Use Me - by Elissa Schappell (Paperback)

About the Book

This novel, told in ten stories, tracks Evie Wakefield as she grows from a rebellious adolescent in the preppy suburbs of Delaware to a sexually fraught and reluctant adult in New York City. As Evie struggles to negotiate intimacy with the men in her life, she tries to sustain a connection with her best friend, who is sometimes her competitor.

Book Synopsis

The exquisitely artful fiction debut of Vanity Fair columnist Elissa Schappell is a novel told in ten stories that resonate with the most profound experiences in the life of a young woman -- friendship and rivalry, the love for a man, the birth of a child, and the death of a father.

Review Quotes

?Elissa Schappell's "Use Me screams Read Me. In these ten stories Elissa Schappell captures the devastating absurdity, the dark comedy that is contemporary life. It is the family stripped bare, sex and death and other nervy tall tales. This is serious stuff and it's seriously funny.? --A.M. Homes, author of "Music for Torching ?Elissa Schappell has a wonderful eye and ear, she's smart as hell, and she's got the nerve to caper on that edge where you can't quite tell the appalling from the sidesplitting. These astringent family romances broke my heart so entertainingly that only looking back did I see what dark places she'd danced me through.? --David Gates, author of "Preston Falls?These linked stories share an extremely appealing voice--mordant, passionate, vulnerable, sly--a voice that sounds lived. Elissa Schappell is very good company.? --Amy Hempel, author of "Tumble Home?She is just so good. All the others can go home. She can stay.? --Fay Weldon, author of "Lives and Loves of a She-Devil?Elissa Schappell's take on grief, desire, death and dying, and her inappropriate fixations on kissing teenage boys and fathers, oh yeah, and nuns?is original and funny, and winning. Sometimes, too, it's painful, as all great literature should be. She's a challenge and a star.? --Rick Moody, author of "The Ice Storm?Although each story can stand on its own, Schappell's positioning of them and her inclusion of the periods in Evie's life result a layering of character and depth rarely found in story collections.? --"San Antonio Express News?Bittersweet?often-funny?beautifully written.?--"New York Post?Humorous and telling.? --"Daily News?Bright, adult writing?She shows off a big talent?A seriouslygood novel. It takes romance, relationships, religion, death and fathers as lightly and as seriously as any smart, sane person you know?Evie is one of those rare fictional characters you want to actually meet, befriend, stay close to.? --"The Baltimore Sun?Snappy, energetic, sometimes almost supercharged in its writing.? --"Kirkus Reviews?The pain [Schappell] chronicles is immediate and moving.? --"Publishers Weekly?Elissa Schapell's "Use Me is a wonderfully satisfying book, the kind ofcoming-of-age novel that somehow fulfills the expectations of the genre in unexpected ways. Schappell is a comic writer with impeccable timing, and "Use Me is quick and entertaining?Schappell's prose is agile and deft, and her sentences sound like the riffs of a recklessly funny friend.? --"The New York Times Book Review?Fans of "The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing will devour this grittier, grabbier take on the path from addled adolescence to equally perplexing parenthood?Schappell has created an irresistible fictional girlfriend in Evie." Wakefield.? -- "Glamour?It's the rock-hard honesty beneath the gem-bright hilarity that make this a debut collection to savor.? -- "Elle?Delightful?out-and-out literary.?--"Vanity Fair?A gem of a laugh-and-cry out [loud novel]?As a paean to a father, it feels just right.? --"Mirabella?An impressive debut novel?Schappell layers Evie's story poetically?[and] renders Evie's grief with surprising eloquence and subtle humor.? --"US?Witty and poignant.? --"Mademoiselle"?Use Me has eased into high gear by the end of its first story, and if Evie's in for a bumpy ride, we're ready to rumble along?She's the kind of character you want to stick with?Lively without everstumbling over its own cleverness, funny without being smart-alecky, Use Me is a story about growing up that'swritten for grown-ups.?--"Salon?I like to laugh, and this book yanked me into a million different emotional upheavals, and I loved every minute of it.? --"Jane