Since You Ask

June 1, 2004
For her working manuscript of Since You Ask, Wareham won the 1999 James Jones Literary Society First Novel Award, given "to honor the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination and insight into modern culture." Presented here in finished form, the gritty tale follows Betsy Scott, who was sexually abused by one of her brothers and spiraled into a cycle of dependency on drugs and meaningless relationships with men. Now a resident of a psychiatric care facility, Betsy alternates between past and present as she describes this torturous path to her doctor. Betsy is any and every character in this genre, and while her tale is told competently, it lacks an extraordinary originality of voice that would engage the reader's understanding and compassion. Of marginal interest for most collections.-Caroline M. Hallsworth, City of Greater Sudbury, Ont.

Copyright 2004 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2004
Betsy Scott, a privileged private-school Manhattan teenager, is barely 16 when her reform-school boyfriend's shady boss takes an unwholesome interest in her. Surprisingly, Betsy willingly embarks on an affair with the 41-year-old. This relationship turns out to be only one of many inappropriate pairings that, along with family dysfunction and drug abuse, lead Betsy to a Connecticut mental hospital at age 24. Wareham's first novel is unsettling not only because of its subject matter but because the protagonist's simply stated but astute observations about her own compulsions force readers to rethink a lot of common assumptions about sexual behavior. Those expecting scathing indictments of what many would view as the sexual predators in Betsy's life will be sorely disappointed, as Wareham is more interested in examining what role Betsy herself plays in these situations. Although it ends on a hopeful note, this is obviously a very dark book--and potentially a controversial one--but Wareham has created a compelling character who earns her readers' attention.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)