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Sentimental Garbage

Career Girls with Helen O'Hara

Sentimental Garbage

Justice for Dumb Women

Sex And The City, Arts, Musicals, Society & Culture, Culture, Queer, Movies, Camp, Literature, Tv

4.81.6K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2019

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This episode of Sentimental Garbage is pretty blue so maybe don’t listen with kids in the car. This week we’re talking sex, lies, class and Oxford University with Louise Mensch’s 1995 debut Career Girls. Film critic and Oxford graduate Helen O’Hara defends this x-rated read about the all-powerful Rowena Gordon and Topaz Rossi who engage in a lifelong rivalry across the entire media industry. Erections are bursting against jeans, curves are being poured into tiny dresses, and good God is it compelling.


Music by Harry Harris, artwork by Gavin Day. Recorded at Acast and produced by Hannah Varrall.



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and

0:05.0

welcome to Sentimental Garbage, a podcast celebrating Chicklet and the so-called

0:09.0

guilty pleasures you're sort of done feeling guilty about.

0:11.0

My name is Caroline Dunnehoo and when I released my first novel this year I found myself being

0:15.8

asked the same two questions over and over again.

0:18.7

One did I think of my novel as Jicklet and two was I offended if it were called that.

0:23.0

Which is weird because all the best women I know are also devoted fans of Chicklet

0:28.0

and this podcast is dedicated to examining what's good, great and occasionally questionable about the genre.

0:34.0

Today I'm joined by journalist, author and film critic Hell Noeira

0:37.6

to talk about what might be the most questionable book

0:40.4

and definitely our most controversial author in our first season.

0:44.0

We are talking about Louise Mench's 1995 debut career girls.

0:49.0

Hi Anna.

0:51.0

Hi.

0:52.0

Hi. I stand by it. It's an interesting example of the genre I reckon written when she was

0:56.0

Louise Bagshaw and for my money she was a lot better as a writer then because there was much

1:00.7

more sex in her books right

1:02.8

we invented herself keep the backshot because mench

1:05.9

decidedly not a mench

1:07.4

no no

1:08.8

not terms the dirty bits for sure no

1:10.9

so what what brought you to this book and why do you choose it today?

...

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