Foreword
In recent years, the American novel has taken a distinctly naturalistic turn from the postwar experimentalism of John Hawkes and William Burroughs. It is not enough, writers as diverse in approach as Norman Mailer and Mary McCarthy seem to be saying, to concentrate on the "literary" aspects of fiction; the novel must hold up a mirror to nature, as it were, and capture life both its seamy and rarified aspects from all sides.
It is our informed opinion that Stacey Moorlock does this and much more. The Barroom Captive is the story of a young student who is compelled by financial circumstances to take a job as a waitress in a bar near the university she attends. Sally Walker is thrust into a series of compromising situations where she unsuccessfully defends her virginity, and the ensuing conflict involves us in her fascinating inner struggle.
Sally is shown to be a highly ambitious individual she cheats on school examinations even though she's aware she can excel scholastically without resorting to underhanded methods who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals. A major conflict in the novel arises when she's confronted with the necessity to compromise herself sexually. We are left up in the air as to whether she eventually returns to school, but we feel certain that, due to her previous moral sacrifices for momentary ends, she will never be the same again.
Ms. Moorlock's novel is a book about a girl who becomes a prostitute. It handles this theme frankly, without groveling in the sensationalism which often surrounds the subject. The Barroom Captive shows us that there is more than one way our competitive system of education forces our young people to compromise themselves and reminds us that the distance from cheating on exams to accepting favors from strange men is not as far as one might think. If such situations are to be avoided, it is not enough to say that the moral fiber of American youth needs to be revitalized. A candidly fresh look at our dog-eat-dog way of life is necessary.
We would like to thank Ms. Stacey Moorlock for the fine job she had done in The Barroom Captive. The themes presented here should be interesting to any reader concerned with
American youth and the problems they confront in obtaining an education.
-The Publishers