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No Fixed Address: an amorous journey
"Winner of the Writers' Guild of Alberta Award for Fiction
Nominated for the Governor General's Award for Fiction"
Arachne Manteia is a road rider, a traveling sales rep who drives a classic Mercedes and peddles women's underwear for a living. From her working class childhood to her comfortable adult life, Arachne refuses the conventional and embraces whatever adventure fate throws in her path.
A rogue sales rep with a man in every town, she lures each into her web of desire. All of them she claims as part of her never-ending journey, which promises fulfillment but offers no map for her longing. Always ready to fight and flee, Arachne Manteia is the quintessential picara, skillfully reckless, frighteningly irresistible, ready to go to the edge of the mappable world and beyond.
320 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
1 person is currently reading
77 people want to read
About the author
Aritha van Herk
38 books22 followersAritha van Herk is a Canadian writer, critic, editor, and university professor.
Her parents and elder siblings immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands before she was born. She grew up in a bilingual home, speaking English and Dutch. In 1974, she married Robert Jay Sharp, who is a geologist. Van Herk studied Canadian literature and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, graduating with a B.A. Honours in 1976, and an M.A. in 1978. Since 1983, Aritha van Herk has been teaching at the University of Calgary. She teaches Creative Writing, Canadian Literature, and Contemporary Narrative.
Her parents and elder siblings immigrated to Canada from the Netherlands before she was born. She grew up in a bilingual home, speaking English and Dutch. In 1974, she married Robert Jay Sharp, who is a geologist. Van Herk studied Canadian literature and Creative Writing at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, graduating with a B.A. Honours in 1976, and an M.A. in 1978. Since 1983, Aritha van Herk has been teaching at the University of Calgary. She teaches Creative Writing, Canadian Literature, and Contemporary Narrative.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 31, 2014
Aritha van Herk's character Arachne, like her mythical predecessor from Greek mythology, spins a web, but her web is not of cloth or of silk (except for the underwear she sells), but rather of places, maps, and locations. She spreads her network out over the Canadian prairies, weaving herself a sense of freedom and avoiding the trap that a web can create.
Arachne is a sexually free character, avoiding the perceived trap of domestic life and desiring to explore the extents of her sexuality and, like a spider who has made a parachute of webbing, to move from place to place, drifting to areas that attract her attention and passion.
An underwear sales woman who refuses to wear underwear, Arachne is aware of the history of confining clothing for women, the web of fabric, cloth, silk that traps women in a disempowered body. She seeks to provide a freedom of movement to women through the underwear she sells, through her role as a travelling saleswoman who resists attempts to confine her body, and through her sometimes gig as a bus-driver, experiencing the sexism that males project onto a woman in a role that they feel is more appropriate for men. She resists sexual harassment, economic control, and attempts to regulate her sexual body through her constant ability to escape systems of control. Like a spider, she slips through webs, walks across them, and doesn't get caught.
van Herk's narrative slides back and forth between second person and third person, making Arachne's story both intensively her own and simultaneously intensely personal to the reader, who is invited to follow her and is written into the narrative as someone who is perpetually seeking Arachne. van Herk undoes the codified system of text that tends to enwrap female characters, confining them, and regulating them to icons rather than rich and complete personalities and Arachne is a character who defies simple explanation or stereotypical configurations. She is rich in her complexity and in her resistance to easy codes of textually rendering bodies.
Arachne is a sexually free character, avoiding the perceived trap of domestic life and desiring to explore the extents of her sexuality and, like a spider who has made a parachute of webbing, to move from place to place, drifting to areas that attract her attention and passion.
An underwear sales woman who refuses to wear underwear, Arachne is aware of the history of confining clothing for women, the web of fabric, cloth, silk that traps women in a disempowered body. She seeks to provide a freedom of movement to women through the underwear she sells, through her role as a travelling saleswoman who resists attempts to confine her body, and through her sometimes gig as a bus-driver, experiencing the sexism that males project onto a woman in a role that they feel is more appropriate for men. She resists sexual harassment, economic control, and attempts to regulate her sexual body through her constant ability to escape systems of control. Like a spider, she slips through webs, walks across them, and doesn't get caught.
van Herk's narrative slides back and forth between second person and third person, making Arachne's story both intensively her own and simultaneously intensely personal to the reader, who is invited to follow her and is written into the narrative as someone who is perpetually seeking Arachne. van Herk undoes the codified system of text that tends to enwrap female characters, confining them, and regulating them to icons rather than rich and complete personalities and Arachne is a character who defies simple explanation or stereotypical configurations. She is rich in her complexity and in her resistance to easy codes of textually rendering bodies.
