Tampa
A Novel
-
-
3.9 • 421 Ratings
-
-
- $8.99
-
- $8.99
Publisher Description
“In this sly and salacious work, Nutting forces us to take a long, unflinching look at a deeply disturbed mind, and more significantly, at society’s often troubling relationship with female beauty.” (San Francisco Chronicle)
In Alissa Nutting’s novel Tampa, Celeste Price, a smoldering 26-year-old middle-school teacher in Florida, unrepentantly recounts her elaborate and sociopathically determined seduction of a 14-year-old student.
Celeste has chosen and lured the charmingly modest Jack Patrick into her web. Jack is enthralled and in awe of his eighth-grade teacher, and, most importantly, willing to accept Celeste’s terms for a secret relationship—car rides after dark, rendezvous at Jack’s house while his single father works the late shift, and body-slamming erotic encounters in Celeste’s empty classroom. In slaking her sexual thirst, Celeste Price is remorseless and deviously free of hesitation, a monstress of pure motivation. She deceives everyone, is close to no one, and cares little for anything but her pleasure.
Tampa is a sexually explicit, virtuosically satirical, American Psycho–esque rendering of a monstrously misplaced but undeterrable desire. Laced with black humor and crackling sexualized prose, Alissa Nutting’s Tampa is a grand, seriocomic examination of the want behind student / teacher affairs and a scorching literary debut.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Nutting's graphic first novel (after her story collection, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls), soon-to-be eighth-grade English teacher Celeste Price can barely contain her excitement about her adolescent boys; the 26-year-old passes the night "in an excited loop of hushed masturbation" while her good-looking but dull-witted husband slumbers. Celeste's mind is as pragmatic as her body is luscious, and her patience ("I had to regard the students like a delicate art exhibit and stay six feet away at all times, lest I be tempted to touch") pays off. Before long, she coaxes shy Jack into what becomes the first of many liaisons. Unlike American Psycho's Patrick Bateman, Celeste is aware of her depravity she fears that were she to work as a model, as some suggest, photos would capture "a soulless pervert" but she indulges anyway. Her bold choice of meeting Jack at his house after school leads to unsurprising complications, as does the boy's budding love. When Celeste's usual caution erodes, all might be lost were this young woman not lover and fighter both. Nutting's work creates a solid impression of Celeste's psychopathic nature but, unlike the much richer Lolita, leaves the reader feeling empty.
Customer Reviews
First off…
The people that rate the book based off of the subject matter are dumb. We all knew the book was disturbing before we read it!
Anyways,
It’s well written, but it is very repetitive. That’s why I’m giving it four stars. This subject is important because men and boys are often overlooked when it comes to SA. It was the same thing chapter after chapter, so that was annoying. Overall, decent book.
Upsetting
I decided to read this book because I was curious to have such an inside view of a female predator. Female predators aren’t talked about often and especially one the same age as me. This book was graphic and hard to read just because of the subject. Knowing it’s based off of a real case was interesting, overall it is a good look into seeing the damage caused by a predator of any gender. The issues it brings up are how easily this woman got away with praying on little boys because of her looks and even once she’s caught still is able to slip by by playing into looking and seeming young. Well written but a heartbreaking topic.
Too disturbing
Too disturbing to continue