Product Description

Mirabelle works as a shop assistant in the glove department at Niemans, L.A.'s finest store; she also draws darkly gothic pictures at night. Adrift in the world and lonely, her situation is not improved by the fact that hardly anyone buys the kind of gloves that Niemans sell so she spends most of her day leaning on the counter staring into empty space. There are two men in her life - Jeremy, a man who stencils amplifiers for a living, and Mr Ray Porter, an older man and millionaire who applies logic to relationships, and is serially confused and disappointed. In this exquisitely self-contained novel, Steve Martin touches on the surface horrors of L.A. - the false noses, lips, breasts and people - without exaggeration or explicitly playing for laughs. It's insightful, dark, funny and tender Shopgirl is an incredibly strong piece of fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #128562 in Books
• Published on: 2001-06-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 220 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Shopgirl is comedian Steve Martin's first foray into fiction, and manages to be as assured as it is surprising, coming from the usually zany Martin. Set in contemporary Los Angeles, its fascination with the surreal body fascism of upper-class America feels like familiar Martin territory, but the shopgirl of the book's title is the figure that will surprise Martin fans. Mirabelle Buttersfield works in the glove department of Neimans, "selling things that nobody buys any more". Spending her days waiting for customers to appear, Mirabelle "looks like a puppy standing on its hind legs, and the two brown dots of her eyes, set in the china plate of her face, make her seem very cute and noticeable". Lonely and vulnerable, Mirabelle spends her evenings taking prescription drugs and drawing "dead things", while pursuing an on-off relationship with the hopeless Jeremy, who possesses "a slouch so extreme that he appears to have left his skeleton at home". Then Mr Ray Porter steps into Mirabelle's life. He is much older, rich, successful, divorced, and selfish, desiring Mirabelle "without obligation". Complicating the picture is Mirabelle's voracious rival in the opposite sex, her fellow Neimans shopgirl Lisa, who uses sex "for attracting and discarding men".

The mutual incomprehension, psychological damage and sheer vacuity practised by all four of Martin's characters sees Shopgirl veer rather uncomfortably between a comedy of manners and a very black comedy. There are some startling passages of description and interior monologue, but the characters are often rather hazy "types". Martin tries too hard in his attempt to write a psychologically intense novel about west coast America, but Shopgirl is still an enjoyable, if rather light read. --Jerry Brotton

About the Author
Steve Martin is a successful actor and writer.

Customer Reviews

Excellent and Entertaining.
I really enjoyed this novella and read it in one go. The witty narrative made me laugh and think at the same time. The communication breakdown between man and woman is particularly realistic. I would recommend it to anyone who has enjoyed Martin's other writings.

shop pearl
this book is excellently written...martin continues to suprise me in his writtings..and with this book its not a case of i couldnt put it down..its a case of i didnt want to put it down...cant wait for the next one steve

Shopgirl is a wee gem of a book.
Some of my girlfriends who have read this novella insisted that it was a sad little story about a girl with an empty life looking for a guy to fill the void. Although I can see that Shopgirl has a definite blue feeling to it as you turn the pages, it's ultimately a heartwarming tale. Yes, the main character, Mirabelle, is lonely and her life is empty and there is nothing on her horizon to entice her forward, but she keeps on going and tries to let her creativity breathe. When the older Ray Porter comes on the scene, is he the key to a better life for Mirabelle, or does he represent the promise of a better life? Without giving too much away, all I'll say is that when you reach the final full-stop, you feel satisfied and realise that maybe it's the guy who's been looking for something to fill his empty life. This is an elegantly written book that you can enjoy in an afternoon. It serves as a reminder that the bad times have their part to play in our lives.