Since You Ask

by Louise Wareham

From a Connecticut sanitarium, 24-year-old Betsy Scott tells her doctor a story about the destructive secrets in an outwardly successful family. Confusing love and sex, desire and fear, Betsy grows alienated, confused and desperate. She finally faces truths about herself and her family that enable her to move beyond them and into a new life. Since You Ask is about the origins of sexual compulsion, and the ways in which one young woman tries to overcome it.

Louise Wareham grew up in Manhattan and graduated from Columbia University. She has worked as a reporter in New York City, Oxford, Mississippi and New Zealand. Since You Ask was the winner of the James Jones Literary Society First Novel Award.

Genres: Fiction

225 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2004

Reviews

[Dia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book about a girl who was molested as a girl and finds out just how much this has affected her later. She has a kind of breakdown and goes into a hospital where she talks a lot with her doctor about what happened and why. Beautiful writing and really sad intense story, but really helpful because she really tries to understand how she can get over her past and be happier. Intense.

[Louise Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course I have to rate this a 5! I wrote it, and worked so hard on it! L

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really shouldn't read these books about crazy girls, it isn't healthy for me. But this was very good. The juxtaposition of times was skillfully done, and her style reminds me of Hemingway, in that the writing seems to simply report what happened and leave the subtext to you. Of course this means once I finished it I was cumulatively more emotionally disturbed than I realized.

[ABC Group · Rating 2 out of 5]

A solid read that addresses the abuse of young lady and the impacts it has on her life. Despite being privileged and wealthy, Betsy doesn't ooze entitlement, so much as tragedy and brokenness. Some folks are fucked from an early start and she's one of them.

I must admit that this felt long, despite being only 213 pages. I understand the patterned behavior. And, I get how many of the folks in this book are simply void of any decency...and that our lead character is drawn to these people. It's just kinda hard to read for 175 pages before you reach some semblance of humanity.

[Michael Lindgren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intermittently affecting troubled-youth tale reads like contemporary Plath / Salinger update complete with mental institution, disconnected parents, unsympathetic peers, etc. etc. The author is capable of occasional flashes of lyricism, but mostly relies on the flat, atonal register favored by young novelists who are trying to imply oceans of pain beneath the stoical surface. Should be docked an additional star for hideously amateurish, sleazy, irrelevant cover. The title is from a poem by Anne Sexton.

[Siobhan. · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was fucked up in so many ways. But understandable. The bits were Frank were so beyond creepy and unbearable to read. I don't what it's like in psychiatric hospitals in America, but over here, they don't let you just get in a car and go into town with friends while you're staying at the psychiatric hospital. My dad also agrees. Also wish we would've gotten some closure over the Beck situation. Her parents are so fucked up. The fact that they should swept what happened with Betsy and Ray under the rug? Not cool. Over all, pretty good book.

[Maggie Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVE, LOVE LOVE this book. There is not a word missing or a word to spare. The subject matter is dark but real - and it is a wonderful coming of age tale. It is a fantastic read - just could not put it down!!

[Jodi P]

Yikes, I don't even remember anything about this book.

And doesn't that kind of say it all??

[Michele · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was totally obsessed with this book. It spoke to me and the words were like a song. Parts were very emotional and not easy to move through but it was worth it. It changed my life.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very dark subject manner but written in a very fluid way. I loved this author's writing style.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a quick and compelling read, but I wish the narrator had some personality beyond being damaged. Damage seems more meaningful to me when you see the potential for what someone could have been if they hadn't been so hurt. And Betsy doesn't really have any personality beyond "young woman so damaged by sexual assault that she can only be an empty vessel for men to pour themselves into"

[Evan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's something ass backwards about this book. By the time it started getting human, and interesting, in the last 40 pages, I was so cold to it that I didn't care.
I was patiently waiting for something resembling human beings as I know them to enter the story; instead encountering people who I wouldn't associate with in real life, much less want to read about.
So, as stories about crazy young rich girls enduring incest, drug abuse, intergenerational and nymphomaniacal sex go, this one was pretty dull.

I even had quibbles with the much-feted writing. The story is muddled up in the beginning, so that the "fog can clear slowly for us", as it were. But I kind of had to care for that to matter, but I didn't and it didn't.

There was more, but I don't want to spend another minute on it. Next time, I'll know better than to ask...

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was beautifully written and had a fascinating plot. The tone held very true to the perspective of the main character. I enjoyed it and I read it quickly. But by the end, I was starting to lose interest a little bit.

[CherylBCz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I get that this is supposed to be written by a psychotic troubled junkie, but the erratic nature of the prose was just too gimmicky.