Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen

(Paperback, Main - Classic edition)

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'An extraordinary novel ... women will like it and men should read it for the good of their immortal souls.' - The New York Times

Sasha Davis has everything a girl growing up in 1950s suburbia could want: beauty, intelligence and an all-star sports captain boyfriend. All she needs to succeed in life is to keep her skin clear and her intelligence hidden under her Prom Queen tiara.

But when she drops out of college to marry, Sasha realises her life has become a fearful countdown to her thirtieth birthday - the year when her beauty will have faded entirely, and life as she knows it will end. As Sasha begins to rebel against her perfect, conservative upbringing, she finds herself experiencing an intellectual and sexual awakening that might be her only chance of outrunning the aging process.

Alix Kates Shulman's landmark novel follows Sasha's coming of age through the sexual double standards, discrimination and harassment of the 1950s and 60s. Originally published in 1972, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen was the first great novel of second-wave feminism. Five decades later, it remains a funny, honest and heartbreakingly perceptive story of a young woman in a man's world.

Reviews

Funny, frank and full of righteous rage, Memoirs Of An Ex Prom Queen will make you laugh and want to smash the patriarchy * Red *
This dazzling 1972 novel blazes with fury at women's lot from the Forties onwards ... Shulman's gripping account of the female experience in a man's world is hilarious, shudder-making and inspirational. * Daily Mail *
Kates Shulman's sardonic examination of life in small-town America in the 50s and 60s gets a welcome republication ... a hugely likeable heroine and a voice that still resonates down the years * the i paper *
An important piece of fiction that mirrors many women's experiences, both fifty years ago and today * The Lady *
Sad and witty, expertly conceived and executed ... important * Newsweek *
An extraordinarily fine novel ... Men may curse, they may howl . . . yet men owe it to themselves to see themselves plain, as their wives and girlfriends perceive them ... A writer of remarkable narrative talent, sharp wit and acerbic insight * Los Angeles Times *
A vicious little gem of a novel * Cosmopolitan *
This story, told with astringent wit, explores every facet and clich of what it means to grow up female and beautiful * San Francisco Chronicle *
An extraordinary novel ... women will like it and men should read it for the good of their immortal souls -- The New York Times
... an instant bestseller now considered a feminist classic ... The energetic prose exudes American confidence ... [and] exposes the darker side of traditional values ... An important piece of fiction that mirrors many women's experiences, both fifty years ago and today. * The Lady *
Furious, fiercely funny, provocative, sexy, and wise-a must read -- Dani Shapiro

Author Bio

Alix Kates Shulman is the author of fourteen books, including Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, which established her as a primary figure in feminism's second wave. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Shulman studied philosophy at Columbia University and received an MA at New York University. She became a political activist, joining the Congress of Racial Equality in 1961 and the Women's Liberation Movement in 1967. Shulman lives in Manhattan and continues to speak on issues such as feminism and reproductive choice.