LoveReading Says
LoveReading Says
Darkly funny and emotionally engaging, Imogen Crimp’s A Very Nice Girl explores the struggles, desires and conflicts faced by a fledging opera singer in expensive, competitive and often-lonely London. An absorbing story of finding strength and focus in the wake of trembling, debilitating crises of confidence unfolds as its protagonist, Anna, struggles to overcome a deep-rooted compulsion to be driven by what others say and think of her.
Though her insular parents believe she’d have been better off staying closer to home, Anna has accepted a scholarship to study opera at a prestigious London music school. But it’s not easy fitting into to the conservatory’s highly-strung, privileged culture, not least because Anna is struggling financially. To pay her rent, she sings jazz at a bar in the City, and here meets Max, a financier fourteen years her senior. After a brief cat and mouse game when they first meet, they hook up, and agree to keep it simple - this isn’t a relationship; it’s sex, it’s companionship. But matters of the heart rarely remain simple and it’s not long before both Max and the opera demand much more than Anna can bear, rendering her fractured, casting her adrift, unsure of anything, except that something has to change. She cannot remain in such a helpless situation, dependent on Max’s money, dependent on him emotionally, and feeling increasingly alienated from what was supposed to be her focus - opera.
In A Very Nice Girl Imogen Crimp has created a gripping coming of age story that explores a young woman’s shift from a state of lonely drifting to one of self-determination with enthralling compassion, wit, and considered pace.
Joanne Owen
Find This Book In
About
A Very Nice Girl Synopsis
A bitingly honest, darkly funny debut about love, sex, power and desire, by a major new British talent.
Anna is struggling to afford life in London as she trains to be a singer. During the day, she vies to succeed against her course mates with their discreet but inexhaustible streams of cultural capital and money, and in the evening she sings jazz at a bar in the City to make ends meet.
It's there that she meets Max, a financier fourteen years older than her. Over the course of one winter, Anna's intoxication oscillates between her hard-won moments on stage, where she can zip herself into the skin of her characters, and nights spent with Max in his glass-walled flat overlooking the city.
But Anna's fledgling career demands her undivided attention, and increasingly - whether he necessarily wills it or not - so does Max...
About This Edition
ISBN: |
9781526628916 |
Publication date: |
9th February 2023 |
Author: |
Imogen Crimp |
Publisher: |
Bloomsbury Publishing |
Format: |
Paperback |
Pagination: |
335 pages |
Primary Genre |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction
|
Other Genres: |
|
Recommendations: |
|
Press Reviews
Imogen Crimp Press Reviews
Tender, devastating, witty. And deeply true. Sweetbitter meets Normal People -- MEG MASON
In A Very Nice Girl, Imogen Crimp explores complicated relationships, the creative life, and the challenges of living in London in your twenties, with precision and subtlety. Touching on feminism, power, finances, and the pleasures and dangers of a new relationship, this book is an assured debut -- CLAIRE FULLER
Imogen Crimp captures the glittering thrill of being young and choosing your own life with a dark, unflinching undercurrent of desire, power and control -- JESSICA ANDREWS
Transfixing from the start, A Very Nice Girl steals the show. Gorgeous prose, bone-dry humor and brutally shrewd observations make Imogen Crimp's debut sing in this perilous love story about a talented young woman learning to wield her voice. Intimate and intoxicating, A Very Nice Girl absolutely dazzles -- BECK DOREY-STEIN
An exquisitely detailed novel - Crimp absolutely nails the intricate inner workings of the opera world. Humorous, biting, and unnervingly honest, the story explores one young woman's path to finding herself -- ADDIE WOOLRIDGE