The view of men through "Charlie Dean's" eyes is an honest, although uncomfortable, reality. Having experienced some eye-opening nights at dance clubs, bachelor parties and bars where ladies perform and dance, I've always wondered why these women sought this lifestyle. The book "Smoking Hopes" has helped to increase my understanding of their needs, and their world. Charlie's descriptions of events can be funny or tender, but brutally revealing. Her need for hope is always very strong as she pursues her relentless search for her evasive lover.

Author Victoria Alexander has given us an insightful story of a woman's struggle in an obscure world. When this moving story was nearly ended, an intense desire overwhelmed me to save and protect the doomed "Charlie Dean" from the ravages of mankind! Share the experience. I was not disappointed.

A re-working of _Waiting for Godot_, _Smoking Hopes_ implicates the contemporary cult of physical perfection in its exploration of the timeless human craving to be loved. This dark tale's incisive and insightful portrayal of the sexual underworlds of New York and Tokyo impels its heroin's quest to its inevitable conclusion. Alexander's prose is finely-honed and bewitching.

I was facinated all the way through the book with Charlie's strategic study and wielding of beauty and sex. There are very funny parts too. I love Charlie's letter to the IRS. I wish I could be so bold, but it is fiction after all.

Naked Singularity is brilliant, a true classic, and a work of art. The most interesting aspect is the protagonist's complete blindness to her subconscious drive, revenge on the male figure and the whole family, as well as her super intellectual façade which barely veils an absolute weakness and desperate need to be liked and loved.