Upon taking in the first 20 pages of E. Lockhart's 'The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks', I began to wonder...
...is this Fight Club meets Gossip Girl?!
Part I: The title character leads a semi-charmed life. Upper class lifestyle? Check. Attendance at an esteemed New England boarding school? Yep. Making it to the other side of puberty with likable looks and a whip-smart wit? You betcha.
*sigh* So why is the girl-that-we're-all-supposed-to-hate so gosh darned amazingly super-awesome?
Part II: Well, her fondness for Foucault is a good place to start.
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As she begins discovering that her boyfriend is part of an all-male secret society known as The Loyal Order of the Bassett Hounds, she decides to mix up. Rather than flee or fight, she commits identity theft, leading the pack through her Gmail account and conducting society-stirring pranks involving brassieres and a vegan art project.
Unlike most stories that take on this theme, Frankie is never really in any sort of imminent danger nor will one find a teary group hug of acceptance at the end [spoiler alert!]. Thus, Frankie's gender is never directly threatened nor accepted. Rather, she challenges the subtle social cues that should maintain her acceptance of the world around her. [NOTE: Frankie learns about and often refers to Bentham's panopticon throughout the course of the book to stress this point]
Yet, Lockhart keeps it real. Frankie isn't exactly rampaging campus in full military regalia. She has insecurities along the way, just as any young person would in her situation. She's quirky, becoming happily obsessed with using neglected positives or words created by removing their negative prefix (disgrunted minus "dis" equals "gruntled" meaning happy). She worries about the motivation for her boyfriend's interest in her. She has a mini-lunchroom panic attack. She has loyal friends who still, as loyal friends are apt to do, manage to completely get on her nerves.
And thus, I'd love to be her friend. Talk about the Cacophony Society. Help her get into The New School. Do sketches of Wodehouse.
Awesome.
25 Random Things about Frankie Landau-Banks here.
SITBB Review here.
Read an excerpt here.
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