Dead Girls (book)
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| Author | Nancy Lee |
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| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Short Stories |
| Published | 2002 |
| Publisher | McClelland & Stewart Ltd. |
| ISBN | |
Dead Girls is a Canadian short story collection by author Nancy Lee and was originally published in 2002 by McCelland & Stewart Ltd. Each story in the collection stars different characters, and all deal with the themes of eroticism, destruction, power, and loss.Dead Girls is Lee's debut novel and draws its inspiration from the missing women of Vancouver between 1978 and 2001.
Reportedly, much of the novel was inspired by the BC Missing Women Investigation, which covered the disappearances of over 60 women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside between 1978 and 2001. Lee was working as a publicist in an office near Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside during this time, and was constantly aware of the sex workers on the streets. While the missing women’s case was ongoing, Lee recalled an editorial which compared the missing women’s case to a series of garage-robberies, in which the editorial asked why the robberies incited $50,000 rewards for anyone with information, but the missing women’s case offered no such thing.
When Lee sifted through “stacks of government research papers documenting teenage prostitution,” she discovered that many of the sex-workers in that area were actually lured, tricked, or coerced into the profession. Dead Girls is Lee’s commentary on the girls in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, and the collection aims to imagine and capture the experiences of these women.
While each of the stories in Nancy Lee’s breakout novel are varied in subject matter, they are united by themes of eroticism, destruction, loss, and the recurring image of the missing and murdered women of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. The images of these women are subtly inserted into each story via television screens, or comments about jury duty.
A woman is caught between two men titled this boy, and that boy. That boy is an adventurous photographer who hopes to aid humanity. The woman and that boy correspond through email messages and phone calls. However, that boy doesn’t write often. This boy is a rich man, and seems to care for the woman, buying her expensive gifts and speaking of love. He ends up getting her pregnant, but she decides to have an abortion. They end up breaking up.
Sally, a breast cancer survivor and hand model, explores her relationship with her dying father. Lee has stated that this story is rooted in the Electra myth and observes the taboo subject of sexual tension between a father and daughter. The story is divided into the following sections: Sally’s eyes, Sally’s hands, Sally’s breasts, Sally’s teeth, Sally’s vagina, Sally’s ears, Sally’s lips, Sally’s feet, and Sally’s bones.
Three teenagers—Jess, Charlie, and Kyle—spend Valentine's Day together at Kyle's house. Jess receives a pair of hoop earrings from Charlie as a Valentine's Day instead of a locket, like she had asked for, and she pierces her ears in the upstairs washroom with ice and a sewing needle. Meanwhile, Charlie and Kyle are downstairs talking about the way Jess was flirting with Kyle. The two then make a transaction; Kyle will hand over $50 for Jess to have sex with him. As the night progresses, the three get increasingly drunk, culminating in Jess sleeping with Kyle. Charlie and Jess then leave Kyle's house. The two get into a verbal argument which escalates to physical assault.
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