On the surface, AlissaNutting’s 2017 debut novel “Tampa” could be seen as a knock off of “Lolita”, just with the roles reversed. But actually they are quite different novels, with very different themes, even if the overall thrust of the plot is very similar. Both characters, Humbert Humbert and Celeste Price, trace their hebephilic desires to first loves, the loss of virginity, events that occurred to both of them at the time they were teenagers. But that is where the similarities end. As adults, Humbert Humbert is Charlie Chaplin’s parody of Hitler, while Celeste Price is Hitler himself. After all, Humbert Humbert is a bit of a bumbling idiot, led along by his lust like an animal who cannot help itself. He stumbles upon Lolita. He sees something he wants, and then he pursues it. It is possible that had the opportunity not presented itself so ripely, that Humbert Humbert would never have managed to satisfy his lust for a young girl like Lolita.
Celeste on the other hand is quite different. She is cold, calculating, selfish, self-serving, nihilistic, narcissistic, sociopathic, egomaniacal and absolutely relentless in achieving her aims. She also makes for a fascinating case study. While Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged fool, a kind of dopey man easy to make fun of, Celeste has everything going for her. She is young (26) and she is hot, traits she has learned to use to her advantage. She is married to a police officer whose family has money, even if his paycheck isn’t great. But of course the marriage is just for show. She has no interest in her husband, sexually or otherwise, and goes so far as to drug him in the evenings to make him fall asleep before he can put the moves on her. She drives a sports car, which he gifted her, visits the spas, exercises, takes care of herself. Her vanity knows no bounds. Because what she really wants in this life, above all else, is to be given orgasms by 14-year-old boys. She’s designed her whole life around this urge. 13 is too young, 15 too mature, 14 is the perfect age for her, which is why she has made herself into an eighth grade teacher.
At the start of the novel, she’s been substitute teaching for several years, but finally she has landed her first full time teaching position. Her plan, then, is to pick out a teenage boy every year that she wants to have an affair with, and then break it off in the summer, just as he’s going to high school, so that she can start all over again with a new boy the following year. As you can probably imagine, this is not a difficult goal, what with teenage hormones and her youth and beauty.
She chooses Jack Patrick, a boy astonished at his good fortune. They have sex in the class room and her car at first, but finally settle into a routine where she comes to visit him at home when his dad is away. When she is caught there, she pretends to show an interest in his single father so she can come around more frequently.
Some of this at first seems to strain credulity. It’s hard to believe Jack’s father could be so oblivious as to not pick up on what’s going on, but as the scenes play out and we learn more about the characters, the plausibility of the scenario increases.
Jack and Lolita are quite different characters. While Lolita is more abused in the conventional sense, resigned to her fate and not so much an active participant, Jack, as a horny teenage boy, is trying to get with Celeste as often as possible, which she is only too happy to oblige. Of course, as you can imagine, Jack falls in love with her and starts talking about getting married one day. Celeste stays mum on the subject. She knows she won’t be interested in Jack as an adult male.
Jack’s reaction to what’s happening (“she chose me and I love her!”), his sense of overall good fortune, certainly feels authentic. People often joke about supposedly “abused” teenage boys, such as in this recent article, who had consensual sexual relationships with their teachers. And it’s easy to deride stories like that of Asia Argento bedding Jimmy Bennett, because what teenage boy wouldn’t want that? These boys are, after all, capable of performing the act. However what “Tampa” demonstrates is how such activity can serve to disrupt the emotional maturing of a teenage boy who has not yet learned to control his emotions, and has not discovered that there is in fact a difference between lust and love, which can have disastrous consequences.
Meanwhile, and this is where I’ll wade into some controversial territory, it is also possible to sympathize, somewhat, with the Celeste Prices of the world. One cannot, as much as one may try, decide who they are attracted to. You are attracted to the kind of person you are attracted to. You don’t choose to be gay, straight, to prefer blondes over brunettes. Nor does one choose to be sexually aroused by teenagers or young children. It is a horrible fate to be one such person, and what it must do to them, psychologically, as they watch the rest of the world fall in love and have families and lead fulfilling lives, must be heartbreaking. There are many people like this who never offend, the ones who do are those that children must of course be protected from. But it’s not hard to see how such an orientation, and it is an orientation, could conceivably turn somebody into the monster that is Celeste Price.
One of the most poignant moments in the book comes at the end, when Celeste’s husband, after finding out about her illicit affair, demands an explanation. Why, when he has given her so much, loved her so deeply, did she feel the need to carry out this liaison with a teenage boy? Her response? “It’s just what I like.” And that’s all she has to say about it.
Celeste is never reformed. She has no interest in suppressing her desires. She just learns to be more careful, to keep from getting caught. She has no other interest, no other plans. She knows she won’t be young and beautiful forever, which is why she must indulge as often as possible now, while it’s easy.
Gah damn the description.
“Celeste on the other hand is quite different. She is cold, calculating, selfish, self-serving, nihilistic, narcissistic, sociopathic, egomaniacal and absolutely relentless in achieving her aims. “