Live girls by the American author Beth Nugent is impressive in that pulls the reader into a very depressive world, which is hard to forget, long after finishing the novel. For the first part of the story, the action is centered in the film theatre, the cinema Dave owns. Catherine works there selling tickets. The scene is permeated by alienation. The characters are deeply entrenched in their own misery, which is their reality. They cannot see what their world is like, and therefore they cannot break free from it.

The characters' inability to see outside the box is best illustrated by their concerns over the popcorn vending machine. Popcorn is strongly associated with watching movies, but not in a porn cinema. While Catherine still believes she is there to sell tickets, the casual remark that no tickets were sold in the afternoons before she started working there suggests that her real function is quite different. Another denial of her existence is that Dave always calls her Karen, rather than Catherine.

The ticket vending booth is consistently referred to as the "bubble". Catherine lives and works in this bubble, which stands for nothing less than her depressed state of mind. Catherine has all the characteristics of a manic depression. She is a college graduate, but works in this seedy porn cinema for a guy who has murdered hid wife. Her thoughts are dominated by memories of her dead sister. She lives in a gruesome tenement building, and has no friends or social attachments other than a anorexic, drug addict and transvestite hustler, called Jerome.

Dave's decision to try to improve the business by bringing in "live girls" subconsciously triggers Catherine to escape from this misery. She takes Jerome with her in her car, and while their initial plan is to drive to Hollywood, the reality of harsh winter weather they would not withstand, compels them to drive south towards Florida.

The journey shows Catherine ever more vulnerable by the contrast between her and Jerome, and other people they meet. Removed from the relative safety of her bubble her sister's pull on her becomes stronger, a pull towards death. The book ends with a sense of some terrible impending danger, near at hand. ( )

I just read this book for the second time, it has been at least 6 years since I read it. Just like the first time, I felt physically struck by its brutality. Nugent has a way of describing the ugliness of our world so beautifully that it is hard to resist turning to the next page, all the while knowing that she is going to continue to break your heart.