- Paperback: 340 pages
- Publisher: Scribner (5 Nov 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743207246
- ISBN-13: 978-0066214559
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,303,541 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
A bitterly funny broadside on market-driven contemporary life. In Middle City, a firm of marketing gurus-Tomorrow Ltd.-sniff the winds of change for any new trend or desire. Ursula Van Arden meets with co-worker Javier, who's tragically poetic, and with boss Chas, who's imposing ("He doesn't look like other men, he looks like their impossible expectations for themselves"), in a playground where, like the ever-vigilant angels in "Wings of Desire", they compare notes. Ursula is a former struggling artist trying to come to terms with her new life of surface-worshipping fetish-study and probably falling in love with Javier. The savage girl of the title is a homeless, apparently mute, mohawked teenager Ursula spied one day and who has become the inspiration for the latest "trend" Tomorrow Ltd. is pushing: the savage look. Soon, the group has talked a client into using the look to advertise their newest product-diet water-with Ursula's schizophrenic sister as model. Ursula justifies her new career by listening to Javier, "This man who rhapsodizes about bubble pipes and weaves divinity into fishtail hems." Once the savage look is launched, however, a new crisis emerges: it seems that Gen-X irony just isn't working on preadolescent "tween" consumers, and so the agents of change launch themselves into their newest campaign: post-irony. Fortunately realizing that satirizing a world already oversaturated with unreal advertising and target marketing is a tricky deal, first-time novelist Shakar ("City in Love", stories, 1996) pushes his story into the outer edges of fantasy while somehow keeping it rooted in the vicissitudes of the MTV age. The result is a crystalline satire of a preening media elite too exhausted with pillaging the minds of consumers to notice the collapsing world around them. With the crafty-eyed precision of Don DeLillo and the humor of Neal Stephenson, a world where image is life and the Next Big Thing is a mouse-click away. (Kirkus Reviews)
Booklist
'Shakar's satiric extrapolation of the cannibalistic aspect of our frenzied pursuit of what's hot is searing and brilliant'
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Riveting and fun,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Savage Girl (Paperback)
For anyone who has ever worked in advertising or marketing, this book will be welcomed warmly. Intriguing characters, eloquent and sharp prose, considering several valid concerns about the speed of "culture" or lack thereof in modern society. Wonderful settings in futuristic metropolis. The ending tends to go a bit manic but I was glued to it. HAve already sent copies of it to a few friends.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.1 out of 5 stars (15 customer reviews) 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Shakar is funny and observant, much like his characters,
By Louis Tuck - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Savage Girl (Paperback)
In his first book, The Savage Girl, Alex Shakar tells the tale of four ambitious young adults attempting to conquer commercialism, and then redefine it. The main character Ursula Van Urden, breaks into the fashion industry by becoming a 'trendspotter'. Her first assignment leads her to 'the savage girl', a primitive, disgusting, and seemingly antithetical figure of commercial beauty. Ursula's discovery prompts the marketing campaign for a new product called "diet water," which soon becomes the epitome of commercial absurdity. In a humourous and thought provoking novel, Shakar explores such questions as:Is advertising the motor behind society? Has marketing and hype created a world where all our beliefs are based on fallacy? Is there any real meaning in popular culture today, or is popular culture just a corporate strategm for encouraging people to spend money? Alex Shakar creates four irresistibly intriguing characters who's attempt to conquer society's fashion engine, leads to some bizarre, yet plausible conclusions about society. The Savage Girl is a delightful and observant rebuttal of everything we think we know about the advertising industry. A ridiculously enticing book! 8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dazzler of A Debut,
By "contactaroston" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Savage Girl (Hardcover)
Trying to create an entire world between the covers is no easy task, but Mr. Shakar has managed it; "Savage Girl" is a fully-realized alternate universe, and perhaps it is a not-so-distant place. This is an earnest and noble "Novel of Ideas," steadily plotted and crisply written. The concepts raised will have you getting the book down from the shelf more than once. Highly recommended for the serious reader seeking something out of the ordinary.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get on board...,
By David Langendoen - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: The Savage Girl (Hardcover)
Alex Shakar's first novel is an amazing ride. Since it's often easiest to describe something (or someone) new in comparison to existing standards, let's try this: He has the descriptive prowess of a Tom Robbins; the pacing and complexity of Don DeLillo; the magic of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. To be sure, there are a couple of rough edges, but his surreal Middle City and the fabulous characters that live there are not to be missed.
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