Book description
Clementine is in a rut. Overshadowed by her indomitable female
relatives - her stern, politically correct mother, Claude, her
foulmouthed racist grandmother Mac, and her sassy, brassy aunt Maddy -
she spends her time making props for the Drama school (for a pittance)
and for her lover Kurt's Art Happenings (for free). Months after
graduation, she is still stuck in the soup kitchen which she shares
gladly with her housemate, Angus, and less gladly with a horde of
free-loading 'guests'. Even her friendship with Jack, her one-time drama
teacher, is thrown into jeopardy when a male student accuses him of
sexual harassment. When Clem returns early from a visit to her ailing
but outrageous grandmother and discovers Kurt and one of his more
dangerous disciples 'locked in earnest discussion, their bodies
radiating lust', she comes to the conclusion that the situation has to
change. Homicide seems like a tempting option, but she opts instead for
flight. In a moment of bravado Clem books a plane ticket to Paris and
accidentally embarks on a picaresque series of misadventures with
unsuitable foreigners, which drives her to the brink of insanity and
eventually makes her take stock of who she is and what she really wants
out of life.
