Arthur Warne

Maybe it's a sign of the times, but "A Grand A Body," written in 1963, reads like a Young Adult novel of the 70's.
Cynthia spills a soda on her dress at her 18th birthday party and goes upstairs to change. While admiring her naked body a younger boy comes in, and touches her. The parents arrive, they don't believe her innocence, and her reputation is ruined.
She's sent away to work at her uncle's resort, where she falls in love, makes love to a couple different men, and gets a naked spanking by her perverted uncle (okay, that would have to be left out of a YA novel).
Finally she runs away to be a prostitute. The owner of the house will pay $1000 to the stableboy for every girl he supplies, hence the title. An older prostitute warns her off, she leaves, only to fall into the arms of the man she loves.
The sex is on the level of a steamy romance novel. At one point, she and her boyfriend go to a "bikini party," and the evening ends, not with an orgy, but with her dancing the "twist!"
The writing and editing are laughably bad, but somehow, the book has an innocence and charm that captivated me. Listening to the teens talk in the slang of the late 50's/early 60's was a lot of fun.… (mais)