Massive
Page 19
We start by stripping them. I rip Ballet Barbie’s tutu as I pull it off. When they’re naked, still pouting inanely, we cut off their hair, until a tumbleweed of flaxen locks lies on the dressing table.
‘They’re so stupid.’ Paisley says, drawing zigzags on her Barbie scalp with eyeliner.
‘Let’s burn them,’ I say.
We go outside, round the back of Paisley’s house, into her garden. The security light flicks on, flooding the garden with a brilliant white light. There’s a concrete barbecue at the bottom, past the fishpond and the crazy paving. We huddle around it.
‘Shall we dismember them first?’
‘No,’ I say, decisive. ‘They deserve to be burned alive.’
We lay them on their hair, side by side, arms reaching stiffly upwards. I set fire to the bed of hair with a lighter, and flames leap up with a whoosh.
The dolls curl and melt, their plastic shells shrivelling into their hollow bodies. They give off an acrid chemical smoke that makes us cough. When the fire dies down, it leaves a hissing mass of molten goo that sticks to the barbecue as it cools.
‘Wow,’ Paisley says, poking it with a stick. ‘That was so, like, radical.’
There are faint traces left in the blackening ooze: fingertips, toes, even a nose and a mouth, a single blue eye. I shiver, not because I’m cold, but because I can feel my skin tightening, like cling wrap pulling taut, around the soft contours of my body.
Praise for massive
‘Bell’s debut novel is tough, grimy and truthful as it looks at three women with food problems . . . Bell comes at her subject with a clever obliqueness’
Guardian
‘Big, bold and brave’
J-17
‘Exceptional . . . a superb portrayal of three generations of women for whom food is a problem’
Times Educational Supplement
‘Massive is a story told with sympathy and humour and manages to be enjoyable as well as thought-provoking. It’s compelling reading for teenagers and adults alike’
The Big Issue
‘Carmen’s confusion and loneliness are expertly handled . . . Riveting, disturbing but accurate and very involving’
Irish Times
‘A raw, lyrical and honest tale’
Eastern Daily Press
‘A rich, funny, moving novel . . . Julia Bell’s writing is spare, tough, a combination of kindness and searing clarity’
Ali Smith, author of Hotel World (shortlisted for the Booker Prize)
Massive was shortlisted for the Branford Boase Award 2002.
Julia Bell used to be a DJ before ‘becoming a proper person and getting a job’. She is now a writer, editor and tutor based at the University of East Anglia where she has also established Pen & Inc, a small press.
Also by Julia Bell
DIRTY WORK
HARD SHOULDER
(co-edited with Jackie Gay)
ENGLAND CALLING
(co-edited with Jackie Gay)
CREATIVE WRITING COURSEBOOK
(co-edited with Paul Magrs)
First published 2002 by Young Picador
This edition published 2003 by Young Picador
This electronic edition published 2012 by Young Picador
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Copyright © Julia Bell 2002
The right of Julia Bell to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
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Table of Contents
Title page
Dedication page
Epigraph page
Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
Author biography
Copyright page