Snadowsky, Daria

PERSONAL:

Born in New York, NY. Education: Emory University, B.A., M.A. (with highest honors), 2001; University of Nevada, Las Vegas, J.D, 2006.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Las Vegas, NV. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Writer. Admitted to Nevada bar.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Carl W. Tobias Excellence in Writing Award, William S. Boyd School of Law; Bookmarked Breakout Book, Target Brands, Inc., 2007, for Anatomy of a Boyfriend: A Novel.

WRITINGS:

Anatomy of a Boyfriend: A Novel, Delacorte Press (New York, NY), 2007.

Also author of the blog Daria Snadowsky's Journal.

SIDELIGHTS:

Daria Snadowsky began writing as a teenager, contributing to school and local publications during high school and college. She tried her hand at writing a novel at the age of twenty-two, taking about a year to come up with a first draft, then another year to find an agent. Within one more year, Snadowsky received an offer on her manuscript from the Delacorte publishing house. Published as Anatomy of a Boyfriend: A Novel, it has drawn praise from some for its honesty and vivid writing and criticism from others because of its sexual explicitness.

Anatomy of a Boyfriend is narrated by Dominique, a seventeen-year-old senior in her last semester of high school. Dominique is an orderly, logical girl with no sexual experience. She looks forward to starting her premedical studies in college and works hard at academics. Everything changes when she meets Wesley Gershwin, a star on another school's track team. The two go out on dates, but nothing physical happens between them for some time. Finally, they realize that they are mutually inexperienced and afraid to admit it to each other.

As the narrative progresses, Wes and Dominique lose their shyness with each other. In fact, they become sexually adventurous, and their explorations are presented in graphic detail. Courtney Andree, a reviewer for the Dartmouth Review Online, felt that the book went too far; she called it "a tutorial on pleasure and genitalia." In her opinion, this was out of place with the style of the book and its intended audience. She stated: "The primary (and most troubling) incongruence in Anatomy of a Boyfriend is the simple fact that it is written at a second grade reading level, while its subject matter is, I imagine, more explicit than most hardcore erotica." Andree further stated that she found it "almost sad when this intelligent young girl is reduced to a pile of quivering genitals and hormones."

Other reviewers saw the book in a very different light. Claire Rosser, writing in Kliatt, believed that "the emotional experiences of first love are described as poignantly and as graphically as are the physical experiences, which makes this a novel and not a sex manual." A reviewer for Trashionista.com stated that "the sexual stuff is realistic and appropriate in the context of the story" and credited the book with having "some great emotional depth." A contributor to Bookshelves of Doom praised the way Snadowsky drew the character of Dominique, particularly her technical, scientific interest in anatomy, which carries over from her textbooks to her intimate sessions with Wes. The reviewer also approved of Dominique's more worldly, experienced friend, Amy. Regarding the sexual scenes in the book, the reviewer felt that they were "in no way pornographic. It's just very, very detailed and very, very realistic." When Dominique and Wesley aren't engaged in sexual acts, their relationship is carried on through various modern means, including text messages, e-mails, and instant messaging. All these forms are used by Snadowsky to advance the narrative. "Snadowsky's writing is sharp, and Dominique's voice is clever, funny and extremely authentic," commented Kristi Olson in a review for Teenreads.com.

Several commentators noted the similarities between Anatomy of a Boyfriend and the young-adult novel Forever by Judy Blume, which, when published in 1975, was groundbreaking for its frank depiction of sexual intercourse among teens. In fact, Snadowsky dedicated Anatomy of a Boyfriend to Blume. Even the ending of the book is similar to Blume's, as the fictional couple find their relationship does not last. Reviewing for Booklist, Gillian Engberg said: "Like Forever this sensitive, candid novel is sure to find a wide audience among curious teens."

Snadowsky told CA: "I remember my first hall meeting during freshman year of college—we were introducing ourselves and discovering that almost half of us had boyfriends from high school. Then by the following semester, almost everyone had dumped or been dumped by her high school sweetheart. So I wanted to focus on that part of a girl's life—the last semester of high school and the first semester of college—when she's simultaneously excited for and scared of how college will change things. In the book, Dominique, the protagonist, says, ‘I used to think of college acceptance letters as emancipation proclamations. Now they're like divorce papers.’

