Product Description

The blog that scandalized Washington, D.C., is not a sharp steamy, utterly unrepentant novel set against the backdrop of the nations’ capital….

"Just between us girls, Washington is an easy place to get laid. It’s a simple matter of economics: supply and demand. Washington lacks those industries that attract the Beautiful People, such as entertainment and fashion. Instead it has the government, also know as ‘Hollywood for the Ugly.’ Without the model-actress population to compete with, my stock shot up when I moved to DC."

When Jacqueline Turner’s fiancée gives her two days to move out of his apartment, she has no choice but to leave New York City and crash with her best friend in Washington, DC. (She can’t be expected to keep herself in cute clothes while paying New York City rent, after all.) She needs a new, exciting life—not to mention real employment. Where better to get a fresh start than the nation’s capital?

Alas, DC turns out to be a lot more buttoned-up and toned down than she’d hoped. It’s a town where a girl has to make her own excitement—and Jacqueline Turner is just the woman for the job.

From the married presidential appointee who gives her cash after each tryst, to the lascivious Georgetown lawyer who parades her around like something out of Pretty Woman, Jackie’s roster of paramours grows so complicated her friends ask her to start a blog so they can keep up. But in a small town like Washington, the line between private and public blurs very easily. Just as one of her beaux takes a lead in the race for her heart, Jackie realizes this blog idea may be more than she bargained for….

Deliciously gossipy and impossible to put down, The Washingtonienne is every bit as outrageously scandalous as the real-life exploits that inspired it.

In May, 2004, 26-year-old Jessica Cutler was thrust into the public eye when the on-line diary she kept for her friends exploded into Washington’s scandale du jour. Immediately fired from her job as mail girl in the office of Senator Mike DeWine (for "unacceptable use of Senate computers"), Jessica remains unemployed in Washington, D.C.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #309391 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-01
• Released on: 2005-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 304 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Cutler, the lowly Senate staffer who rocked the Capital last year with her salacious online diary, rehashes her ride into infamy in a tart, shallow tell-all that begs off as fiction. Smart but spoiled Jacqueline heads for the Hill after a broken engagement in New York. Soon this party girl is cavorting through the Capitol, where shameless flirting and sex appeal take her a long way. In Jacqueline's opinion, government is "Hollywood for the Ugly," and she coasts on her looks to score a fluffy job in a senator's office and effortlessly entice politicos on the prowl. She mines her dizzying array of casual sexploits, dished in callous, raunchy detail, for a blog to keep her friends in the loop ("I was a bitchy slut and so were all of my friends. Why not put it out there?"). Jacqueline winds up on D.C. gossip site Blogette—prompting her abrupt dismissal, an underdeveloped bit of soul-searching and lots of media attention. The flimsy garb of fiction makes for one coy striptease: just how much of Jessica emerges in Jacqueline? Who are the real-life counterparts to her paramours? For those who can conjure last summer's scandal, the reprise will liven up this year's beach batch. Agents, Michael Carlisle and Pilar Queen. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
". . . the real talk in the nation's capital is about the exploits of former senatorial staffer Jessica Cutler." -- In Touch

"Lively, funny and agreeably in-your-face . . . [Cutler] sticks pins in a lot of deserving targets." -- Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post

About the Author
In May, 2004, 26-year-old Jessica Cutler was thrust into the public eye when the on-line diary she kept for her friends exploded into Washington's scandale du jour. Immediately fired from her job as mail girl in the office of Senator Mike DeWine (for "unacceptable use of Senate computers"), Jessica remains unemployed in Washington, D.C.

Customer Reviews

Sleazy "Washingtonienne"
Jessica Cutler shocked the world with her sexy blog, detailing her not-so-nice antics as a Senate staffer. Apparently she's not one to let her fifteen minutes simply tick by -- now she has penned "The Washingtonienne," a sleazy and shallow roman a clef.

Jacqueline is a New York party girl, smart and sexy, but somewhat spoiled as well. So when her betrayed boyfriend throws her out of their Manhattan apartment, Jacqueline ends up crashing with a pal in Washington. Her goal? Get a fluff job so she can dress nicely and party. But with her sexy appeal on the fore, she gets a lot more than that.

In an "ugly" city with a lot of middle-aged men, Jacqueline finds that she is a much-desired commodity. She has a series of flings with powerful men who will pay her way, and chronicles her naughty adventures in an online blog. Starting to sound familiar? It gets even more so when she is finally busted, fired, and becomes the center of a media storm.

The sad thing about "The Washingtonienne" is that it could have easily been great. It could have been a naughty sleaze-romp, or a wicked satire about men, women and politics. Instead, it reads like a sex-mad little girl's diary, both immature and obnoxiously self-satisfied. "The lesson I learned was: You can get whatever you want for free by lying and cheating, and there are never any consequences," Jacqueline leers. Well, that about sums up the depth of the entire novel.

Cutler's writing ability is about average for a chick-lit writer, with a lot of lame witticisms and thin characters. Unfortunately, she shows a complete lack of actual inspiration by using her blog and life for the book, but not adding anything to it. We all know how it's going to end, and Cutler doesn't give it any twists to surprise us.

But the thing that really scuppers "Washingtonienne" is Cutler herself. Jacqueline is portrayed as a victim or as a strong woman -- depending on the situation -- and in the end she merely comes across as a sleazy, lazy, mocking brat. Yet Cutler expects us to take Jacqueline seriously, presumably because they are one and the same.

Capitalizing on her fifteen minutes, Jessica Cutler churns out her thin little roman a clef. Too bad she couldn't inject any wisdom or insights beyond "a sucker's born every minute."

Somewhere between a cautionary tale and a laugh riot
Imagine watching a train wreck, not being able to turn away, while still finding in it the underlying humor of the whole event. That's what it's like to listen to this brilliantly narrated audiobook.

Alternately presenting herself as a victum of self-destructive circumstances and a self-assured woman making her own choices about what to do with her body and mind, it's hard to pinpoint whether this story will come to the screen as a total comedy movie or slightly-comedic, self-discovery drama.

Please, don't misinterpret this speculation on how it will be show on screen as a slight. The story is told seemlessly-and whether it's to be taken as pure fiction or questionable nonfiction, or somewhere in between it's an interesting tale none the less.

One thing to bear in mind though, the main character is by no stretch of the imagination a role model. She's barely a sympathetic character at all, but the feeling of honesty this creates heightens the believability of the narrative.

If I was comparing this fictionalized autobiography to Neil Simon's brilliant works in the genre, it would barely merit a single star, but compared apples to apples against guilty-pleasure, scandal novels, it holds its own and then some - even if it does end with a slight note of self-discovery pontification.

All in all, if you've ever found yourself enjoying the guilty pleasure of Valley of the Dolls, Desperate Housewives or anything by Danielle Steele, this is one supposedly non-fiction tale that lives up to these fictional standards.

Skip It..
Not only is this book horribly written, but it's just plain boring. Don't waste your time or your money. There is more hype surrounding the author than there is any worthwhile substance in the book. Must miss.