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August 26, 2023Perhaps best described as a picara tale -- the 'errant adventure' but decidedly not male ... La Doña Quixote? ... Arachne Manteia is a travelling salesperson marketing women's underwear. She drives the west of Canada in a '59 Mercedes, doing pretty much as she wishes with whomever she wishes. For all that, she doesn't seem to be especially selfish--just 'fancy free.' Even before the ending she has passed into Canadian mythology. A 'different' tale, with all that such a designation implies.
February 23, 2016
This is not a book I would have picked up if it weren't for uni. It doesn't not have a plot, of course, but not what I am usually looking for. The first two thirds of the book are a character description, mostly. Aritha van Herk tells the story of Arachne Manteia, an underwear sales rep, who never stops, never settles. She shows glimpses of her life, of her childhood, of the various men that have, and more often than not have not, affected her. The last part is a lot more surreal and I was never quite certain how much of it was just in her imagination.
The writing is superb, it alone would have made me finish the book regardless of the fact that though I very much love Arachne as a character, I simply could not relate to her, and that the story itself couldn't completely hook me.
I have given it four stars, because I appreciated the concept, I loved the feminism and reading about a character who is neither shy nor embarrassed about embracing sex, and as I said, the writing was really, really good, but it simply was not my kind of book.
The writing is superb, it alone would have made me finish the book regardless of the fact that though I very much love Arachne as a character, I simply could not relate to her, and that the story itself couldn't completely hook me.
I have given it four stars, because I appreciated the concept, I loved the feminism and reading about a character who is neither shy nor embarrassed about embracing sex, and as I said, the writing was really, really good, but it simply was not my kind of book.
August 29, 2014
How I scored this book: 3 stars for how much I liked it, 4 for how well written it is so 3.5 stars rounded up. I have no doubt that for people who like this kind of story more than I do it's a solid 4 stars.
The characters are interesting. The literary devices masterful. The ending requires speculation (especially if you are analysing the text critically), but unlike in other instances where I've found that irritating, Van Herk manages to make that a positive, which isn't easy to accomplish.
The characters are interesting. The literary devices masterful. The ending requires speculation (especially if you are analysing the text critically), but unlike in other instances where I've found that irritating, Van Herk manages to make that a positive, which isn't easy to accomplish.
October 13, 2025
This book is about a feminist woman who loves men. She doesn’t fit any stereotype of how a woman should look, behave, or think. As a lingerie seller who doesn’t wear bras, she needs to drive through little towns near Calgary, a place that represents stability for her. But when she drives in her Mercedes, she feels a sense of freedom, a chance to be in total control of where and how she’s moving through the maps. It’s a story about defiance, sexuality, and freedom. She’s on a search for momentary witnesses of her wild existence.
March 1, 2025
One of my favourite books of 2024.
Freelance female underwear salesperson who never wears pants and drives around Canada in her red sports car meeting people and being cool.
Love how embodied Arachne is- she just acts on her base desires at all times. Her husband is so understanding of her too- very slay.
Freelance female underwear salesperson who never wears pants and drives around Canada in her red sports car meeting people and being cool.
Love how embodied Arachne is- she just acts on her base desires at all times. Her husband is so understanding of her too- very slay.
January 19, 2023
Enjoyed the quirky characters, the descriptions of small town Canada, its landscape and the ending that leaves you hanging. I will read her other books now.
March 6, 2014
The familiars of travel through B.C. and Alberta..continuing to the Yukon Territory (where I live!). This story has much the same 'era-feeling' as On The Road by Jack Kerouac! No Fixed Address may well become a well loved classic.
March 19, 2016
i have read most of Van Herk's novels, and for me, they were mid-range in the enjoyment scale, although i always found her to write very well. But with "No fixed address" I found myself really revelling in the quest of Arachne to spin her own web, and find freedom for her self.
December 30, 2009
Heavy handed with the classical allusions but I liked it the more I read.
September 25, 2012
Amusing and a perfect read for me whilst driving across Canada since it is set in the Western portion!
November 26, 2013
Quite possibly my fascination with Canada started with this irreverent novel about a travelling lingerie saleswoman, Arachne, and her wacky role reversal life.
June 4, 2016
Important read from a point of view that isn't talked about enough.
October 12, 2024
read this for class. shocked by the portrayals though i think the frameworks that were being presented to us were incomplete and at times superficial
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews