Kiss the Girls

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of racism, gender discrimination, sexual violence, rape, child abuse, child death, death by suicide, substance use, addiction, graphic violence, illness, death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and cursing.

“[Marcus] talked about his life at the crack house. Everybody he knew in his life was a junkie. Junkie came by my house today…Rita Washington. Not Marcus’s mother, not his father. The boy tried to slit his own throat, slit his wrists. Just eleven years old.”

Cross’s depiction of Marcus’s life establishes The Lurid Culture of Trauma in the US. The violence and toxicity isn’t uncommon or the exclusive product of men and sensational predators, but it manifests every day, and even 11-year-old kids must face it. The passage suggests that systemic failures in the US—poverty, addiction, and broken families—can create an environment where an 11-year-old sees no hope but self-destruction. The absence of parents further reflects the novel’s discussion of abandonment and societal neglect. While the novel largely focuses on serial killers, this passage highlights that suffering isn’t confined to extraordinary horrors but is embedded in the fabric of daily life.

“He was Priapus for the nineties. The difference between him and so many gutless modern men was that he acted on his natural impulses.”

Casanova links himself to Priapus—the Greek god of fertility, including male genitals. The comparison creates a juxtaposition between him and contemporary men and underscores Casanova’s view of himself as a hyper-masculine force, rejecting the supposed weakness of contemporary men. This passage reflects the novel’s exploration of Toxic Masculinity Versus Positive Masculinity, portraying Casanova as someone who believes that control, power, and violence are extensions of manhood. His self-aggrandizing thoughts reveal his delusion—he sees himself as superior when, in reality, his “natural impulses” are monstrous perversions of human intimacy.