by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 17, 2008

"The Washingtonienne" is a sassy first novel by Jessica Cutler, based on her wild night life in Washington D.C. as a congressional assistant. Cutler herself achieved notoriety in 2004 when her real-life blog was discovered by a political gossip site. Cutler's 2005 "fictionalized memoir" delivered all the remaining juicy details, plus a strikingly brash attitude.

In Washington, "everybody was on the make and was pretty damn obvious about it," Cutler announces on her novel's first page. But the key to her character lies in her simple declaration that "I came to Washington by way of Manhattan." Cutler worked in the glamorous world of New York fashion magazines, enjoying designer clothes, cocaine, and the hippest clubs. Her boyfriend Mike works on Wall Street, and she sacrifices the city's club scene for romantic nights at home. She's assuming her Wall Street boyfriend will provide her the life of a wealthy housewife some day, but the lure of the night life is too strong. She's eventually discovered having a drunken fling with an old boyfriend in his hotel room, leaving her single again and desperate for a new life.

It's inevitable there will be a culture clash when she relocates to Washington D.C. "The boys here were so friendly, it was almost sad," Cutler writes, "like nobody ever taught them how to be cool." Her friends April and Laura join her in partying at Capitol-area nightclubs, where they receive lots of attention from male admirers. Jessica describes a cross-section of the city's population, including a bike messenger, a Congressional lawyer, and an old and unhappily married "sugar daddy" who pays her after their dates. She wants a serious romance with the Congressional lawyer - but is still conflicted when it means breaking things off with the married man.

The book is filled with spicy details about her various sexual conquests, and it's all delivered with at a speedy pace, like a gabbing girlfriend swapping details afterwards. When Cutler's real-life blog was discovered, blogger Wonkette wrote that "She's pretending to take pride in her own degradation..." but in the novel Cutler chronicles her lows as well as her highs. Somehow Jessica Cutler finds a real story in the excitement and the angst of a 20-something woman who stumbled into a scandalous story by accident.

She ultimately creates a voice that's genuinely fresh and original, and it's hard to deny that the book is a fun read.

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