Klepto (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Klepto Loretta Gaffney Pollack, Jenny Klepto. Viking, 2006 [288p] ISBN 0-670-06061-5$16.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-12 Though the two girls are both acting students at New York's High School for the Performing Arts and they share the same first name, Julie Braverman has a life Julie Prodsky only dreams about, including a closet full of designer clothes. Then Julie B. reveals her secret—she shoplifted most of her cool outfits and accessories, and she invites Julie P. to join in the fun. With the lure of designer labels too strong to resist, Julie P. learns a multitude of shoplifting tricks from Julie B., and she discovers that her acting skills come in handy for bamboozling sales clerks. After the girls are apprehended by a store detective, Julie Prodsky elects to see a therapist and quickly decides to steal no more. Unfortunately, this decision creates a rift between the two friends at the very moment when Julie Prodsky needs someone to confide in about the increasingly amorous attentions of her new boyfriend. While the portrayal of the friendship between the two Julies is refreshingly three-dimensional (Julie B., despite initiating Julie P. into a life of petty crime, is ultimately a sympathetic character), Julie P.'s decision to seek therapy and the relative ease with which she is able to stop stealing is formulaic. Meanwhile, themes like the Prodsky family's troubled relationship with money—and the fact that Julie P.'s mother barely acknowledges her pleas for attention—are abruptly dropped in favor of focusing on the patching up of the Julies' quarrel. With its vivid descriptions of every clothing item and accessory lifted and its 1981 setting, this novel is essentially historical fiction for the fashion junkie; however, those who don't remember Vidal Sassoon's heyday may nonetheless find enough to relate to in this cautionary tale of female friendship. Copyright © 2006 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois