Myra, naive and curious, is on a family vacation to the southernmost tip of Florida – a mangy Key West full of Spring Breakers. Here, suffering through the embarrassments of a family on the verge of splitting up, she meets Elijah, a charismatic Tanzanian musician who seduces her at the edge of the tourist zone. Myra longs to lose her virginity to Elijah, and is shocked to learn he lives with Gayl, a secretive and violent woman with a strange power over him. Myra and her family return to an unnamed, middle-class, grey Canadian city and she falls in with a pot-smoking, intellectual anarchist crowd. When Gayl and Elijah travel north and infiltrate Myra’s life, she walks willingly into their world: Myra continues to experiment sexually with Elijah, while Gayl plays an integral part in the increasingly abject games. Maidenhead traverses the desperate, wild spaces of a teenage girl’s self-consciousness. How does a girl feel scared? What is she scared of? And how does telling yourself not to be scared really work? As Myra enters worlds unfamiliar of sex, porn, race and class, she explores territories unknown in herself.
As a teenage sex wasn't something that was hidden from me. I was taught that sex happened, that sex was supposed to feel good in order to incite people to reproduce. I was not taught there was anything to be ashamed of in sex, I was taught that it was something that you shouldn't take up like a sport but take great responsibility for the consequences of my actions.
The protagonist of the story was sheltered by her parents in that same way that we shelter our kids whenever we can. By trying to avoid their questions we also do not give them the right to knowledge. Myra's parents were wonderful parents, but not all kids are the same. Myra needed more; she needed a deeper meaning to her life; she needed to interpret the wise thoughts of philosophers on her own and face the truth of reality. Her first shock came as the form of slaves. She was thirsty for more. Attraction, masturbation, decremental experiences, and rebelliousness come crashing onto her in rapid succession after that first shock.
The book deals with themes that I know some people will have a hard time reading. For me, it felt refreshing seeing a young woman free herself from society and embrace sexuality. I admired her deep thoughts, the truthfulness in which she compared herself to other women, her insecurities reflected my own in many ways, without falling into the cliché.
"Maidenhead" is a must read for young women. I agree that not all 16-19 year-olds are reading Gore Vidal, Simone Weil, Giorgio Agamben or Georges Bataille; yet her ability to interpret their works in a manner that affects people from modern and ancient times struck me as marvellous.
I loved "Maidenhead" throughout its 165 pages. I read it in less than a day. Devoured it. It brought me back years to a time when I, too, touched myself, learned myself. I found my own thoughts in several parts of the book. I saw some of my experiences in the eyes of characters. I was excited and scared. I was unchanged, yet more secure about my believes in freedom and asking for what you want.
"Maidenhead" is about sex, about drugs, about a path to find oneself. I felt the pain and shock Myra felt to see what she thought to be reality crumble and finally be able to see the world for what it is. Thank you, Miss Berger, for showing me that I'm not alone in the art of embracing pleasure and satisfaction in the path of human growth. Sacrifice does not make anything but pain greater. Life is about enjoying every second and learning from it all.
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