Jamey lived in the locked room. Twice a day the Persian slave trader came in and
taught her to be a whore. Otherwise there was nothing. Once day she found a pen
cil stub and scrap of paper in a forgotten corner of the room. She began to writ
e down her life, starting with "Parents stink" (Her father, who is also her boyf
riend, has fallen in love with another woman and is about to leave her). With "B
lood and Guts in High School, " Kathy Acker, whose work has been labeled everthi
ng from post-punk porn to post-punk feminism, has created a brilliantly subversi
ve narrative built from conversation, description, conjecture, and moments snatc
hed from history and literature.
