"The streetcleaner"

This book on Britain's notorious serial killer of the 1970s is a feminist contribution to the growing literature on the case. Written by a Frenchwoman living in England, the story is highly subjective and utilizes psychology, feminism and linguistics in its exploration of the case as symptomatic of the situation of women. Jouve discusses working-class attitudes toward women in Britain's dying industrial North and argues that the police did not trouble much about catching the murderer as he was killing only prostitutes. She is perceptive in treating the personality of the killer, Peter Sutcliffe, a weak and effeminate "mama's boy" so out of place in his class that he could prove his power over women in only one way. Much of the linguistic analysis, however, is tortured and at worst silly, and the book ends with a gratuitous bit of fiction.