Look at Me

By Lauren Porosoff Mitchell

Set in contemporary Washington, D.C., mixing urban edge with magic realism, this lyrical and sexy first novel is also the frank story of the clash between promiscuity and love, and the acceptance of a family legacy.

Look at Me tells the story Dana, whose mother was loving and charismatic, with some of the powers of a witch, and whose father was a super rational scientist. When her mother dies tragically, and far too young, Dana, as early as twelve-years-old, learns to use sex to grab attention and relieve her loneliness, while leaving it intact afterward.

As an adult, Dana is caught between the different pulls of her parents. A successful scientist like her father, she still seeks the irrational, nurturing atmosphere her mother created. As Dana puts it, a man of science wedded to a sorceress - what kind of daughter indeed can issue from such a mixed heritage?

Dana's odyssey is that of a sexual aggressor, of a young woman compelled to prove her ability to attract, again and again. But after all the faceless men who service her for a night and whom she expels with a well worked-out routine in the morning, she meets two whom she cannot dismiss: Jonas, the married astronomer from San Francisco who is a bit of a conjurer himself; and Iain, a photographer with a cocaine problem and a dangerous lifestyle, but a man of great compassion and tenderness.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0965457818
• ISBN13: 9780965457811
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: Leapfrog Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.1" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Look at this Debut Novel!

I was browsing the "new fiction" table at the front of a local DC bookshop when I stumbled across an autographed copy of "Look at Me" by Lauren Porosoff Mitchell. I finished reading it last night. Bravo to Ms. Mitchell for her excellent first novel. Remarkably written by a young women who had recently received her law degree, Mitchell describes Dana, a character struggling with herself. Mitchell paints the picture of a woman with two faces: The first face appears as she ravages innocent men night after night, lusting after the feeling of power she achieves with each notch on her bedpost. The second face appears as her character develops...she shows her feminine vulnerability as she falls for a one-night-stand, creating a fantasy love affair through letters, dreams, and thoughts.But, thought frustrated with Dana, you can't help but relate to her on some level. Lauren Porosoff Mitchell, good work! Looking forward to your second novel.....Now where can I find those necklaces at Eastern Market?

For the Reveler, the Luminary

I loved this book. Mitchell's story will most likely appeal to people at a certain point in life: early 20's, world upside down, engaging in reckless self-discovery. Of course it's self-indulgent. Who isn't at that age. But we look for other voices to resonate with our own and assure us we aren't doing this alone. It's definitely not for the sensible types who like black and white and neat little packages. There's a fluidity to her writing, an ebbing and flowing that I found refreshing and stimulating. She doesn't draw conclusions or spell out moral lessons. She states the facts of her life, bare as bone, and uses poetic imagery as a vehicle to express her experiences. If you've worn loneliness like a familiar t-shirt rather than a disabling condition, if you've entertained compulsive behaviour because you can't contain your rage, if you've seen your world in rhythyms and colors rather than facts and achievements, then read Look at Me and revel in all it's philosophical wanderings, fluid language and raw emotion.

Pain and Poetry

This novel, which reflects a young woman's deep pain, self-loathing, and need for control in a story of personal discovery is told in nothing short of poetic style. The dissonance between the beauty of the writing and the disturbing story it is used to tell make this book deeply affecting, as well as a profoundly revealing lesson for anyone who has ever doubted their own self-worth.

Risky Love

Look at Me is uninhibited, robust, and very wide-open. Lauren Porosoff Mitchell is a master at teasing a phrase, capturing a mood, and orchestrating the sensual leading to the psychological. Dana's compulsive adventure -- a back-and-forth romp through the real and the virtual -- is seductive yet distant, bold yet timid, and flirtatious to the point of personal danger. Here is the rational in service of the irrational . . . the science of seduction. And yet here, too, is strength borne of vulnerability . . . the object of desire beckoning the voyeur to "look at me." It is into that beaker that the author pours out her soul and thereby colors her world. Love is a risky experiment. Indeed!

Absorbing novel about female promiscuity and sexuality

Having been caught in the trap of "Oprah"esque novels, Lauren Porosoff Mitchell's debut novel was a ravenous read and a breath of fresh air. Her evocative prose brings to life Dana, a powerful sexual aggressor struggling with the vulnerability she feels when loving and trusting men. While Look at Me is not laden with action and suspense, it is an absorbing read that exposes the raw, unadultered side of female promiscuity.