Nana

Sex, power and celebrity in…

Nana comes from the streets, a runaway from a dysfunctional family. She becomes an overnight celebrity when she appears nude in a theatrical production while still a teenager. Though she cannot sing and she cannot act, it’s apparent that she has something very powerful - something that men want and women envy.

Men pursue her, they are always around, she gives them pleasure and they give her gifts. They give until they cannot give anymore and then one by one they fall to their ruin. And, while Nana finds pleasure in giving pleasure she does not seek love, only commerce, because commerce begets money, which begets power which begets envy and with enough begetting, one can become a celebrity and so Nana begets.

But, in the end, Nana lies dieing disfigured by disease, while a mob outside joyfully howls, “to Berlin, to Berlin”, anticipating a short and glorious war - with Prussia.

This is a great novel about the rise and fall of Nana and the society that made her a celebrity, a society obsessed with excessive displays of sexual and economic exhibitionism, a society that fortunately, no longer exists…

excellent