Shopgirl by Steve Martin
Shopgirl is a small but perfectly formed novel about a young woman called Mirabelle who works as a shop assistant in the glove department at Nieman's, LA's finest store, and who draws darkly gothic pictures at night. She is adrift in the world and lonely. This is not improved by the fact that hardly anyone buys the kind of gloves that Nieman's sell so she spends most of her day leaning on the counter staring into empty space. There are two men in her life - Jeremy, a man who stencils amplifiers for a living, and Mr Ray Porter, an older man and millionaire who applies logic to relationships, and is serially confused and disappointed. In this exquisitely self-contained novel, Steve Martin touches on the surface horrors of LA - the false noses, lips, breasts and people - without exaggeration or explicitly playing for laughs. It's insightful, dark, funny and tender, particularly when he writes about Mirabelle. By zooming in on a small group and understating his themes (which it has to be said is a big surprise if you think you know Steve Martin) he has produced an incredibly strong piece of fiction.
Steve Martin is one of today's most talented performers. He has had huge success as a film actor, with such credits as Roxanne, Father of the Bride, Parenthood, and The Spanish Prisoner. He has won Emmys for his television writing and two Grammys for comedy albums. In addition to his bestselling collection of comic pieces, Pure Drivel, he has also written a play, Picasso at the Lapin Agile His work appears frequently in the New Yorker and The New York Times. He lives in Los Angeles.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780575071902 |
| ISBN 10 | 0575071907 |
| Title | Shopgirl |
| Author | Steve Martin |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Orion Publishing Co |
| Year published | 2000-11-02 |
| Number of pages | 176 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |