For me, nausea is only a result of sickness or bad pork: suck it, phobias and odors.

But alas, Nic Kelman has spoiled my perfect record. I had to set his novel girls down numerous times -- the situations he vividly described literally turned my stomach.

WARNING: Young book browsers, do not be fooled by the innocuos cover as I was. This is not a nice book.

The book is written in second person, although the "you" Kelman refers to shifts throughout the book: sometimes it is a businessman, a photographer, a bachelor, a husband, a father, etc. Each "you" is united and linked by their obsessive -- and at times destructive -- attitudes toward girls. Kelman's girls are girls in the truest sense. He does not use the word as a catchall for female humans of all ages. No, these men are irrevocably attracted to girls just beyond childhood, girls still in puberty's grasp.

Certainly, books about a man's infatuation for the teenage form are nothing new. But this book's accusatory tone makes the reader the perpetrator. Kelman tells the reader that s/he cannot look away from this girl's collarbone, that woman's ass. Soon becomes hard to believe that you haven't actually thought those thoughts. I had to take breaks to remind myself I wasn't a successful, predatory, girl-obssessed man.

As a feminist woman, this book was very difficult to read. Every bit of me fought it, the descriptions of girls as little other than sex object literally did turn my stomach. I finished this book about a month ago, but I've had to sit on it, think about it.

I think Kelman did an outstanding job of distilling the psyche of men who have everything they want. His leading men have long discarded their humanity and so they go searching for bits of life elsewhere, moving like vampires from one naive, young girl to the next. I think Girls is a fascinating gender study, but the execution is disturbing and frightening. I'm not convinced that I would read this again. I'm a wimp like that.

For full review: http://deathbynovel.blogspot.com/2008... ( )

Vignettes on ephebophilia. Some are quite engrossing, some are arousing, all are well-written. ( )