This Unusual Novel is set in Paris in the 1960s, where the vestiges of its storied Bohemian past still barely cling. It is a time when the new wave of feminism has not yet taken hold, when men furiously wave the double standard like a proud banner and, worse yet, are often indulged by their women.
Jane, a young, insecure and unliberated Australian, goes all too far in overlooking her husband Tom's blatantly philandering ways and his obsession with rating women's legs: based on a scale of 100, he never awards less than 70, because legs like that would be beneath consideration, nor more than 90 because that would be too near perfection.
One cold winter night in a cafe, a stunning woman sits down opposite the couple and reveals legs that immedately win Tom's highest score. It turns out that the stranger is Australian, lonely and adrift. Jane invites her home to their dilapidated artist's studio in Montparnasse where they discover how much of an outsider Sally really is. A bizarre relationship develops amongst the three.
Clean Start is a shocking novel -- both funny and sad -- which deals with problems of sexuality, married love, creativity and self-definition. Its atmosphere is vividly evoked in cafes filled with painters and notebook scribblers, offbeat nightclubs, a fashion house, a street market, a seedy language school, a five-star hotel -- all backdrops to the fascinating characters who refuse to conform to type.
