Monkey Girl: Swingin' Tales
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Book Overview
In her first collection of short stories, celebrated spoken-word artist Beth Lisick evokes the rollicking world of post-boom America. An impoverished but proud office drone (I am the reigning queen of the Toshiba BD copy machine) gets a makeover. A teenager is drugged by her fraudulent, sadistic orthodontist. On a five-hour flight to Cabo San Lucas, the author psychically bonds with a flight attendant. In this collection of 25 hilarious, anecdotal short stories, spoken-word performer Beth Lisick creates a panoramic tapestry of strip malls, junk-food habits, and yuppie pickup joints, unveiling a world that most of us simply drive past. Blending the everyday and its sometimes grotesque underside, hallucinatory detail, and stripped-down dialogue, Lisick's descriptions are almost hypnotic with their complex rhythms and cadences. These stories - all of which Beth Lisick uses in performance - imbue the ordinary with unique and unexpected hilarity. Striking, witty, and vividly contemporary, these stories evoke what it's like to live now, in the suburban wasteland of the '90s.
Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0916397491
ISBN13:9780916397494
Release Date:April 1997
Publisher:Manic D Press
Length:128 Pages
Weight:0.50 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 6.1" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
Beth is funny
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 18 years ago
My first Beth Lisick book but it won't be my last. She's a good writer and if you ever get the chance to see her perform, don't miss it.
Totally smart and funny
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 23 years ago
This book is great - I got it after reading her new one This Too Can Be Yours. Filled with short sharp stories about you-name-it everything (friends, parents, roommates, relationships, etc.), I've never read a writer who seems to put our current society in a nutshell so well. Lisick reduces fictional characters to archetypes (everyone in this book seems so familiar...) and turns ordinary scenarios into hilarious situations. I love books that make me laugh and this one certainly did!
Way to go Monkey Girl!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
Now, I've loved Anaïs Nin's work, but when Beth asks what makes Anaïs a legend and not "just a slut with a diary," we all know what she means. This the funky world of urban life for people of the twenty-something turning thirty-somethings set. This is what it's like to go into a bar and have some weirdo ask you ridiculous questions or claim to be your soul-mate over kamikazes. These pieces have big hi-fi volume running around on little PAC-MAN feet, always teetering on some amazing precipice of sanity. But then there are these moments that hurt they're so beautiful. Read "Empress of Sighs" and just see if the last few lines don't make you want to call your recenlty-moved or recently-retired or recently-menopaused mother and make sure she's okay. Or maybe look in the mirror and start counting backward your own self. There is a lot of humor in this book and you will undoubtedly laugh out loud while reading it. But there is an underlying social commentary thing going on that is somehow, at once, both subtle and fire-starting, sizzling greasy bacon. And my my, if you ever get an opportunity to see Lisick perform, go go go! Kudos to Lisick on such a marvelous book.
THE BEST portrait of pop culture in the 90's!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
From "Crappy Brown Carpeting" to "The Answer Is Plastic," every single chapter is a classic tale of America in the nineties. Lisick is a new kind of writer, an original. You must have this book! She expresses herself with a pleasant sense of humor, understanding, and the perfect touch of criticism! This fresh new style of writing and poetry will definitely put a smile on your face
Monkey Girl: Lyrics for the Nineties
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 27 years ago
The book still isn't released just yet, but I saw Beth Lisick perform with 10BassT in San Jose this evening. She rocked the house with her stream-of-conciousness poetry. There are poets that can Write, and poets that can Deliver. She does both - well enough to bring a raucous hip-hop crowd to rap attention. Her images of Mr-the-one-with-the-most-toys and the Rat Boy blew up the sub-urban stereotypes into life size toxic reality. -bob mackey
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