A very young girl, yearning to escape her provincial beginnings, is swept up into an ill-advised romance with an older, more sophisticated, totally inappropriate man who educates her in sex and heartbreak. You know how this story ends, right? Happily, Australian author Cory Taylor rescues this worn-out tale with Martha, the "me" of Me and Mr. Booker. Sixteen years old and trapped in a fatally dull town, Martha recounts her doomed affair with Mr. Booker in a sardonic, clear voice.
Martha is drawn into a dangerous triangle with Mr. Booker and his wife after meeting them at one of her lonely mother's many parties. The childless couple, recently arrived from England, "adopt" Martha, buying her gifts and taking her out for boozy lunches. Martha is captivated by the glamorous Bookers and responds immediately when Mr. Booker initiates an affair.
As expected, there are seedy motel rooms and broken promises and spiraling consequences. Martha falls in love with Mr. Booker, but never learns much about him. He speaks in cynical, hackneyed phrases--"as if everything was a game because he had decided to make it one"-- and drinks constantly, both habits designed to veil his superficiality and narcissism.
Though she is smart and sharply perceptive about the many floundering adults around her--the dysfunctional Bookers, her estranged father, her disappointed mother and her ragtag broken friends--Martha's naivety about the affair is a recurring surprise, a reminder of how young she truly is. --Hannah Calkins, blogger at Unpunished Vice