Use Me
by Elissa Schappell
List Price: $13.00
Pages: 336
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0060959606
Publisher: HarperCollins
The exquisitely artful fiction debut of Vanity Fair columnist Elissa Schappell
is a novel told in ten stories that resonate with the most profound experiences
in the life of a young woman -- friendship and rivalry, the love for a
man, the birth of a child, and the death of a father.
top of the page
The first story in the
book, "Eau-de-Vie," sets up Evie's loss of innocence and sexual initiation.
How would you describe Evie's relationship to her father? For example,
what is going on when he puts his younger daughter on his shoulders
and doesn't touch Evie? What do you make of the symbolism of the title,
"Eau-de-Vie," and of the pear in the bottle?
"Novice Bitch" introduces
Mary Beth McEvoy. How do you think Mary Beth's home life has influenced
her sexual behavior? Do you like Mary Beth despite her behavior, or
do you like her because of it? Why does Evie like her?
In "Sisters of the Sound,"
Evie goes on a retreat to a convent. What is her motivation for going?
Why is she so upset by the priest's quotation of Sartre, "If there is
no God, then everything is permitted"?
Elisabeth Kübler Ross,
in her famous 1969 book, On Death and Dying, said a person passes
through different emotional stages when facing death. What are the stages
that Evie goes through in dealing with her father's illness and death?
The title story "Use Me"
is one of the most sexually provocative in the book. What motivates
Evie's behavior? What happens when Evie "confesses" to Michael about
her sexual proficiency? Do you think she is telling the truth?
Sex is frankly described
in Use Me. Why do you think Elissa Schappell included these scenes
so frequently? Do you think high school students should read this book?
Why or why not?
top of the page
"It's the rock-hard honesty beneath the gem-bright hilarity that make this a debut collection to savor"—Elle
"Delightful...out-and-out literary...Schappell uses her Spy cleverness to cut through the darkness"—Vanity Fair
