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The Washingtonienne

Review

The Washingtonienne



If you need a juicy summer read to titillate you as you sun
yourself on the beach, look no further --- THE WASHINGTONIENNE is
here. The cover should be enough to give you an indication of
what's to follow. A close-up of lace-clad cleavage and a pendant of
the Capitol Building adorn the front of the book, and that's tame
compared to the action between the covers. I'll leave you to
determine if I'm referring to the covers of the book or the covers
of fictional intern Jacqueline Turner's bed.

Jackie made a hasty exit from New York City when her most recent
relationship blew up in her face due to her own indiscretion. A
friend with connections and extra room in her apartment in D.C. is
calling to Jackie as well as the chance to start over with a clean
slate in a new town ripe with opportunity. If only Jackie had known
just what kind of opportunity Capitol Hill held.

When she first arrives, Jackie secures a position as an unpaid
intern in order to obtain political experience to place on her
resume in the hope of finding a paying job. A one-night stand with
a married Washington bureaucrat leads to a regular sex-for-money
arrangement. While it wasn't what she went to college for, Jackie
is not one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Jackie eventually finds a job reading and sorting constituent mail
through a connection with another of her sexual liaisons. However,
not one to concern herself with politics, she spends her days
instant messaging her friends and keeping a web log of her sexual
adventures, meant only for her nearest and dearest.

In between rendezvous with important, married men, lunch hour
quickies and drunken one-night stands, Jackie tries hard to keep
her heart untouched, if not her body. However, she eventually
succumbs, as we all do, to an affair of the heart. The question is,
can the new relationship withstand the revelations that are soon to
surface when Jackie's private blog is made public?

The pages of this novel are filled with meaningless sex, sex for
money and drugs, and alcohol galore. While not for the weak of
heart, THE WASHINGTONIENNE is a fast read and contains several
laugh-out-loud moments.

Jessica Cutler's debut novel is supposed to be exactly that: a
novel based "loosely" on her real-life experiences as a Washington
D.C. intern and employee of the office of Ohio Senator Mike DeWine.
We are left to surmise just how much is fact and how much is
fiction. A simple Internet search of the author's name will reveal
an exact reproduction of the original web log that inspired the
novel, information on Cutler's Playboy photos, and a wide
assortment of articles about Cutler for those who are interested in
further research on the author and the story behind the
story.

Reviewed by Amie Taylor on January 24, 2011

The Washingtonienne
by Jessica Cutler

  • Publication Date: June 1, 2005
  • Genres: Fiction
  • Hardcover: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Hyperion
  • ISBN-10: 1401302009
  • ISBN-13: 9781401302009