Perfume and Pain

Astrid Dahl is trying to recover from a public controversy and a faltering writing career when she moves into a small Los Angeles bungalow. Her return to a sapphic writers' group is soon accompanied by romantic distractions: Ivy, a graduate student interested in lesbian pulp fiction, and Penelope, the older painter next door. An offer to adapt Astrid's previous novel for television seems to promise professional renewal, but renewed attention also brings pressure. Her habits of intoxication and self-sabotage threaten to turn opportunity into another crisis. Drawing on the melodrama of lesbian pulp and the absurdities of literary celebrity, this novel follows a writer whose appetite for validation repeatedly complicates her search for love and a sustainable future.