A
New York Times
Best Book of 2025
Time
Must—Read Book of 2025
Editors' Choice
"
To Smithereens
is an extraordinarily good book, but then so is everything Rosalyn Drexler ever wrote." —
The New York Times
A zany romance set amid the Manhattan experimental art scene and the female wrestling world of the 1970s, from an overlooked star of the Pop Art movement
When Rosa, a depressed and drifting twenty—something, meets Paul, a middling art critic, an off—kilter romance commences. Paul longs to be dominated by physically powerful women and convinces Rosa to fulfill one of his fantasies: that she become a wrestler. Soon, Rosa joins a women’s wrestling team and embarks on a tour of the South, befriends her horny teammates and their jealous boyfriends, and learns to hold her own among a crew of seedy coaches and greedy promoters. Through wrestling, Rosa learns to articulate what kind of life she wants, and to wriggle free of Paul’s attempts to possess her.
is a lighthearted satire of art world personalities, a glimpse into Manhattan of the 1970s—with its seedy theatres and beloved freaks—and a riotous foray into the craze of mid—century women’s wrestling. Inspired both by Drexler's experiences as one of few women in the Pop Art movement and her own career in the ring (immortalized in Andy Warhol's "Album of a Mat Queen"), and first published in 1972,
is an antic, biting portrait of its time from a voice that speaks directly to ours.