Customer Reviews

Belly: A Novel

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BELLY by Lisa Selin Davis
June 25, 2005

Amazon rating 5/5

BELLY by Lisa Selin Davis is the story of a modern "Archie Bunker", a mordantly funny story of a father in search of his old life, refusing to let go what no longer exists. BELLY is also a very impressive debut effort, wonderfully crafted and filled with such dark humor that I laughed halfway through the book.

Belly refuses to let go of the past, always moping about the daughter that died too young, while his remaining daughters continue to disappoint him. He has just gotten out of prison for his illegal gambling operation, and while there are no signs of it, he thinks his "friends" are just around the corner, ready to welcome him back with open arms.

His post-prison world is filled with things he cannot accept or comprehend. No longer are the republicans in office, but now the democrats are in power. His days of bragging about his friends in high places are no longer, and now he drinks alone. His bar is now a bistro, to his dismay, and his lesbian daughter now has a "friend" that is living in his house.

The epitome of dysfunctional families, the O'Leary's are a modern day Archie Bunker family, who has seen better days. Those who enjoy reading dark humor will find themselves chuckling over the bigotry that just seeps out of Belly, although in his heart, he is the one doing the right thing, and he tries desperately to bring back the family that he had always thought would be there for him.

I'm highly recommending BELLY for the way Lisa Selin Davis painted this truly sad piece of a human being that makes up the person that is Belly O'Leary. A man that is living in the past, one will feel pity for him, and at times will shake their heads, but there may be hope for him. A well-done character portrait of a person who cannot see anything past himself, BELLY is the type of book that will remain in the reader's memory for a long time. Highly recommended.

Lisa Davis's book takes a gamble on one man, Belly O'Leary, a 59-year-old bar-owner returning to his daughters after being released from prison. He's a drunk; he's mean; he's got nothing going for him, and yet with every page turned I wanted more of him. No one likes Belly, his daughters struggle not to hate him, but he's more real, more a man than half the men in everyday life who lack either the passion to follow their raw desires or the conscience to know when it led them astray - as in Belly's case, again and again. What he comes out of the can wanting, other than a lump sum of dirty money owed to him, is all the tenderness and love deprived of him as a child. The poignancy and ease of Davis's writing is mesmerizing as she creates the world of a broken-up lower class family in Saratoga Springs, New York during an August heat wave. Her words coddle you as she tells a heartbreaking story.

Reviewed by Leigh Newman for Small Spiral Notebook

Imagine a father who returns home after four years in prison for gambling, only to drink himself into a stupor on a hourly basis, break the heart of a lonely waitress, and sponge off his grown-up children. In your average first novel, that father's story would be told from the perspective of his children who, let's just say, half-love, half-hate, hate-fear the guy, but come to some kind of tidy understanding with him. In Lisa Selin Davis's first novel, expect nothing of the kind. In fact, prepare yourself for a complicated, ambiguous portrait of a man, told by that man, with such a depth of understanding that it approaches an almost Jamesian knack for psychology.

With every line, Davis is Belly-a middle age ex-con who just never figured out how to do the right thing in life. Belly covers for his Mafia bosses, only to find that they have no intention of rewarding him for his silence. Belly cheats on his wife with an opportunistic fortune-hunter who steals his money, and, even after the fact, longs for her to return. Belly fights in bars, hates gay people, and realizes "his oldest grandson was exactly the kind of boy he'd pick on back in junior high."

Of course, it is remarkable that petite, educated, bohemian, thirty-something Davis can assume the life of character so different from her. But essentially, all this proves is that Davis has the imagination and talent to write beyond the expected confines of the memoir-novel. What's more impressive is what she does with this character. Belly isn't a good guy. Further, he's bad guy. When his waitress girlfriend, Maybelline, tries to snuggle with him after making love, all he thinks is "What is the bare minimum I have to do to get this girl again?" Later in the book he realizes that Maybelline is "the kind of girl he took to family events, to places where he could show her off but might not have to talk to her. A filler...a way to get other women to pay attention to him.'

Davis doesn't soften Belly by making him a bumbling failure, either. She lets him live and think and be hard, which in the hands of a lesser artist, might alienate a reader over time. In this case, though, Belly becomes human via his grief-his buried grief that surfaces here and there, sometimes over his own behavior, sometimes over the death of his young daughter. It's this sense of sadness and honesty, combined with Belly's almost-delusional dreams of reinvention that bind us to him. In a larger sense, we end up hoping and feeling for the fictional life of someone who, in real life, we might detest.

Therein lies the conflict-and the larger, subtextual questions of the book. How can we understand our enemies? How can we love them, and hate them-and love them? Through this moral maze, Davis also manages to frame larger social issues. Belly returns to the city of Saratoga, a town which, when he left was a smalltime racing bust town. Now it's both a land of $5 Euro-coffees and a land of cut-price American chain stores-the quintessential national paradox that bewilders even those of us in real life, who have watched this same sychoprenic change in the landscape unfold over the years.

Belly, not surprisingly, is confused and enraged. And with him, the reader begins to long for the days of dive bars and 80's coke parties, back when downtown "main street" was depressed and dumpy, but the functioning, authentic heart of a town. This is an interesting point at which to arrive. Many of us might despair over the strip-mall landscape of the suburbs. But then again, who would exchange that for a seedy recessionville? A former student of urban planning, Davis places these larger social issues of economics and class into the novel with a light, subtle touch-a quality which characterizes her linework as well.

Stylistically, this novel is simply and straightforwardly written-few metaphors, a terse, contemporary diction, the voice of a white, small-town American male. Yet there is a grace to it, evident in such building phrases as, "Everything that happened happened long ago, twenty pounds ago, two girlfriends ago, a hundred thousand gray hairs ago." At times, this phrases are extended and expanded into an almost incantatory paragraphs, such as when Belly sleeps with the waitress Maybelline, thinking that "Of he closed his eyes, if he kept his eyes closed, yes, it wasn't Maybelline, it was Loretta. It was Lorettta, it was the first time, it was War Bar in its heyday, there was music, there was the music of murmuring and bass beat and that reassuring scent of stale beer."

Other times, Davis uses even more subtle techniques, inserting unexpected verbs into a sentence. For example, Belly "rescues" two remaining beers "strangled" in plastic. Later, after stealing a fifty dollar bill from his daughter, he lets it "brew" in his wallet. The technique not only works to create a fresh way to describe the ordinary, it also taps into the larger themes of the book-Belly's alcoholism and numbness.

Towards the end of the book, