Iguana Love Book

Like her acclaimed Miami Purity--described as a "hymn to American trash culture" by New York Times Book Review--Vicki Hendricks' Iguana Love works to reclaim Noir sex and mayhem for women. Romana Romano, a heroine to be reckoned with, introduces herself frankly, bluntly, to her readers: "The dark side of my mind took control on one of those slippery-hot Miami nights about a year ago". It's a tone which runs throughout the book. Married--but not for much longer--to Gary, Romana begins to picture herself alone and with a life: of sex, diving and more sex. "I was going to be there no matter what": her (the novel's) declaration of independence and wanting sustains the drive of this narrative, and a reader's engagement with Romana's passions for iguanas and the sea, men and body building, and, finally, the "worst kind" of love. The sexual charge of the book is Romana's, a woman constantly looking and being looked at, delighting in the havoc she unleashes among the men at the diving club--wanting her, rivalling each other. Some scenes unsettle, blurring the boundaries (whatever they may be) between sexuality and violence, but this is heady and confident fiction-- like its heroine, able to take it. --Vicky LebeauRead More