Loose Girl : A Memoir of Promiscuity

"Cohen's brutal honesty about her relentless quest for companionship is refreshingly relatable." --\*Entertainment Weekly \* "Cohen recounts her harrowing litany of hookups through clear, poignant, spare-no-details prose." --\*Marie Claire\* \*\*\*Kerry Cohen's journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is both a cautionary tale and a revelation.\*\*\* \*Loose Girl\* is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction - not just to sex, but to male attention--\*Loose Girl\* is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning. Never less than riveting, \*Loose Girl\* re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment when a girl tries to control a boy by handing over her body, when the touch of that boy seems to offer proof of something but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness. The unforgettable story of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, \*Loose Girl\* will speak to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love. ### From Publishers Weekly Half NPR announcer, half phone-sex operator, Cynthia Holloway treats Cohen's memoir of youthful sexuality and familial disarray with a mixture of breathless eroticism and \*This American Life\* deadpan. In either style, Holloway reads intimately, drawing in listeners with her breathy, close-miked voice. There is something icky and quasi-pornographic about having the details of real-life teenage sexuality shared so familiarly, but Holloway's voice—knowing, lightly ironic, capable of sounding adolescent while remaining firmly adult—salvages the situation. Like those NPR voices, Holloway maintains a crucial distance from the story she shares, immersing herself in the tangled folds of adolescent confusion while indicating, ever so subtly, her separation from it. \*A Hyperion hardcover (Reviews, Feb. 11). (July)\* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### Review "[Narrator Cynthia] Holloway maintains a crucial distance from the story she shares, immersing herself in the tangled folds of adolescent confusion while indicating, ever so subtly, her separation from it." ---Publishers Weekly Audio Review Author Sort : Cohen, Kerry Formats : EPUB, MOBI While there can be clean beginnings, true endings are so much more elusive. Redemption isn't in endings, anyway. It comes from authentic consciousness, from living more fully and honestly inside our story, and making it a story worth having lived. --from the Introduction For everyone who was that girl. Loose Girl is Kerry Cohen's captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction—not just to sex, but to male attention—Loose Girl is also the story of a young woman who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning. For everyone who knew that girl. In rich and immediate detail, Loose Girl re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment, when a you try to control someone by handing over your body, when the touch of that person seems to offer proof of something, but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness. Kerry Cohen's journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is an unforgettable memoir of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, and speaks to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love. For the thousands of people who have found their voice in this book, and the thousands more who will. Kerry Cohen was eleven years old when she recognized the power of her body in the leer of a grown man. Her parents were recently divorced and it didn't take long before their lassitude and Kerry's desire to stand out--to be memorable in some way--combined to lead her down a path she knew she shouldn't take. She wanted love--but not really understanding what love was, not really knowing how to get it, she reached for sex instead. This story of addiction--not just to sex, but to male attention--is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men--it didn't matter who--could give her life meaning. Her journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is a cautionary tale, and a revelation.--From publisher description Kerry Cohen’s extraordinary memoir tells it like it is—she’s a teenager like any other, dealing with parents, school, and friends, but for some reason, “standing out” seems to have become almost impossible. Boys—and men—are a different matter altogether, and young Kerry soon realizes that, with the right clothes and attitude, she can get all the male attention she wants. What she doesn’t realize is how easy it is to get more than you’re ready for.In rich, engaging detail, LOOSE GIRL discovers what it’s like to live for sex. Looking back on her girlhood, Kerry Cohen remembers how it felt to be in that desperate moment, and why it’s so important to come to terms with it—moving forward with confidence and strength.