If you were in or around the beltway in 2004, you may have heard about a staffer’s blog that exposed some high-profile political affairs?or you may have even read been following the blog before the author’s identity was discovered.

At the time of this debacle, I was just entering college outside Boston, just opening my account on “The Facebook”, and wasn’t much of a blog follower save for LiveJournal. It wasn’t until I began to talk to my co-workers about this funny book I found at the library that I realized I had missed quite a media fiasco. I learned then at lunch how big the scandal was for those near the beltway, and how it probably wasn’t the best book to bring up at work…

Written by Jessica Cutler and based on her life, follows Jacqueline Turner’s move from New York City to Washington, D.C. After being dumped by her fiancée for sleeping with an ex, Jacqueline decides it’s time to start over and so moves in with a friend in D.C. who works for a Senator as a low-level staffer. Without money, a job, a boyfriend, an apartment of her own, or really any direction in life, Jacqueline begins to sleep her way to the top…well, sort of.

Jacqueline never reaches “the top” per se, but she certainly learns how to get by pretty easily. Not that I’ve ever been there before, but I’ll definitely never hang out at the Four Seasons bar in Georgetown late at night. It’s there that Jacqueline unknowingly becomes a prostitute, though she acts as if she’s more innocent than she actually is. From there, she basically sleeps with lots of guys, takes their money, gets a job as a staffer, starts a blog, then gets exposed, the end. A fun and quick read, I only wish she redeemed herself more in the end instead of continuing on her selfish path.

This book obviously isn’t a work of literature but its fun to hear Jacqueline/Cutler namedrop different D.C. hotspots. From dating a bike messenger to getting a basement apartment in Eastern Market, I liked having a personal connection to what she was talking about. So many books, such as Sex and the City or Something Borrowed, follow the lives of young professionals in New York City as they find love and success or breakups and hipster hangouts. I wish more popular books were about twenty-something’s in D.C. and made D.C. look exciting. Not that The Washingtonienne paints D.C. as a cool place really?Jacqueline repeatedly says how everyone here’s a closest dork and unattractive?but it at least covered some aspects of the nightlife here and showed people having fun.

I can almost safely say I’ll never read another book by Cutler. The Washingtonienne was good because it was a real scandal, however I don’t get the feeling that Cutler is a particularly creative or intelligent author. She wrote another book in 2006, Sexe au Capitole, but no one’s left a comment on Amazon yet and, judging from the title, it seems like it would pretty similar to her first book. Bottom line: If you’re planning to sit by the pool for a few hours, this book will keep you entertained without having to do too much thinking.

The Washingtonienne
Jessica Cutler