Other Fish In the Sea - Softcover

Kusel, Lisa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786888024 ISBN 13: 9780786888023

Publisher: Hyperion, 2003

Synopsis

In the style of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, interconnected stories about a restless and charming young woman looking for meaning and love.

Elly Fisher is searching for her place in the world and for the love of her life. Leading us through these 10 interconnected stories, Elly links one intimate tale to the next as she drifts through Europe, sleeps with a married man, tangles with a roommate from hell, creates a stir on a cattle ranch in Colorado, answers singles ads from a Seattle newspaper, and more.

Clever and original, Kusel offers readers a kaleidoscopic perspective of a young woman's life, told from many points of view and in the voices of several related characters. Each of the stories build upon one another to create an effect like that of a novel. What shines through is Elly's delightfully unique journey of self-discovery. Other Fish in the Sea is an intricate, involving, disarmingly funny, and powerfully personal work, in the tradition of Alice Munro and Lorrie Moore.

About this title

About the Author

Lisa Kusel received her M.A. from Brown University and wrote for several web companies including Microsoft, where she was co-creator and editor-in-chief of its first on-line magazine, Matter. She currently lives with her husband and daughter in a small town in the Sierra Nevada foothills of California. Her first novel, Hat Trick, will be published by Hyperion.

Reviews

Elly Fisher, the central character in Kusel's debut collection of 10 linked stories, leads an active life of romantic adventure (mainly on the West Coast), but lacks insight or wit. In the first story, "Juvenile Hall," Elly shares uninspired entries from the diary she kept as an adolescent: "I went to the bus stop and talked to a really cute guy named Doug. He lives down the street from us. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and flip-flops." This passage's banality sets the tone for letters Elly later receives from boyfriends and a journal she keeps in her 20s. Traveling in Germany, she writes, "I'm hungry, but nobody speaks English, so I don't know how to order." In "Bars," the protagonist clingingly falls in love with a man seeking an independent woman; "Bones" finds her recalling her "almost love" affair with another woman. At book's end, Naomi, a bored new mother, finds Elly's diary at a garage sale, reads it, and tracks her down. Elly becomes Naomi's romantic guru and offers advice like "Just don't assume you should be looking for something you can't find right here." The book's patched-together structure and shallow characters make for a disappointing first effort.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Kusel's debut falls halfway between a novel and a story collection; Elly Fisher figures into all 10 stories in some way or another, but she's not always the central character. Elly's intense search for love is always a factor in the stories, whether she's bemoaning a recent break-up or pursuing a new conquest. In "Prairie Dogs," Lydia, a young woman who has been hired to paint a mural at a rich senator's ranch, watches as Elly waltzes in and flirts with Wade, the man she has a crush on. Wade just happens to be the brother of the man who brought Elly to the ranch in the first place. Tom, a researcher at the San Diego Zoo, becomes infatuated with Elly until he learns firsthand how clingy she can be, in "Bars." In the final story, "The Other Side," a young mother finds Elly's diary from her postcollegiate European trip and goes to meet the older, possibly wiser Elly. An intriguing look at a young woman's quest for fulfillment, love, and maturity. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"During her drive home she smiled out the rolled-down window of the car, her hair whipping back. Tom had walked her to her car, and promised to call the phone number on the scrap of paper she handed him. After a perfunctory hug, he moved his mouth to her face and gave her the slightest kiss about a millimeter shy of her lips. Her mother came into the bathroom while she was washing up. 'He's smart and handsome and into animals and, oh man, what a body,' she said to her mother's reflection in the bathroom mirror. Just be careful, sweetheart,' her mother warned as she closed the door and left Elly to brush her teeth. You just met him and already you're planning your wedding. Just don't get your hopes up so much.'" --from Other Fish in the Sea

Edition details

• Publisher: Hyperion
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786888024
• ISBN 13: 9780786888023
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 306