Towelhead, Alicia
Erian, Simon & Schuster 2005, $9.99 (Amazon Kindle edition)
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| Adapted for cinema by Alan Ball, starring Summer Bishil. |
Towelhead, by
Alicia Erian, is not a book for a reader who wants to be comfortable while
reading. Towelhead is a departure for
Erian, who typically writes short fiction and screenplays on themes of female
sexuality and love. Her first novel is a book that forces the reader into the
stormy and confused mind of an adolescent girl in an almost impossible
situation.
The protagonist and narrator of the book is Jasira, a girl
who is thirteen at the onset of the Gulf War. Jasira is cursed with an early
puberty and quick development. Living in Syracuse with her mother, Gail, a middle
school teacher and a fairly progressive woman, we would think that she would be
adequately prepared for this stage of life. But, when Gail refuses to listen to
Jasira talk about her body and won’t help her with the problems that body
causes in her everyday life, such as teasing resulting from excess body hair,
Jasira turns to Gail’s boyfriend Barry for help. When Gail discovers that Barry
has been helping Jasira shave her pubic hair, instead of defending her
daughter, Gail blames her and sends her to live with her domineering, exacting,
and neurotic Lebanese father in Houston, Texas.
In Texas, rather than getting a fresh start, Jasira has all
the same problems. Her father is just as disinterested in and disgusted by her
body as her mother was, their army reservist neighbor behaves even more
inappropriately toward Jasira than Barry did, and her body still causes
awkwardness and misunderstandings. Added to these problems is considerable
anti-Arab racism from Jasira’s new classmates and neighbors; her father’s
exacting and hypocritical discipline, constant neglect, mercurial temper and
physical abuse; an insistent school boyfriend; a nosy and well-intentioned
neighbor; and a powerful sexual awakening. The action of the story flows from
the collision of all of these circumstances one after another, fraught
throughout with a jittery tension.
At heart Towelhead
is a coming-of-age story, but the jewel in its crown is Jasira’s voice. Jasira
speaks and narrates so plainly and artlessly that at first she seems outlandish
and ignorant. But Jasira comes to the reader deeply hurt and confused by the
neglect, shame, and isolation she has experienced at the hands of her parents
and a world that views her body as her fault, for which she should take
responsibility. Once the reader is used to her bold and direct style, Jasira
becomes incredibly easy to identify with. In Jasira, Alicia Erian has dared to
present adolescence in all its unspeakable confusion, contradiction and
uncertainty. Realistic and darkly comic, Jasira’s journey through her
thirteenth year inspires many feelings, among them fury, righteous indignation,
pity, despair, and hope.
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| Erian |
For this and many reasons, Towelhead may be of interest to readers who generally read
nonfiction accounts of comings-of-age and sexual awakenings, as well as abusive
childhoods. Towelhead is difficult to
classify because it is a coming-of-age novel written for adults. The
protagonist is thirteen and childish, and yet the narrative is erotically
charged. If this sounds strange and disturbing to you, I would recommend
picking up the book and challenging yourself to face the hard truths it
contains about sex, parenting, adolescence, and society’s perception of women
and their bodies.
Alicia Erian has also published a collection of short stories
titled The Brutal Language of Love,
and has taught creative writing at Wellesley College. She is now working on a
memoir. Towelhead was adapted into a
film also called Towelhead or Nothing is Private, written and directed
by Alan Ball.
