The Washingtonienne

April 25, 2005
Cutler, the lowly Senate staffer who rocked the Capital last year with her salacious online diary, rehashes her ride into infamy in a tart, shallow tell-all that begs off as fiction. Smart but spoiled Jacqueline heads for the Hill after a broken engagement in New York. Soon this party girl is cavorting through the Capitol, where shameless flirting and sex appeal take her a long way. In Jacqueline's opinion, government is "Hollywood for the Ugly," and she coasts on her looks to score a fluffy job in a senator's office and effortlessly entice politicos on the prowl. She mines her dizzying array of casual sexploits, dished in callous, raunchy detail, for a blog to keep her friends in the loop ("I was a bitchy slut and so were all of my friends. Why not put it out there?"). Jacqueline winds up on D.C. gossip site Blogette—prompting her abrupt dismissal, an underdeveloped bit of soul-searching and lots of media attention. The flimsy garb of fiction makes for one coy striptease: just how much of Jessica emerges in Jacqueline? Who are the real-life counterparts to her paramours? For those who can conjure last summer's scandal, the reprise will liven up this year's beach batch. Agents, Michael Carlisle and Pilar Queen.

June 15, 2005
An attractive young woman comes to Washington, DC, accepts an intern job on Capitol Hill, kisses many, and tells all on her weblog. Ultimately outed by a girlfriend, she loses her rent-paying men and her job but gains the notoriety of press coverage and a book deal. If the plot of this salacious first novel sounds familiar, it's because it actually happened to Cutler, a former employee of Sen. Mike DeWine (R-OH) whose online diary entries caused a political scandal when they went public last year. Main character Jacqueline is cynically smart, narcissistic, and damaged and, therefore, more than a little scary; she cares for no one and lives by the dictum, "Screw others before they screw you." That a modern young woman might believe that the old trade of sexual services for material things is new and liberating will sadden more than shock more mature readers. Cutler makes a small attempt at character analysis with hints of addiction and depression, but these are thrown glibly aside in favor of unrepentant fun. With no real character or narrative development, the book is also a touch boring. In DC, this story is old news, but there's no accounting for the wider public's taste for sexual scandal. Gauge your readers' interest and either buy the book or direct readers to the eponymous blog (http: //washingtoniennearchive.blogspot.com). -Sheila Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.