To Smithereens

"To Smithereens is an extraordinarily good book, but then so is everything Rosalyn Drexler ever wrote." --The New York Times

A provocative, cheeky romp through the Manhattan art scene and the female wrestling world of the 1970s, from an overlooked star of the Pop Art movement

When Rosa, a curious, brash twenty-something flitting aimlessly through the Manhattan avant garde art scene, meets Paul, an art critic who is obsessed with being dominated by physically powerful women, an electric and off-kilter love story commences. On Paul's encouragement, Rosa becomes a professional wrestler and joins the women's wrestling circuit on a tour of the American South. Through wrestling, Rosa learns to articulate what kind of life she wants, and to wriggle free of Paul's attempts to possess her.

To Smithereens is a lighthearted reconfiguration of the 1970s American road novel and a delightful satire of the avant garde art world of the same period, in which Rosalyn Drexler was a major figure. Inspired both by Drexler's experiences as one of few women in the Pop Art movement and her own career in the ring (immortalized in Andy Warhol's "Album of a Mat Queen"), and first published in 1972, To Smithereens is an antic, biting portrait of its time from a voice that speaks directly to ours.