Peninsula People Sept 2017

Sexand the
Singular
Girl
Jennifer Irwin. Photo by Bondo Wyszpolski
by Bondo Wyszpolski
Jennifer Irwin wrote about a sex addict, and her novel will soon be a film
The road to becoming a published author has changed dramatically in
just one or two decades. The Internet now provides endless opportunities
for anyone with chutzpah to get their manuscript noted, increasing
the chances of seeing it into print. With a unique angle or storyline,
and a gift for self-promotion, writers can draw attention to themselves and,
if truly fortunate, their book-to-be will generate a buzz before it’s even
boxed up and shipped out.
Jennifer Irwin has navigated herself into that enviable position. The film
rights to her novel, “A Dress the Color of the Sky,” have been bought for
$250,000, despite the book still in its final edits.
As the saying goes, Timing is everything. The Palos Verdes resident
showed her manuscript to an agent who also lives locally. As Irwin recounted
it, he told her, “Your book is very of-the-moment because it has a
flawed female character who does bad things but you can root for her.”
What sort of bad things? Book Reader Magazine, an online publication,
ran a brief Q&A with a synopsis, the gist of the latter being like this: “Prudence
Aldrich, wife and mother, pulls up her jeans in the miniscule bathroom
after yet another random sexual encounter… After several dangerous
liaisons, Prue’s therapist advises her to get serious help. Her diagnosis: sex
addict.”
It’s an attention-getter, all right. Prudence checks herself into the Serenity
Hills rehab center for a five-week stay, her contract stipulating that she is
to abstain from all sexual relations, and she is even forbidden to have or
perhaps to nurture sexual thoughts (yeah, good luck with that). Five weeks?
I’m reminded of Wing-Foot’s comment on fasting in Jorge Amado’s “Shepherds
of the Night”: “Without food, drink, and a woman, nobody could live.
True, there were men who could go for a month without a woman; he had
heard tell of them.”
The novel has an elegant and poignant title, and the story edges back and
forth between Prue’s stint in rehab and her life as a child and young
woman, which will gradually lead the reader into an understanding of who
Prudence is and how she ended up where she does.
And, by the way, the book is about more than sexual addiction and abuse,
but we’ll get to that later.
I mentioned timing. Another factor that has helped propel the story is
the resurgent interest in books and films about empowered women. Of particular
note is Reese Witherspoon and her Hello Sunshine production company.
Witherspoon was behind “Gone Girl” and “Wild” (both box office
hits). Among other women-penned novels that Witherspoon has scooped
up for potential films we find “Luckiest Girl Alive,” “Eleanor Oliphant is
Completely Fine,” and “Something in the Water.”
Although there is always the risk of market oversaturation, the people
and the company who have acquired “A Dress the Color of the Sky” are
banking on the continued viability of this genre, niche or trend. Now, if
you’ve noticed me skirting around proper names and identities that’s because
it’s all hush-hush for another month or so. The cat isn’t being let out
26 Peninsula • September 2017