Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 25, 2017 Book Review…, Features / Columnists
Book: Show me a beautiful woman
Author: Heru Ptah
Critic: Dr Glenville Ashby
Jamaica-born Heru Ptah taps into our narcissism and self-centeredness in Show me a Beautiful Woman, a risqué novel that leaves little to the imagination with its raunchy language and imagery.
His main character, Alex, is a disdainfully arrogant man who prides himself in his uncanny prowess to disarm and bed every attractive woman.
By his own admission he has slept with hundreds of women. He’s a well-heeled gigolo, the consummate player. His appealing looks, well structured physique, silver tongue and sartorial wear mesmerize the most stoic, prudish and guarded of the fairer sex. But good times do stretch thin often take their toll on the most cavalier of suitors. At one point Alex promises to turn a new leaf. The flesh, he realizes, can only hold his attention for a limited time. There must be something more profound in relationships.
As fate would have it Alex runs into Zawe, an independent corporate woman still angry with Gavin, her philandering ex-boyfriend. She is discerning, attractive and self-reliant. It is Alex’s turn to be mesmerized. There is a saying that a leopard can’t change its spots. How true.
The first real conversation between Alex and Zawe devolves into childish petulance as the former unveils his signature Don Juan act. He is confident that she will sleep with him. What follows is annoyingly bizarre. “Here, having breakfast with a beautiful woman,” Alex says bluntly, “with the hope of taking her to bed.”
“Well you can keep on hoping because that will never happen,” Zawe responds.
“Never say never,” he fires back.
And after some back and forth exchanges Alex confirms his inanity. He wagers
And incredulously, Zawe, a fastidious woman climbing the corporate world succumbs to Alex puerility and accepts the bet.
She rationalizes her decision with the comforting thought that any man she dates must wait ninety days before she considers sleeping with him, “and if Alex could actually, miraculously convince her to do so within [that allotted period] then by all means he deserved to win.”
As an incentive Alex promises to fully explain the ways of men, and his answers to her probing questions are candid and raw. For example, when asked if “all men need to feel needed,” he argues, ”All men have a fear of impotence, especially of the pocket and penis.” And elaborates, “Those are the two things men are mostly defined by, and you’ll find if a man is ever lacking on one, he’ll always over compensate with the other.” And he is equally deft at answering more pedestrian questions that have always nagged women.
But should we bet on a man who has always won? For all his wit, good looks and confidence, the writing is on the wall. Karma, they say is a b—h. For sure, he will get his comeuppance; his reckoning so close at hand.
As this predictable and trite plot develops we are introduced to Alex’s friend, Ian, a stand-up comedian whose marginal success and broken family life make for an authentic subplot. Ian is a sympathetic figure. We identify with his troubled relationship with his daughter and his estranged wife. He is protective of his daughter, mindful of leering eyes and broken promises. He wants that much more for her. He rages at the sight of her flashing provocative dances on video, cautioning against the exploitative culture of sex and hip-hop music.
“Ian was well aware of the twerking phenomenon, but it had always been the other man’s sister, wife, auntie, cousin or even mother. Now it was his daughter, arguably the worst possible relation, and he didn’t like it one bit.”
But he is challenged, his plea falling on deaf eyes. His daughter Tiana pushes back in a fit of anger; her disregard for parental authority is revolting. “What is this? You trying to play father all of her sudden Nigga please.”
In the face of this verbal onslaught Ian licks his wounds and abruptly inveighs against his wife’s parenting. “You see that? This is all on you.
You disrespect me in front of them, so they have no respect for me. That’s why this sh*t happens.”
Tiana’s rebellious behaviour reflects a troubling social pattern. Flashy cars are her aphrodisiac and symbol of self-actualization. There is little or no mention of education.
“How could a boy her age talk to her when all he had to offer was a bus pass?”
Tiana, we learn, “was smart…she had good grades through grade school and the first two years of Junior High,” but the allure and excitement of Internet dancing derailed her.
She had made a decision: “Well it’s my life and if I am gonna regret it let me regret it.”
Ptah scores as he deftly presents the daily struggles between parental authority and the vulnerability of youth.
Ptah is an artful writer and communicator very much in sync with the cultural zeitgeist. Show me a beautiful Woman proves the frivolity of glamour, the senseless adventurism of youth, the banal, ugly side of relationships, and even the power of forgiveness as Zawe reunites with her estranged boyfriend.
Here is a writer with very little to work with, but for the young and fickle at heart he somehow succeeds.
Feedback: [email protected] or follow him on Twitter@glenvilleashby
Show me a Beautiful Woman by Heru Ptah
Publisher: Sunrason Books, USA, Jamaica
ISBN: 978-0-9852881-3-6
Available on Amazon
Ratings: Interesting read
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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