The Girls
Roman
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- CHF 17.00
Beschreibung des Verlags
Kalifornien, 1969. Evie Boyd ist vierzehn und möchte unbedingt gesehen werden – aber weder die frisch geschiedenen Eltern noch ihre einzige Freundin beachten sie. Doch dann, an einem der endlosen Sommertage, begegnet sie ihnen: den „Girls“. Das Haar, lang und unfrisiert. Die ausgefransten Kleider. Ihr lautes, freies Lachen. Unter ihnen ist auch die ältere Suzanne, der Evie verfällt. Mit ihnen zieht sie zu Russell, einem Typ wie Charles Manson, dessen Ranch tief in den Hügeln liegt. Gerüchte von Sex, wilden Partys, Einzelne, die plötzlich ausreißen. Evie gibt sich der Vision grenzenloser Liebe hin und merkt nicht, wie der Moment naht, der ihr Leben mit Gewalt für immer zerstören könnte.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A middle-aged woman looks back on her experience with a California cult reminiscent of the Manson Family in Cline's provocative, wonderfully written debut. Fourteen years old in the summer of 1969, Evie Boyd enjoys financial privilege and few parental restrictions. Yet she's painfully aware that she is fascinated by girls, awkward with boys, and overlooked by her divorced parents, who are preoccupied with their own relationships. When Evie meets "raunchy and careless" Suzanne Parker, she finds in the 19-year-old grifter an assurance she herself lacks. Suzanne lives at a derelict ranch with the followers of charismatic failed musician Russell Hadrick, who extols selflessness and sexual freedom. Soon, Evie grateful for Russell's attention, the sense of family the group offers, and Suzanne's seductive presence is swept into their chaotic existence. As the mood at the ranch turns dark, her choices become riskier. The novel's title is apt: Cline is especially perceptive about the emulation and competition, the longing and loss, that connect her novel's women and their difficult, sometimes destructive passages to adulthood. Its similarities to the Manson story and crimes notwithstanding, The Girls is less about one night of violence than about the harm we can do, to ourselves and others, in our hunger for belonging and acceptance.
