Vendor
	Liepman Literary Agency Marc Koralnik
Original language
English

THAT THING YOU DO WITH YOUR MOUTH

Samantha Matthews David Shields

This book is an attempt, sometimes self-thwarted, to break down barriers: sexual and emotional for Matthews, literary for Shields.

In That Thing You Do With Your Mouth, actress and voice-over artist Samantha Matthews offersin the form of an extended monologue, prompted and arranged by New York Times bestselling author (and Matthews's cousin once removed) David Shieldsa vivid investigation of her startling sexual history. From her abuse at the hands of a family member to her present-day life in Barcelona, where she briefly moonlighted as a dubber of Italian pornography into English, Matthews reveals herself to be a darkly funny, deeply contemporary woman with a keen awareness of how her body has been routinely hijacked, and how she has been formatted by her early trauma. Her story is a study of her uneasy relationships with female desire, her tormentors, and her loverswith whom she seeks out both the infliction and receipt of harm.

For them, the only response to the unspeakable is to speak, to do that thing you do with your mouth, as directly and honestly as possible. Their provocative performance refuses neat resolution or emotional pornography; it will have readers, from literary critics to Jezebel commentators, raving, raging, celebrating, talking.

David Shields is the author of twenty books, including Reality Hunger (named one of the best books of 2010 by more than thirty publications); The Thing About Life Is That One Day You'll Be Dead (a New York Times bestseller); Black Planet (a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award); and, forthcoming over the next year, War Is Beautiful (powerHouse Books) and Other People (Knopf). I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel, co-written by Caleb Powell and published by Knopf in January 2015, has been adapted by James Franco into a film that premiered in April 2015 at Vancouver's DOXA documentary film festival. Shields's work has been translated into twenty languages.

Samantha Matthews is an American actress who lives in Barcelona with her partner and two children.

Available products
Book Published 2015-06-01 by McSweeney's

Comments

"An insightful, thought-provoking probe into the impulses of sexual desire."

"Don't let the provocative title fool youthis book is about busting boundaries, not getting you off. In the form of an extended monologue, actress and voiceover artist Matthews offers a rare, candid glimpse into a contemporary woman's psyche, as shaped by her sexual history. Raw, unnerving, and morbidly funny, Matthews, who moonlighted as a dubber of Italian pornography into English, recounts her harrowing journey from child abuse victim to determined and headstrong mother. For anyone who's struggled to forge their identity after a trauma, Matthews' book offers a glimmer of hope."

One of the Huffington Post's "Moving, Must Read Memoirs" of 2015!

"Shields proves a master at this structural tight-rope walk, pulling together disparate bits into a story that is more impressionistic than a typical narrative, yet just as fulfilling."

"Actor Samantha Matthews and author David Shields challenge the way we think about trauma by changing the way we talk about it."

"That Thing You Do With Your Mouth shouldn't work, but it does. Not only does it work, it excels ... You cannot interject. You can only listen. And sometimes, simply listening is the most important thing to do."