Title : Robin's Blue
Author : Pam Alster
Genre: literature, adult
Rating : 3/5 stars
Source: This book was provided by NetGalley and Smith Publicity Plexi Girl media in exchange for my honest review.
Robin's Blue, Pam Alster's debut novel, is an epic coming-of-age story set aagainst the disco 70's through the Reagan-era 80's, when divorce was the norm and casual sex and recreational drugs were ubiquitous. Robin Daniels, a runaway from a violent and emotionally desolate upper middle-class home, repeatedly navigates her world without guidance. After a failed marriage, she discounts love as an option and moves through a series of jobs and men. A futile attempt to live as a kept woman compels her to become a high-class call girl. She searches unsuccessfully through the resulting transient experiences and escalating drug use for the one lesson that will resolve her omnipresent question of purpose. Before AIDS and addiction became household words, Robin's Blue speaks to a generation that basically raised itself. Robin's journey takes her from suburban Philadelphia to Miami to the South of France and ultimately to New York City where she is obliged to make peace with the girl inside she left dormant at sixteen.
My thought
The book runs to 71 chapters, most of which center on yet another assignation to show just how low Robin can go. In an attempt to get away from an abusive father, Robin jumps from one damaging relationship to the next -- most devastating is her relationship with drugs The writing works best when it’s straightforward; attempts at highbrow literary phrasings fall flat, often leaving the reader to intuit the meaning of an awkward, headache-inducing sentence. Still, the colorful characters in Robin’s orbit help bolster the coked-up story, and the final part proves to be the best.If you ever wondered what it's like to do bad on the right side of the tracks.....this book is for you. The private clubs, yachts, men with time and too much money...and what happens behind closed doors, it's all here. This book allows a look onto the life Robin, a girl who likes to party and live in luxury, and the ways it was all possible. But the fast life doesn't last forever. Great read!
