Writing with wit, verve, and sharp perception, Fedwa Malti-Douglas provides fresh ways of understanding the Starr Report in relation to lasting issues of gender relations, narrative technique, and attitudes toward the body. Her deft cultural and textual analysis will give her readers lasting insight as well as immediate pleasure. -- Patricia Meyer Spacks, author of Advocacy in the Classroom I read The Starr Report with horrified fascination. With force and brio, the brilliant Fedwa Malti-Douglas tells us why. Stripped bare, the body of The Starr Report is very, disturbingly American. -- Catharine R. Stimpson, Director, MacArthur Fellows Program A masterful dissection of a politically and culturally crucial document. -- Henry Louis Gates Jr.