The Tattooed Girl is a 2003 novel by American writer Joyce Carol Oates.

The Tattooed Girl
AuthorJoyce Carol Oates
LanguageEnglish
PublisherEcco Press
Publication date
2003
Publication placeUnited States
Pages307 pp
ISBN978-0061136047

Plot

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Alma Busch, a 27-year-old woman from Akron, Pennsylvania with mysterious tattoos of unknown origin on her body, arrives in the affluent town of Mount Carmel in upstate New York. She is spotted by a man named Dmitri Meatte, a waiter at "The Café" who become her pimp and boyfriend. Alma meets a novelist named Joshua Seigl, who takes her on as an assistant for his next novel even though she steals and destroys his work and hates him for being Jewish.

Reception

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In a review for The Guardian, author Toby Litt called the novel "a completely gripping tale told in an almost manically propulsive style".[1] Sophie Harrison's review in The New York Times was more critical of its "showy unsqueamishness" and uneven characterization.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Litt, Toby (January 23, 2004). "When more is more". The Guardian. Retrieved April 3, 2022.
  2. ^ Harrison, Sophie (July 13, 2003). "'Now I Have Saved Her'". The New York Times. Retrieved April 3, 2022.