As a society we have agreed that anyone who has sex with a child is a criminal and those who break that. Alissa nutting is an assistant professor of creative writing at john carroll university. Alissa nuttings publisher has borrowed from the same playbook to promote her first novel, tampa. Tampa, first published in 20 and winner of the fictional gc mckay best book cover ever award. His contention is that shes too much of a monster, that she never felt real, and that the book is a paintbynumberish affair in which a 26yearold blond middle school teacher. Alissa nutting has written a stunning, brutal book. The comment lingered in my head when i finally began tampa, the debut novel of shortstory writer alissa nutting unclean jobs for women and girls. Celeste price 26 years old, married, affluent, gorgeous has just been hired as.
Tampa is alissa nuttings controversial debut novel photo. She is the author of the award winning collection of stories, unclean jobs for women and girls. She is the author of the story collection unclean jobs for women and girls, as well as the novel tampa. Tampa held my attention, but it was very difficult to read because i couldnt accept the main character as a human being. Alissa nutting is an assistant professor of english at grinnell college. In alissa nuttings novel tampa, celeste price, a smoldering 26yearold middleschool teacher in florida, unrepentantly recounts her elaborate and sociopathically determined seduction of a 14yearold student. In alissa nuttings novel tampa, celeste price, a smoldering 26yearold middleschool teacher in florida, unrepentantly recounts her elaborate and sociopathically. Tampa is the debut novel of alissa nutting, an essayist and creative writing professor whose first book was the 2010 short story collection unclean jobs for women. Celeste has chosen and lured the charmingly modest jack patrick into her web. Faber a lissa nuttings debut novel, tampa, about a female teacher who grooms her 14yearold pupil, has been described as disgusting, sickening. New york journal of books bold and fascinatingly transgressive. The fact that i wanted to take a shower after reading the book shows just how effectively alissa nutting wrote celestes character. She is author of the short story collection unclean jobs for women and girls starcheronedzanc 2010, which won the starcherone prize for innovative fiction judged by ben marcus.
Novels and stories with a dark edge by alissa nutting, jodi angel, sarah. There is something somewhat satisfying and fascinating in reading about horrible, horrible people. Tampa is the first novel by american author, alissa nutting. June 20 josh zajdman fiction tampa by alissa nutting. Shelf awareness a deliriously enjoyable, absolutely shocking book. The plot of tampa, a debut novel by alissa nutting, is simple. Nutting is talented and clearly wants this novel taken seriously but the books sensationalist packaging undermines her. Tampa is a sexually explicit, virtuosically satirical, american psychoesque rendering of a monstrously misplaced but undeterrable desire. Celeste price is a 26yearold highschool teacher living in tampa, florida.
There are going to be comparisons to lolita and american psycho but the similarities between tampa and those books are on the surface only. She is an assistant professor in creative writing as well as english literature at john carroll university. Celeste price is an eighthgrade english teacher in suburban tampa. Alissa nutting tampa ecco, july 20 a friend and i were debating if celeste price, the narrator of alissa nuttings tampa, is human enough to carry the story. Alissa nuttings short story collection unclean jobs for women and girls was published in 2010 by starcherondzanc and it won the starcherone prize for innovative fiction. Celeste is married to a cop and is a selfconfessed soulless pervert. Nutting seems interested in provoking skepticism as. Laced with black humor and crackling sexualized prose, alissa nuttings tampa is a grand, seriocomic examination of the want behind student teacher affairs and a scorching literary debut. A florida teacher, lafave pleaded guilty in 2005 to. Alissa nuttings debut was inspired by the case of her former highschool peer, debra lafave. Brave is the author who invites comparison with nabokov.
Nutting certainly brought dark overtones to her story collection unclean jobs for women and girls 2010, but even that auspicious debut pales next to the unclean psyche at the heart of her first novel. Tampa by alissa nutting booksamillion online book store. So far, her cravings have been left unsatisfied, but she has just taken up a. Digital rights management drm the publisher has supplied this book in encrypted form, which means that you need. Jack is enthralled and in awe of his eighthgrade teacher, and, most.
Jack is enthralled and in awe of his eighthgrade teacher, and, most importantly, willing to. This book has some issues but nutting has completely committed to her premise of a hot, twentysomething female teacherpedophile. Her secret perversion is an obsession with fourteenyearold boys. Alissa nutting tampa interview tampa by alissa nutting. So even though i ended up settling on a b rating, due to. My idea of a sexual taboo doesnt revolve around pedophilia, but i understand there are people in this world who have that taste. The controversy that has greeted the book is equally predictable. Made for love by alissa nutting alissa nuttings new novel has a deviant instinct that makes it fascinating at first but after a. Alissa nuttings debut novel, tampa, will be published by eccoharpercollins in 20. Throughout these breathtakingly creative 17 stories spread across time, space, and differing planes of reality, we encounter a host of women and girls in a wide range of unusual jobs. Celeste price 26 years old, married, affluent, gorgeous has just been hired as a schoolteacher in suburban tampa, florida. Alissa nutting \n i spent the night before my first day of teaching in an excited loop of hushed masturbation on my side of the mattress. Alissa nuttings tampa, and more the new york times.