Silver Metal Lover by Tanith Lee

Far in the future human labor has been replaced by Robots-not a new or original theme there. Jane is a 16 year old-with friends she does not particularly like which were picked by her mother. She has her own suite of rooms and a 1000 units of credit a month to spend as she likes-a sort of allowance given to her by her extremely wealthy, busy and controlling mother. Jane is plain, plump and shy with mousey-brown hair. Her physical appearance-it turns out-is also controlled by her mother through supplements that change the way she looks. Unlike her friends and contemporaries who enjoy free-love she is a virgin. She has never met a man she is interested in. Then she sees the newest robots who fill roles other than the traditional "manual labor" roles. These new robots are "pleasure robots"-again not a new or original theme, though it may have been at the time the book was originally written. Jane sees Silver (the new style "pleasure robot") singing in the park and falls in love with him immediately. Unfortunately she does not have enough money to buy him and can not get her mother to take her seriously enough to loan her the extra money she needs to purchase Silver. In her desperation she sells everything she owns-buys her lover and moves to a hovel to live with him-also not a new or original theme. Yet despite the main premise of tried and true themes, the book really works. It is predictable in that they do not live happily ever after and have a heart wrenching parting-which I saw coming from the first paragraph. Yet, it is at heart, a story of young love-first love-which rarely if ever works out to happily ever after whether you are in live with a man, woman or robot, and often involves poverty and struggle. The emotions Jane feels are easy to identify with, as I have been lucky enough to be young, in love and poor. There is no love like your first love and no pain like your first heartbreak. The book also tackles what it means as a daughter to grow up and away from your mother. The relationships between mothers and daughters are very complex and I think Lee does a good job exploring it in this novel. Very well done.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!