Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Memoir
Approximate word count: 80-85,000 words
Availability
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Author:
“Eve
Littlepage is a freelance writer living in Florida, happily married to an
artist whom she met at a dance in 1993. She still likes to dance, though these
days she prefers being clothed and barefoot to dancing naked and in high-heels.”
For more,
visit Littlepage’s website.
Description:
“Eve
Littlepage made her living as a striptease dancer in the suburbs of Boston for
ten years, from the mid-1970s through the mid-80s, under the unlikely stage
name of ‘Lisa Doolittle.’ Her memoir is about how she fell into this
marginalized profession, some of the craziness that happened while she was in
it, and how she struggled with, and eventually triumphed in, finding a way out
and into a more wholesome life.”
Appraisal:
I’m a
sucker for memoirs by people who have led lives much different than mine.
Sometimes they’re entertaining and they’re almost always interesting and
educational in how they help understand different people, situations, and
viewpoints. On the surface, it doesn’t get much different from my life than
this. Eve Littlepage’s life is one that I couldn’t have lived, even if I’d
tried. Yet, despite the differences, the old adage that deep down we’re all the
same always comes to mind. No matter how different your life is from someone
else’s, if you can’t find lots of common ground, you aren’t trying.
Celestial Bodies in Orbit fit this pattern. It is written as
if it is based on a series of interviews between Littlepage and Stella, a
fictional writer. This technique gives the book a different feel at times and
provides an opportunity to explore some things from a different angle or point
of view, which might be hard to pull off in a typical first person narrative.
However, it also led to my one minor complaint, that at times the fictional
dialogue between Eve and Stella didn’t feel natural to me. Sometimes this was
word choice, using words that I couldn’t picture Eve using in conversation
(“indeed” was one word used multiple times in conversation with Stella, but
never otherwise), and frequently addressing the other by name. How often do you
use the other person’s name in an extended one on one conversation? The
instances of this were relatively few, but often enough for me to take notice.
Still, an interesting read and not, as some might assume, a book that will
appeal to prurient tastes.
FYI:
Some adult
language and situations.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: **** Four stars
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