Fits Like a Rubber Dress

by Roxane Ward

What does it take to squeeze into a second skin you think you want? And when you find you can’t breathe, who’s going to help you peel it off? In a celebrity-obsessed culture, when media images of women ( and women themselves ) appear to be driven by unreasonable expectations and demands, how does a 29-year-old woman fill that perfect little black dress? These questions are posed and answered in Roxane Ward’s debut novel, Fits Like a Rubber Dress, a hybrid of satire, social commentary, and tragedy. It’s the story of Indigo Blackwell, a woman who tries to reinvent herself as someone glamorous, and ends up travelling innocently through the underground world of drugs, fetish parties, and sadomasochistic sex. Indigo is married to Sam, a self-absorbed wannabe novelist. She’s bored by her career in public relations. The lives her friends lead are profoundly more interesting than her own limited existence. She realizes, the afternoon of her promotion, that the time has come for change: something bigger than a haircut, less extreme than a divorce. No sooner has she made the leap from financial security to the exhilarating uncertainty of film school, than she walks in the back door of her house, video camera in hand, to find another man’s head between her husband’s naked thighs. The camera keeps rolling as Indigo’s marriage dissolves. Alone for the first time, Indigo finds herself propelled into the kind of intense, urban life she’s always wanted. She begins an affair with Jon, a toxic young artist who treats his own life and the people in it as he would a sculpture, as things to manipulate. Fast approaching thirty, Indigo discovers that her new life doesn’t have to fit so tightly after all.

Genres: Fiction

280 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Megan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I slogged through the first 1/3 of it, hoping it would get better. It did.
However, I have to comment on the anal rape scene. Why???? did she obsessively call him after that? Any sane girl would dump him right then and there. Ya, your husband is boring, but this guy is abusive. That is not ok.
It's too bad that this book couldn't have been more of a role model for strong women.

[Shane Birley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am somewhat biased since I am friends with the author - but it rocked. If you don't read it, you are missing a strong story, wicked characters, and a hilarious and heart breaking jaunt.

[Stef · Rating 5 out of 5]

A perfect view of late 90s Toronto anxieties and worries. Roxane Ward is one of the most underrated writers we've ever had.

[Rick Slane · Rating 4 out of 5]

I added an extra star because I thought the author did a good job of portraying young adults.