Story of a Pizza Girl

There are books you cannot fall in love with at all - neither the characters or the writing is appealing - but it reveals some new facts about your surrounding reality. And this may be enough at a certain point.

Pizza Girl by Jean Kyoung Frazier - that I had access to in audio format, read by Jenna Yi, with a good soothing voice - was considered a must-read of this summer with exciting reviews coming up in the last months. As usual, my curiosity easily beats my emergency TBR (with more than 20 books as for now, to finish until the end of the month), therefore I spent half of yesterday early morning and late night listening to the book.

Let´s start with the good news. It´s good written, with everyday life kind of accounts from a 18 yo pizza girl, 11 weeks pregnant and randomly attracted by a customer lady who orders pizza with pickles for her son. There is an absurd surrealism of the everyday life that literature can catch through writing. And the unnamed character of the Pizza Girl is a good representative of this relatively new literary trend featuring anti-heroes, especially women. 

The nonchalance of being of this girl reminded me of other women authors I´ve read lately like Sayaka Murata or Ottessa Moshfegh. Or maybe Ruth from Good bye, Vitamin too. Those characters are deeply anchored in the present, they live the moment at its fullest but easily become the victims of their lack of involvement in their own lives. 

The Pizza Girl is caught between need and want, confusing love with feelings that she cannot control, taking over her life. Her monotonous storytelling sings the song of her life which she seems to take as it is, walking with the flow of emotions and incertainties. 

And this is why although I may like the writing, I feel no personal - emotional and intellectual - connection with the character. I am grateful that through my recent reading I´ve come out to know such characters and their flow of thinking, but personally, I don´t feel attracted for this emotional train de vie. But I am glad that my literary encounters help me to know and discover my limitations as well.

Rating: 2.5 stars