Avoiding Sex With Shoshanah

The professor is shocked to find his portrait on page 76. Shocked!

Avoiding Sex with Frenchmen
(A Picture Book for Adults)
By Shoshanah Lee Marohn

Another book by a blog-pal!

A travelog/bildungsroman by the irrepressible author of Diary of Mindless Minion Number 2703, most of this illustrated novel was featured on her blog in 2014. This version's 117 pages are filled with a cornucopia of illustrations, digressions and even a separate portrait of every Frenchman who propositioned Shoshanah and her friends on their trip to Paris in the early 1990s.

Better travelogs relate not only the external events and locations of a trip, but also illuminate the (usually) stranger interior landscapes of the the author. This book doesn't shy away from the tribulations of a young woman, on the cusp of adulthood, who finds herself in the situation of reality crushing a long held dream. Not that it is a tragedy—it is very amusing—this unfettered take on France, Frenchmen and friends is based in reality (although it has fictionalized elements.) It certainly jibes with the stories I’ve heard from the women I know who explored Europe when they were in their late teens/early twenties. Perhaps someday I’ll be able to persuade the Weaver to write down her travel memoirs (including the night she and her friend spent in a French Army barracks!)

Shoshanah's previous book, A Murder of Crows and Other Woes, was suitable for children but this book is definitely not (although it would be perfect for a teen-aged girl with a bad case of wanderlust.)

You can get the book (paperback or Kindle) on Amazon.