REVIEW: TAMPA BY ALISSA NUTTING

TAMPA

Author: Alissa Nutting
Constable & Robinson RRP $27.99
Review: Monique Mulligan 

Tampatam·per 1  (tmpr) v.tam·peredtam·per·ingtam·pers v.intr.

1. To interfere in a harmful manner: tried to tamper with the decedent’s will; tampering with the timing mechanism of the safe.
2. To tinker with rashly or foolishly: Don’t tamper with my feelings.
3. To engage in improper or secret dealings, as in an effort to influence.

Although this novel is set in Tampa, I can’t help thinking that the title is meant to suggest the word ‘tamper’. That’s really what this novel is about – an attractive female teacher who tampers with 14 year old boys (she calls it seducing them) and tries to justify it by saying she’s educating them. Tampa, Alissa Nutting’s literary fiction debut is a divisive book that is quite simply, not going to be everyone’s taste. It’s described as a ‘satirical’ examination of desire, but what many may misunderstand is that satirical does not necessarily mean funny; in its simplest sense, satire is used as a form of social criticism, bringing to the fore issues that need discussing.

sat·ire  (sa-ˌtī(-ə)r) n.

1. a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn
2. trenchant wit, irony, or sarcasm used to expose and discredit vice or folly
In the case of Tampa, it’s the issue of women sexually preying on teenage boys. More specifically, a female teacher seducing a male student. Why is there more outrage when a male teacher seduces a teenage girl? Are there double standards and if so, why? Is there a perception that it could be a ‘positive learning experience’ for boys? Is it every young boy’s dream to be tutored by an older woman in sex … and if it is, does that make it all right? What if the teacher in question was male? Interestingly when I asked someone what would happen if a teacher seduced his son, he said that would be ‘weird’ … his reaction when I substituted daughter in the scenario was tellingly different. As Nutting has said, when it comes to males seducing teenage girls, ‘we don’t assume it was a positive learning experience’.

Tampa takes the reader into the mind of Celeste Price, one of the most disturbing and vile literary characters I’ve come across. Celeste is 26, married to a police officer from a wealthy family, drives a red Corvette, and by her own admission, is very attractive. She teaches eighth-grade English not because she has to, but because it provides her with plenty of ‘eye candy’ to feed her obsession for 14-year-old boys. Her desire for boys of this age is even more specific:

‘my ideal partner, I realized, embodied a very specific intersection of traits that would exclude most of the junior high’s male population. Extreme growth spurts or pronounced muscles were immediate grounds for disqualification. They also need to have decent skin, be somewhat thin, and have either the shame or the preternatural discipline to keep a secret.’

Celeste pursues her desire with sociopathic meticulousness and forethought, from the way she grooms herself ahead of her first day (physically and sexually) to her cool assessment of potential lovers. She revels in the knowledge that her male students think she’s ‘hot’ and when sets her sights on her target, pulls out all the stops to lure him in. When she sees Jack, shy, unimposing (but with a mouth that’s ‘devilishly wholesome’), she knows he’s the one, and the calculating games begin: ‘Reaching up to the nape of my neck, I shook out my hair and brought the pencil’s lead tip to my tongue’.  Within weeks, Jack is under her spell.

Their affair is heated and dangerous; Jack’s timidity vanishes fast as Celeste draws him into a world of sexual experience beyond his boyish imaginings, with encounters in cars, classrooms and Jack’s house while his single father is not at home. Celeste enjoys the risk factor, but remains aware that exposure would be inconvenient (for her). Inconvenient. There’s no remorse from Celeste about her behaviour – her words make that clear when she talks about people with ‘delusions of morality’ calling the police if they found out, or pretends to play the conscience card when it suits her. Even when the affair is found out (it’s a given that it will be), she remains convinced that she has just done Jack a favour: ‘I’d be the sexual yardstick for his whole life’.

