A while back, I mentioned searching for a copy of Bonnie Bremser's Troia: Mexican Memoirs, her 1969 account of how she prostituted herself on the streets of Mexico in the early sixties to get money to support her and her husband (Beat poet Ray Bremser)'s drug addiction. The book was finally reprinted late last year by Dalkey Archive Press & I managed to get a copy. Probably the only Beat novel written by a woman, Troia is an exciting and harrowing account of Bremser's various adventures from that period.
I had first heard of the memoir from Tufts University Professor Ronna C. Johnson, co-editor of Girls Who Wore Black: Women Writing the Beat Generation (2002; Rutgers University Press), who spoke about the work at the Kerouac Conference in Lowell, MA last October. Professor Johnson's take on Troia captures the work perfectly as seen at www.bookforum.com (do a search for "bremser"). I don't think I can add anything more to it. So I'll see about putting in a Purchase Request for it and the Girls Who Wore Black book. -Ed
Related link: http://www.womenofthebeat.org/Brenda%20Frazer/BrendaFrazer.htm
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