title: The IHOP Papers
author: Perseus
description: Liebegott's debut novel is a coming-of-age coming-out in the tradition of Rita Mae Brown's <i>Rubyfruit Jungle</i>, but here, the portrait of an artist as punk waitress is more a celebration of sexuality than humanity. Twenty-year-old Francesca is a recovering drunk who finds comfort in cutting herself and harbors fantasies of her beautiful AA sponsor, Maria; her former philosophy teacher, Irene; and a soap opera heroine. "I wanted everything: Irene's cheekbones, empathy, and wisdom... the sheer beauty and curves of Mariaand the impossibility of Hope from <i>Days of Our Lives</i>," she confesses. Having followed Irene to San Francisco, Francesca lands a job at the International House of Pancakes, dreams of becoming "the kind of waitress who can carry five plates on each arm and glide around the room doing a dance of pancakes" and works on her memoir about losing her virginity and never quite finding love. The Lambda Literary Awardwinning Liebegott (for her book-length poem <i>The Beautifully Worthless</i>) offers strikingly lyrical moments in an otherwise frank narrative of a writer teetering between adolescence and adulthood. <i>(Feb. 13)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  Copyright © 2015 by Shelby Steele
  
  
  Published by Basic Books,
  
  
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