The Novel Stripped Yet Still Fully Clothed

The Bride Stripped Bare

Author:
Anonymous aka Nikki Gemmell

Published:
Harper Collins 2003

Number of Pages: 374

Review: Aside from the bright colours of the novel’s front cover and the basic synopsis found on the inside jacket, what made me even more eager to read it as I browsed the Brampton Library shelves was the fact that it was written by an author who decided to publish her manuscript anonymously. A daring choice it was for the author to publish a manuscript in the 21st century and not put her name on it especially when we live in a time where instant fame = success.
The novel starts off relatively slow.  A modern woman, Elizabeth, the age of 36 has discovered a daunting secret about her husband while on a belated honeymoon. This secret shatters her whole life and ultimately becomes the driving force and the reason on which all her decisions are based.  The story is focused on her infidelity with a young virgin actor whom she teaches the art of sex to while in addition she teaches herself about her own sexuality.  With the help of an anonymous Elizabethan “woeman’s” manuscript outlining how women are superior to men Elizabeth is able to achieve an orgasm and reach her sexual peak all without her unsuspecting husband knowing. 

This novel is cheeky. It sucks you in with it’s unusually short chapters (all labelled lessons) and its raunchy sexual plot line.  The sexuality found in this book borderlines erotica and will have you blushing in public (beware reading this book on the commute home).  It is written in a second person narration; it was almost as if I were reading a dictation, a story for all women, about all women everywhere, addressing the reader and making the reader feel as if this is their memoir of their life or makes the reader feel as if they’re sneaking a look into a secret life; the life of sexual fantasies that one only dreams of but doesn’t have the guts to live.  It is a different take on narration and deliciously so; one that I found unique and sets the novel apart from others.

Elizabeth draws you into her life. She allows you to believe that her infidelity can be justified and you forgive her for it:

“you tell yourself your husband deserves your unfaithfulness because it keeps you with him”

The author’s (Nikki Gemmell as I found out after reading the novel) narration effectively puts the reader in the driver’s seat.  Gemmell’s raw, uncanny, truthful and erotic story probably would not have been written as frank and daring as it had been had she decided to put her name to it. In fact she has said that remaining anonymous allowed her to have “exhilarating freedom.”  The novel is worth a look at, even if the language is slightly average it still borderlines poetic prose and the rawness of the language is definitely something that will enlighten a reader.
Happy Reading!!!