Charles Gorham's acclaimed, controversial and banned novel, lost for over sixty years, is finally back in print.
Who is Carlotta McBride? In the swank nightclubs of New York, Hollywood and Paris, she is the beautiful and brilliant star of stage and screen... but in the dark, lurid dive bars and dark alleys of those same cities, she is promiscuous and self-destructive, slowly killing herself with alcohol, drugs, and risky sex. She is a woman seared and haunted by trauma in her past that she can't escape, whether it's in the fantasy world of acting, or at the bottom of a whisky bottle, or in the arms of a brutal man. The only person who can save her is herself...but to do it, she will have to confront a shocking truth.
In September 1960, a judge in Melbourne, Australia declared the book "disgusting to the normal mind" and ordered its seizure and destruction... and the prosecution of booksellers offering the book. In his order, he said "this novel deals with uninhibited sex relations in a manner which is disgusting to the normal mind. I conclude, because of the disgusting description of ordinary bodily functions, that the book would tend to deprave or corrupt those into whose hands it might come."
Here's a sampling of the critical response...
"The book is, of course, very readable, but the pleasure in it is spoilt by a suspicion that the whole plot is designed as an excuse to tell a sleazy and sexy story. Modern literary craftsmanship is often so good that it can disguise the essential baseness of a book's substance. A frightening thought." Melbourne Age
"It's a brilliantly written story, an intense, realistic, psychological study. His characters are presented in an intimate manner, with charm, vividness and understanding which few contemporary writers can equal." Greensboro News-Record
"One of the most perceptive studies of an alcoholic we have read in many a year. Truly a brilliant, modern novel." Berkeley Gazette
"Occasionally even reputable publishers will bind together a stack of pornographic trash and try to sell it under the guise of a realistic novel. This is apparently the case in this story. " Atlanta Journal
"A beautifully written study of an extraordinary young woman - a world-famous actress who is handsome, intelligent, unusually literate, and a profound and dedicated drunk." Los Angeles Times
