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Rating:  -
I spent my 20s on this side of San Francisco. The "alt" side of SF that Lisick describes is quirky, silly, dark, charming. But mostly full of regular folks trying - or shall i say wanting - to be cool. Lisick is self-deprecating, a true tale spinner, with a knack for finding the abusurd in the everyday, the pathetic in the 'cool' and the charm in alternative culture. Finally a female humorist that can hold her own.
Rating: -
You'd never believe that a story about stealing money from nuns to pay for an abortion would be boring, but Beth Lisick's amateur writing effort makes just those sorts of edgy, post modern topics less exciting than eating oatmeal and reading USA Today.
Beth Lisick seems to be suffering a classic amateur writer's dilemma-you've lived through something-abortion, drugs, sex, the Holocaust, so you think you can be a writer. I call it the Hemingway syndrome. Some writers even throw themselves to the four corners hoping they'll live through a Spanish-Civil War and it'll give them some profound topic to write about.
The trouble is just having lived through something does not make you a good writer. It gives you a ghost of a story, but you've got to work hard to bring that story out on the page. Listick seems too immature to have bothered with the sort of self-actualization that might have made her experiences into good stories.
I expected more of this book since the cover said Lisick had been an "integral" and "high profile" member of San Francisco's art community for the last ten years. Believe me, there is no way San Francisco's arts scene is going to fall apart without this "integral" writer. If she's "high-profile" in San Francisco it has to be because she is a relentless self promoter. The cover also said Lisick is a contributer to This American Life. I love this American Life and can't believe this sort of trash ends up anywhere near the broadcast.
I'll say that this is a light read and that may be just what you're in the mood for. Granted I'm into David Foster Wallace and the like these days. I guess if you were drunk and thought Candace Bushnell was the empress of literature, you might be talked into thinking Lisick was her dumb unfortunate cousin who needed consideration because she was family. But I think you should put about as much effort into reading as a writer does compiling. That means you might pick this unfortunate book up from the bargain bin and read an essay or two for free in the store cafe while you down a $3 latte. And I'd be telling you good choice-better to spend your money on coffee than this poor effort.
If you are interested in some essays and short stories but want good writing too, try "New Kings of Non-Fiction" edited by Ira Glass, Best American Essays edited by David Foster Wallace, or one of the excellent literary journals out there-McSweeney's or Landfall for instance.
Rating: -
Another good book to read by the light of the sun ... lots of laughs.
Rating:  -
Some days I resent life as a Midwestern suburban mom. I don't discover trends or talents until they've been around long enough to bore my hipper and more cosmopolitan friends. That feeling was never more acute as I read Everybody Into the Pool: True Tales by Beth Lisick.
Every other paragraph had me laughing out loud, even as I lamented the fact I identified more with her naïve and sincere parents than her. I swear she channeled my own Catholic school girl experience with The Apostles Creed (the solo performance of all the memorized prayers, a bored yet perfectly timed recitation delivered hip thrust out) and those early days as a new mom with all the other mommies so together and their babies so stylish while I considered it a huge accomplishment to get in the shower at some point.
Sure, Everybody Into the Pool isn't for everyone. Readers of a more conservative nature might not appreciate her gung-ho yet futile attempts at bisexuality nor the irony of her temp job selling raffle tickets at a Catholic church fundraiser so she could raise the last $40 she needed to fund an abortion. She writes of life among IV drug user, child drug runners, and a day of sewage raining down upon her boyfriend's illegal warehouse apartment without gloss or angry defiance. It just is, like everything else in Lisick's world: sometimes sad, sometimes a struggle, but always worthy of a good laugh. I look forward to her next book, Help Me Help Myself. This time I'm only a few weeks behind.
Rating:  -
Very enjoyable short stories with a unique view of growing up and living in northern California.
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