Tampa deals with the issue of predatory behaviour in an unsettling and graphic manner. This is not an erotic book, one designed for escapism with a bit of spice thrown in. Instead it details, with no attempt at euphemism, a succession of sexual encounters that are written to drive home a point, rather than inspire arousal. Some readers will find it difficult – I know at times I did. Being in Celeste’s head space (it’s written from a first-person viewpoint) is uncomfortable – she’s a narcissistic, calculating woman who cares only for her own pleasure. She tries to convince the reader that Jack’s pleasure is important, but it’s abundantly clear that it’s all about her. It’s confronting stuff. Celeste gets off on pushing boundaries – even her classroom discussions about ‘culturally agreed-upon roles’, and ‘sexual impropriety’ skirt dangerously close to reality; what she wants is affirmation that her actions are excusable.

As a book that pushes boundaries, Tampa certainly does that. No matter how disconcerting it is to occupy Celeste’s head space, the book does what it sets out to do – makes people talk. It does make readers question double standards (why are some relationships more scandalous than others?) and it also highlights the extent to which predatory people will go to achieve their ends. As the mother of teenagers, I was horrified, but it also allowed me to talk to my older teenage sons about what they think about the issue from a number of angles. Their responses were interesting.

While I did not enjoy the discomfort I felt while reading Tampa, nor did I like the subject matter or protagonist, I do think it’s a good, albeit very confronting, read. It’s written well, especially in the sense that it evoked strong emotions from me – anger, frustration, disbelief and disgust. I was compelled to read it to the end, if only to see Celeste get her just desserts. Did she? You’ll have to read it to find out. It will polarise readers and I’m interested to see the critical and popular response to the book – did the publisher and author’s risk pay off? Book clubs who don’t mind books that push them a little will find a lot to discuss in here. 

Available from bookstores and Allen & Unwin. This copy was courtesy of Allen & Unwin.

Bookish treat: I have five copies of Tampa to give away (Australian residents only). For a chance to win, head over to my FB page and tell me why you want to read this book. I’ll be drawing the winners on July 24 to coincide with its in-store release.

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Monique Mulligan

0 Responses

  1. Thanks for a brilliant discussion of Tampa, Monique. As I was reading, I remembered a scene in a book I read years ago called Princess Daisy by Judith Kranz. In it, she featured the hero (Stash) as a youth (I can’t remember his exact age but maybe 14 or 15) who lost his virginity to an older woman who took it upon herself to seduce him as part of his ‘sexual awakening/education’. She was (my memory is hazy – it was a long time ago) a family friend, or friend of Stash’s father, and so a person in position of trust. Do you think it is any different in the fact that Celeste is a teacher? So much gets discussed about teacher/student relationships… if you remove the seducer’s teaching career from the equation, do you think the abuse of trust (as such) is every bit as bad? If the book was about a friend of the boy’s mother who does the seducing. Say she checks out her son’s friends who come for sleepovers, or at football games etc… does that make it any better or worse, than that she is the boy’s teacher?
    You’ve given me lots to think about.
    Cheers
    Lily M

  2. Great review Monique. Nutting successfully shines a light on double standards, however whether the novel can convincingly shift them I’m not so sure. My partner read it and even at the end continues to believe its ‘different’ experience for teenage boys because of the basic sexual differences between genders. I’m more interested in men’s views on the book than women’s now. I think Tampa will be polarising in the way men and women view it because of the double standards that people so firmly believe in.

    1. I’m not sure that the book will shift them either, Kate. These standards are so firmly entrenched, as I discovered yesterday just through discussion. I think Lily raised a good point also, about whether it would make a difference if Celeste was not a teacher. To me, it comes down to someone being in a position of authority – a discussion which Celeste has with one of her classes – and misusing that authority for personal gain. Is that another form of double standard? Probably.

  3. The winners of the giveaway are: Anne Vickery, Tara Nikelis, Kirsten Wallace, Christina Lungo and Silvermist HovFairy. Congrats! Thanks to Allen & Unwin Books for providing the copies. All winners have been notifed via my Facebook page.

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