My parents were as sweet and soft as applesauce. When I finished peeling completely and my skin began to glow again, I felt as though it had never stopped. I so beguiled Alan Steiger with stories of my mountain adventures, and I so beguiled Angie through the mails with stories of my homecoming, that I actually began to believe in them. I spent August in retreat, listening to Beethoven and studying the college catalogues, adjusting myself to my reduced circumstances while pretending to everyone that I had had an enviable and expanding experience. I alone knew I had really come back in defeat. Then, once again packing up my Emerson, I left the mountains for good.īack in Cleveland everyone treated me as though I were daring, accomplished, and beautiful: Queen of the Bunny Hop returning home in triumphal splendor. I finished out the month of July at the hotel so Fritz could find a replacement for me and I could announce my departure and collect my tips.

I identify the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper, the Five Sisters, Cassiopeia, and the North Star, hoping my erudition about the night sky will preclude getting romantic. The only question is: How cheaply can I buy out? What will I have to pay him to let me go? If a man can’t collect on his investments he must admit to being a fool. Not even a miracle is going to get me home free from a 20-dollar date, even ( especially) one I never wanted. I wish quickly on the first one, but I know it won’t work. Since it is night time, it’s almost impossible to admire the view instead we start admiring stars. She divides her time between New York City and Maine.

Shulman is the author of three other novels, the award-winning memoir Drinking the Rain, two books on the anarchist Emma Goldman, and three children's books. The following is excerpted from Alix Kates Shulman's reissued novel, Memoirs of an Ex-Prom Queen, originally published in 1972 and considered today to be a classic work of fiction, born of the women's liberation movement.

Drinking the Rain by Alix Kates Shulman