Stuff I Read: Tampa by Alissa Nutting

Celeste Price seems to have it all. She married into a wealthy family and is a devoted English teacher about to start at a new middle school. This dream life is a ruse, however, deliberately and meticulously constructed to allow her to fulfill her very specific urges: an attraction to prepubescent boys. Yikes. Alissa Nutting goes there in her 2013 debut, Tampa.

Caution. MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW. Also, this is pretty disturbing, so reader discretion is advised.

Tampa follows Celeste through her first year of teaching at this middle school and details her seduction and conquest of 13-year-old Jack Patrick while she avoids the advances of her alcoholic oaf of a pretty-boy husband. Celeste initially fantasizes about sleeping with her students, as she prefers her boys just before they’re ruined (in her eyes) by testosterone. She settles on Jack as she teaches her class Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. She starts first by giving him extra attention in class, then graduates to stalking him at his home, to tawdry sex in cheap motels, and finally doing the deed in the boy’s bedroom. During one such tryst, they are nearly caught in the act by Jack’s father. Narrowly escaping by posing as a concerned teacher giving a favored student extra help, Celeste finds herself now fending off the advances of the boy’s father, or risk losing access to her plaything.

I stumbled across Tampa on a visit to The Strand bookstore in New York, in the “Banned Books” section. I was amused by the boldness of the cover—a single open vertical buttonhole on a pale pink shirt—and read the description on the back cover. Thinking “how bad could this be?” I bought it. Whoof. More than just a gender bent Lolita, Tampa is gross and engrossing, simultaneously very good and extremely wrong. Nutting’s first-person narration shows Celeste as an unashamed predator, a knowing sociopath concerned with nothing but her own pleasure—not her husband, not her career, and certainly not the lives of the boys she encounters, as they’re all disposable on their 14th birthday. Her fervent enthusiasm drives the story, though, and the moment-to-moment confession is riveting. Ms. Nutting also makes some very cogent observation about how easy it is for a young, attractive, white woman to get away with child molestation. Towards the end, while she’s on trial for her crimes, she’s told by a judge that she’s too pretty for prison, and during the school year, we hear the fathers of these children throw around variations of “If I had a teacher that looked like you…”

I can also appreciate the parallels to real-world situations. The actual story is based on the case of Debra LaFave, a former teacher who was a classmate of the author years ago. It also shares similarities to the notorious Mary Kay LeTourneau case from 30 years ago.

Where this book loses me is in the graphic depictions of sex with young boys. While I get the necessity of this detail given that the narrator and main character is a pedophile, it’s cringey, gross, and makes my skin crawl. I’m willing to believe that may be the point, though. You’re supposed to be disgusted. Celeste Price is not meant to be a sympathetic or relatable figure. She’s a particular brand of evil that violates the trust children and parents place in teachers.

Tampa is a well-told story about horrifying things we don’t want to experience, talk about, or hear about. It is emphatically not for everyone. But if you do read this rather smart novel and don’t immediately feel the need to take several showers, I don’t want to know you. That puts me in an awkward position, as this book was fascinating and well-written, but really hard to recommend. So, if you take a flyer on this one, know that it’s disturbing, but brilliant.

Pros: Well-told story, engrossing and fascinating.

Cons: Utterly disturbing, makes you feel icky, unsettling subject matter.

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars.