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Pink
A freewheeling novel about living the life you dream--and deserve Dream on, dream big. Pink is the Walter Mitty-esque tale of a lesbian writer who fantasizes about her novel and the resulting complications the book presents in her life. Love, fame, and fortune all line up to do cartwheels in this rollicking satire about a woman suddenly faced with what MIGHT happen. Laugh, live, and love along with this everywoman narrator and discover that her life may not be so different from the life you live. Follow this plucky heroine as she enters a world of dreams and complications, as she strives to overcome her fears about living her own life the way it is meant to be lived. Pink--more than simply the title of the main character's novel--ultimately reveals its meaning as the symbol of power for her (and others in the gay and lesbian community) rightful place in the world. An excerpt from Every time I go into a bookstore I want to vomit. It usually starts in the G section of Fiction but it's in full swing by the time I reach the Os. It's the type of feeling you get after eating too much ice cream. It hits you between the lungs, at the base of them near the gut. By the Os I want to Hey, you forgot me! I look around, but all that I see is the book I will write. I can see the camera-ready art and everything. A slick title that will sell a million copies. It'll be me they're talking about on the news. They just don't know it yet. The book I will write will make men sigh and bring tears like the best movie; the one you've seen a million times and can recite by heart. My book will be the sort of thing that becomes a substitute for friends. It will be so sad that people won't want to finish but will skip to the back of the book to see if what they think will happen does, but it won't. My book will have a pink cover like the brightest cotton candy you loved as a kid so that every time you look at it you think of Ferris Wheels. And there will be a gaudy display in the stores that I will tell everyone I hate, but I will secretly love. There will be a picture of the main character, me, standing in the middle of the desert. Low clouds will swirl behind me, in sand-like patterns, like at the beach when the waves retreat back into the ocean and the sand is all bumpy and streaked with imprints of the waves. That's how the clouds will be above me. And the title will be a thick black stripe across the top. But my name won't be on the front cover, only on the side because aesthetically, I want the one-liner title and the picture. It will give you the feeling you had when your fifth grade teacher used your paper as the perfect example in class, even though you laughed, it will be that secret sort of knowledge that you are somehow better than the rest. Pink is a novel that confirms what some only suspect--that everyone is deserving of the life they dream.
161 pages, Paperback
First published January 18, 2007
3 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Harris
2 books2 followersJennifer Harris’s poetry has appeared in numerous national literary magazines. PINK is her first novel. Jennifer received her MFA from The School of The Art Institute of Chicago and her BA from The University of Arizona. Jennifer spent a decade as an active literary organizer in Chicago. She also founded and directed a nonprofit that hosted writing workshops for at-risk teens in hospitals and shelters throughout Chicago. She currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the Poetry Center of Chicago.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 14, 2016
Pink is a first-person account of a woman in her early 30’s struggling with her identity – many parts of her identity but especially the fact that she is gay. She writes with a certain neurosis and psychosis; yet, what might normally be read as a narcissistic and extremely self-centered character is in fact just one person’s exploration of what it means to exist. Our main character’s story is about discovering what the most important things about life are. The two important factors in this protagonist’s life are love and art. She is a writer, and much of the book is about her experiences writing her book, titled Pink, a title which the reader will guess the symbolism of while reading: “Pink shoes, pink hats, pink umbrella. Pink slipcovers for the couch and curtains. Pink-colored candles that line a bathtub, pink throw mats, and pink frames for paintings. Pink mugs, pink forks, pink refrigerator. Pink highlights in a Persian carpet, pink-colored scarves. All the pink you can eat.” And so it is – Pink is the title of her book, and it is extremely successful and ends up attracting the attention of Steven Spielberg (who is directing a movie based on her book), Oprah, and Barbara Walters. Despite this immense success our main character is depressed to the point of suicidal. She is a fully grown adult, and she still hasn’t told her homophobic and prejudicial mother the truth about her sexual orientation, and her father doesn’t know either, despite the fact that he might, deep down, really know – but he never speaks out in support of his daughter. All this weighs heavy on our main character’s heart, causing her to become nihilistic towards any kind of celebrity culture and money. She becomes resistant to the idea of self-worth.Her tiny, sometimes dirty apartment, for example, and her proclivity towards the poorer people of the world (like bums on the beach) are a couple intentional things that define her personality. She doesn't have any real friends.
She writes in future tense – she will do this, her mom *will* do that, the beach *will* be a certain way, Oprah *will* say” when it all actually is happening in the now - although she’s writing as is she foresees it. This kind of writing may make it a little slow to catch onto at first, but as the story becomes more intimate and personal, it becomes believable, and then you will start to feel the real poetic quality of this book. She has a kind of sardonic humor weaved into her story that is undeniably distinct and heartfelt.
The story is a very special coming-of-age book because it deals with a woman who was never able to “come-of-age” at the time that most women do. It starts happening to her at 32, and she is not unaware of it. Her deep secrets about herself were never liberated during her life up to this point, for many reasonable and sad consequences. But thankfully, by the end, she meets someone extremely special to her (who she nicknames Buddy Holly because of her glasses), and who eventually becomes her lover. Will our main character open herself up to vulnerability with the love of her life? Will she ruin the relationship because of her fear of rejection? Will she ever tell her parents the truth, even though she knows that they will never speak to her again? This questions will pull you along with her journey.
