I have a big crush on Jenny Boully. This is very awkward for everyone involved. But I can't help it. Her first book, The Body, made me go "Whoah" in a Keanu Reeves manner when I was in graduate school, and her next book [one love affair] prompted an "Oh my God, this is so true" reaction that had me pushing the book onto any person who would listen.
This latest book uses J.M. Barrie's Peter and Wendy (think Peter Pan) as a jumping off point for Boully's intriguing mix of poetry/prose. The darker adult themes that always existed in Barrie's work are pulled forth, and the anxieties and pressures of reaching or avoiding physical and emotional maturity are highlighted. That sounds serious, and it is, but this book is also fun -- from Neverland logistics (does Tinkerbell need tiny tampons?) to Neverland pinups (Tiger Lily in a seashell bikini, the seductive stylings of Hook). Boully's latest will keep you turning the page to see what familiar scene or character she'll reinvent next -- though I confess that as I neared the end I turned the pages more and more slowly, hoping to make it last.
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