"Judy Blume's book Forever was also a major inspiration behind Anatomy of a Boyfriend. When writing my novel, I tried to be as honest and informative as Blume is with regard to the issues of love and sex.

"I also wanted to do a straightforward, nonjudgmental treatment of the emotional roller coaster of love. I resent that all of the words associated with romantic love are so pejorative. We're often called ‘nuts,’ ‘obsessed,’ ‘head over heels,’ ‘infatuated,’ and ‘addicted.’ Why is love saddled with such negative words considering that any one of us, no matter how brainy, sane, or logical, can feel this way? Anatomy of a Boyfriend concerns a girl whose intelligence is above average but who still longs uncontrollably for Wes to be her boyfriend. Her behaviors may seem crazy, but in truth what she's experiencing couldn't be more natural and human.

"I decided to concentrate on ‘the first real relationship’ simply because it's such a huge event for most young adults. In the process of sharing your heart and body with someone, you learn so much about yourself. Most importantly, you're opening yourself up to be hurt in the end. So I wanted to write a story that charts every step of the relationship process, from first crush to first love to first heartbreak and back again.

"Sex, and all its physical and emotional ramifications, is a subject that's often very embarrassing for parents and teachers to talk about with kids, so it's important that young adults have access to books that explain the subject in a straightforward way adults may be loathe to. For better or for worse, so many books ‘fade to black’ after the first kiss, so we never see what happens. Or if they don't, the intimacy is often described in very melodramatic, romanticized, or euphemistic terms. So in this book, I wanted to demystify in an unabashedly honest, non-threatening, and sometimes humorous way what occurs, physically and emotionally, while ‘hooking up.’ Judy Blume's book Forever serves that purpose to a large extent, but I wanted to get even more detailed and graphic in Anatomy of a Boyfriend. And by making the main character, Dominique, an aspiring doctor who's fascinated by biology and human anatomy, I was able to go into meticulous detail without it sounding out of character. The book's love scenes successfully walk the fine line of sounding graphic without being pornographic, and of sounding descriptive without being gratuitous.

"This type of literature is valuable for teens because it presents much-needed unromanticized accounts of the highs and lows of love and sex. When we grow up on fairy tales like Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, it's perfectly natural for us to expect that our first loves will last forever and that we'll know exactly what to do when the lights dim. Books like Forever demonstrate to young adults that that's not necessarily the case, and they show all the humiliation, disappointment, and awkwardness (as well as the magic and wonder and peace) that are part and parcel of falling in love and being intimate. According to the reader e-mail I've received, this book has been incredibly comforting to teens and makes them feel less alone in their feelings and experiences."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, November 15, 2006, Gillian Engberg, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend: A Novel, p. 61.

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, May, 2007, Karen Coats, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend, p. 386.

Kirkus Reviews, December 1, 2006, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend, p. 1226.

Kliatt, January, 2007, Claire Rosser, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend, p. 18.

Publishers Weekly, November 27, 2006, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend, p. 52.

School Library Journal, February, 2007, Corinda J. Humphrey, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend, p. 128.

Voice of Youth Advocates, February, 2007, Stephanie Petruso, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend, p. 533.

ONLINE

Bookshelves of Doom,http://bookshelvesofdoom.blogs.com/ (February 16, 2007), review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

Curled Up with a Good Kid's Book,http://www.curledupkids.com/ (January, 2007), LuAnn Womach, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

Daria Snadowsky Home Page,http://www.daria-snadowsky.com (January 27, 2008).

Daria Snadowsky's MySpace Page,http://www.myspace.com/adultolescent (January 27, 2008).

Dartmouth Review Online,http://www.dartreview.com/ (March 1, 2007), Courtney Andree, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

Horn Book Guide Online,http://www.hornbookguide.com/ (February 13, 2008), review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

Romantic Times Online,http://www.romantictimes.com/ (February 13, 2008), review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

San Francisco Chronicle Online,http://www.sfgate.com/ (January 28, 2008), review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

Teenreads.com,http://www.teenreads.com/ (January 27, 2008), Kristi Olson, review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

Trashionista.com,http://www.trashionista.com/ (July, 2007), review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.

YA Fresh,http://yafresh.blogspot.com/ (January 22, 2007), review of Anatomy of a Boyfriend.