Pink by Jennifer Harris is a fast-paced, character-driven book, full of prose and poetry describing the emotional terrain of someone afraid to speak the truth about her sexual orientation. The book is also humorous take on life in present-day L.A., as well as humorous take of someone in self-denial. Pink is also a touching romance, and a drama about the personal/political struggles of a gay woman.
Similar fiction works include 100 Strokes Of The Brush Before Bed by Melissa P. (Panerello), for its diary-like quality and exploration of a young woman’s sexuality, Seven: A Lesbian Snow White by Jennifer Diemer, for its explicit focus on LGBTQQ themes, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, for writing style and content, including self-expression and liberating feminist desires, Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun, for its intimate writing style , for its depiction of a broken familial life, and for its descriptions of personal and political struggles of a youth within a metropolitan area.
Similar nonfiction works include: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, for its intimate writing style and nihilist critique of young adult contemporary life and for its ideas concerning mental illness, Being Jazz: My Life As A Transgender Teen by Jazz Jennings, for its explicit focus on LGBTQQ themes, and How To Change Your Sex: A Light-Hearted Look At The Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Do by Lannie Rose, for its aim to help anyone in the LGBTQQ community accept and share their true identity.
She writes in future tense – she will do this, her mom *will* do that, the beach *will* be a certain way, Oprah *will* say” when it all actually is happening in the now - although she’s writing as is she foresees it. This kind of writing may make it a little slow to catch onto at first, but as the story becomes more intimate and personal, it becomes believable, and then you will start to feel the real poetic quality of this book. She has a kind of sardonic humor weaved into her story that is undeniably distinct and heartfelt.
The story is a very special coming-of-age book because it deals with a woman who was never able to “come-of-age” at the time that most women do. It starts happening to her at 32, and she is not unaware of it. Her deep secrets about herself were never liberated during her life up to this point, for many reasonable and sad consequences. But thankfully, by the end, she meets someone extremely special to her (who she nicknames Buddy Holly because of her glasses), and who eventually becomes her lover. Will our main character open herself up to vulnerability with the love of her life? Will she ruin the relationship because of her fear of rejection? Will she ever tell her parents the truth, even though she knows that they will never speak to her again? This questions will pull you along with her journey.
Pink by Jennifer Harris is a fast-paced, character-driven book, full of prose and poetry describing the emotional terrain of someone afraid to speak the truth about her sexual orientation. The book is also humorous take on life in present-day L.A., as well as humorous take of someone in self-denial. Pink is also a touching romance, and a drama about the personal/political struggles of a gay woman.
Similar fiction works include 100 Strokes Of The Brush Before Bed by Melissa P. (Panerello), for its diary-like quality and exploration of a young woman’s sexuality, Seven: A Lesbian Snow White by Jennifer Diemer, for its explicit focus on LGBTQQ themes, The Awakening by Kate Chopin, for writing style and content, including self-expression and liberating feminist desires, Miles From Nowhere by Nami Mun, for its intimate writing style , for its depiction of a broken familial life, and for its descriptions of personal and political struggles of a youth within a metropolitan area.
Similar nonfiction works include: Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, for its intimate writing style and nihilist critique of young adult contemporary life and for its ideas concerning mental illness, Being Jazz: My Life As A Transgender Teen by Jazz Jennings, for its explicit focus on LGBTQQ themes, and How To Change Your Sex: A Light-Hearted Look At The Hardest Thing You’ll Ever Do by Lannie Rose, for its aim to help anyone in the LGBTQQ community accept and share their true identity.
January 8, 2010
This clever, unsettling novel is about a novel-within-the-novel which doesn’t exist, but which will attract interest from Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Barbara Walters. The actual book is in the tradition of novels about novelists saving their own lives by writing self-defining novels, much like paintings of painters painting self-portraits.
That flawed but iconic 1928 lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness, could be seen as a forerunner of Pink. Stephen Gordon, the misunderstood central character of the earlier book, must leave her ancestral home to write a novel like the one in which she appears.
Pink, the actual book, is less self-indulgent than it sounds. It is partly about the American obsession with fame and celebrity and partly about the continuing invisibility of women, especially lesbians, as individuals. The fictional author of Pink (the imaginary book) has a real need to discover and express her own truth in order to survive. As thoughts of suicide float through her mind, the reader becomes aware that the book she plans to write (in the future) in literally her lifeline.
The title of the both the real and the unreal book is suggestive of everything feminine and everything “gay,” of diluted blood (an important element in the story told to the writer about her own birth), of a combination of emotion (red) and intelligence (white). “Pink” is even defined as a verb, meaning “to prick or stab.”
The nameless narrator has been raised by a rabidly homophobic mother who sends her photos of wedding gowns and a father who stands by his wife. A sinister grandfather lurks in an actual and metaphorical attic until he dies but does not disappear. The narrator’s sense of self is constantly under threat.
