very well written, if sometimes a little heavy handed.

Jasira is at the age where she's experiencing a kind of sexual awakening. She's hit puberty, her body's changing, she's discovering that she has desires, and neither of her parents are willing to acknowledge it. I  mean, her mother would rather keep dating than admit her daughter experienced a wrong situation at the hands of her mother's boyfriend. Her father considers anything sexual to be wrong for Jasira--yet he picks out her bras. But he won't allow her tampons (they're for married ladies) and makes her buy her own maxi-pads with her own money. The logic on the part of the adults in this book is so skewed you almost need to take notes to keep up with it. You end up feeling sorry for Jasira before anything "really bad" even happens.

Her next door neighbor is a thirty-something Army reservist who's also pretty clearly a rascist ass. He (and his wife who rarely appears in the book, but is clearly older than he is) hires Jasira to baby-sit his ten-year-old. Jasira puts up with the kid calling her a towelhead and a camel jockey because she's got kindof a crush on her neighbor. Also, she steals the kid's mom's tampons because she doesn't like using maxi-pads. Not that I blame her, I got on the tampon train as soon as I figured out what they were--there's just something really gross about maxi-pads.

Situations like this are things that make me scratch my head. Okay, so, the kid's mom realizes that Jasira's nicking her tampons. Does she talk to Jasira about it? No. She leaves the kid a nasty note and never mentions it again. How hard is it to go "honey, why cant' you get your own?" Especially when it's pretty clear that the girl doesn't have any female influence at all. That's the main problem I had with this book. How it felt like Jasira didn't have anybody interested in the early bits. Not a teacher, not a relative, nothing. Later on, there's a couple that moves in on the other side of the Vuousos, and the pregnant-wife, Melina becomes Jasira's mom ad leitum/older sister but for the formative portion of the novel Jasira only has herself and when herself doesn't have a clue...

Well disaster pretty much ensues.

Jasira and the neighbor boy discover his dad's Playboy collection. Like any kid (hell, I even did this) they pretty much devour them. Like any kid, they get caught. The dad gets pissed and reems his kid and then he goes to yell at Jasira. She admits to liking what she saw and rather than, I don't know, tell her dad the skeeze sneeks her one of the copies and you just know he's getting off on the idea of her getting off on it.

Obviously a lot happens in the book. Jasira gets a boyfriend and they experiment sexually. Jasira is told by her father that she's not allowed to see the boyfriend because he's black--but her dad's not racist, or so he says.

The next-door-neighbor persues a "relationship" with Jasira that turns sexual.

Jasira eventually runs away from home and goes to Melina for shelter. There is so much to this book that's just rocking awesome. But there's also a lot that is deeply unsettling--not bad fiction--but unsettling.

I think what kept me reading was the way the story rang completely true and yet completely not true at the same time. Clearly Jasira suffered abuse at the hands of both of her parents (in her father's case both physical and emotional) but none of what they did was in-and-of-itself that bad. It's the combination of the harsh treatment and at the same time complete non-interest that creates the abusive situation. It's clear that her father loves her but is totally unaware of how to deal with a "modern" daughter. He's also completely uncomfortable with his daughter's sexual awakening and rather than admit that it's happening, he punishes her for it. That's not necessarily abuse, but it's sure as hell bad parenting. You see? I'm having a hard time articulating my point, but I found myself feeling sorry for Jasira's dad on more than one occassion becuase it was so obvious he just didn't know how to deal. Which does not mean that there wasn't more than one occassion where I wanted to slap the guy senseless either, because there was. Ohhh how there was.

As to the neighbor man...Wow. Just wow. I remember how I felt about "older guys" when I was thirteen. I even remember fantacizing about having a relationship with one. But I also knew on some level that there was no kind of okay with that. I was thirteen, they were not. If an older man had actually returned my affections I would have been beyond freaked out. Which is why Jasira's relationship with Mr. Vuouso is so fucked up. She knows it's not okay, but she likes it because it's affection and he says it's okay and there are passages where even he knows it's fucked up. Specifically the first time he crosses the line.

Never in the book are we reminded of exactly how young Jasira is than when she's interacting with the neighbor. I'm not sure if this was on purpose on the part of the author or not, but if it was it was brilliant.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book, but be warned--this is not a happy story. This is not a love story. You enjoy this story, but you won't be happy about it.