Among other things, this novel is a love story and a coming-out story. At age thirty-two, the narrator has never been in a truly intimate relationship, and the prospect terrifies her even while it fascinates her. To her amazement, the fellow-writer who meets her gaze over a laptop in a café turns out to be “evil review girl,” the one who trashed the narrator’s poetry when she was attending college.
The narrator has never forgotten these stinging phrases: “excruciating to listen to” and “no sense of self.” The reader is reminded of the appalling sensitivity of any fledgling writer. Writers who also write reviews are reminded of the temptation to “pink” someone’s else’s work; it seems so easy and so consequence-free.
The writer and the reviewer have a symbiotic relationship even before they meet. The writer needs acceptance from the reviewer, who needs forgiveness from the writer. The progress of the relationship is moving, awkward and funny.
Some passages in this novel deserve to be read aloud. Here Pink (the imaginary book) becomes controversial after Martha Stewart has declared pink to be the season’s hip color:
“…it will be good for the book because by the time she gets around to mentioning it, people will be starting to lose interest in the hubbub, and the Reverend Jerry Falwell will chime in and say that pink is damned. He will issue a memo saying pink is the cause of the destruction of families and the reason women are working. He will formally write out for every evangelist to read that pink is what is wrong with this entire country. And the book I will write [Pink:] will soar right back to number one on The New York Times best seller list after five months on the market.”
Like the imaginary book, the real book captures the zeitgeist of twenty-first century American culture as well as the eternal paradoxes of human interaction.
This reviewer’s only complaint is trivial: the author should have known that “dessert” and “desert” are different words, spelled differently, despite the complex significance of both in the narrator’s life.
In general, however, the author finds her way through trackless environments and bewildering high-calorie rewards. Read the book and see.
-------------------------------------------
That flawed but iconic 1928 lesbian novel, The Well of Loneliness, could be seen as a forerunner of Pink. Stephen Gordon, the misunderstood central character of the earlier book, must leave her ancestral home to write a novel like the one in which she appears.
Pink, the actual book, is less self-indulgent than it sounds. It is partly about the American obsession with fame and celebrity and partly about the continuing invisibility of women, especially lesbians, as individuals. The fictional author of Pink (the imaginary book) has a real need to discover and express her own truth in order to survive. As thoughts of suicide float through her mind, the reader becomes aware that the book she plans to write (in the future) in literally her lifeline.
The title of the both the real and the unreal book is suggestive of everything feminine and everything “gay,” of diluted blood (an important element in the story told to the writer about her own birth), of a combination of emotion (red) and intelligence (white). “Pink” is even defined as a verb, meaning “to prick or stab.”
The nameless narrator has been raised by a rabidly homophobic mother who sends her photos of wedding gowns and a father who stands by his wife. A sinister grandfather lurks in an actual and metaphorical attic until he dies but does not disappear. The narrator’s sense of self is constantly under threat.
Among other things, this novel is a love story and a coming-out story. At age thirty-two, the narrator has never been in a truly intimate relationship, and the prospect terrifies her even while it fascinates her. To her amazement, the fellow-writer who meets her gaze over a laptop in a café turns out to be “evil review girl,” the one who trashed the narrator’s poetry when she was attending college.
The narrator has never forgotten these stinging phrases: “excruciating to listen to” and “no sense of self.” The reader is reminded of the appalling sensitivity of any fledgling writer. Writers who also write reviews are reminded of the temptation to “pink” someone’s else’s work; it seems so easy and so consequence-free.
The writer and the reviewer have a symbiotic relationship even before they meet. The writer needs acceptance from the reviewer, who needs forgiveness from the writer. The progress of the relationship is moving, awkward and funny.
Some passages in this novel deserve to be read aloud. Here Pink (the imaginary book) becomes controversial after Martha Stewart has declared pink to be the season’s hip color:
“…it will be good for the book because by the time she gets around to mentioning it, people will be starting to lose interest in the hubbub, and the Reverend Jerry Falwell will chime in and say that pink is damned. He will issue a memo saying pink is the cause of the destruction of families and the reason women are working. He will formally write out for every evangelist to read that pink is what is wrong with this entire country. And the book I will write [Pink:] will soar right back to number one on The New York Times best seller list after five months on the market.”
Like the imaginary book, the real book captures the zeitgeist of twenty-first century American culture as well as the eternal paradoxes of human interaction.
This reviewer’s only complaint is trivial: the author should have known that “dessert” and “desert” are different words, spelled differently, despite the complex significance of both in the narrator’s life.
In general, however, the author finds her way through trackless environments and bewildering high-calorie rewards. Read the book and see.
-------------------------------------------
October 6, 2008
Written entirely in the future tense. A story of what will be. I found it fascinating.
February 11, 2011
i liked it more as it went on. i was hoping for a little more resolution re: the grandfather, but all in all i liked it, neurotic and annoying but enjoyable. very unusual.
May 23, 2024
PINK is hilarious & heartbreaking! I can’t put it down. I don’t remember the last time a book grabbed me from the first sentence like this. Highly recommend!
October 15, 2023
I got a hand on an old copy and fell in love with the weird quirkiness of this book. It's fun in the strangest way and also tragic. The trauma is handled in such a human way.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews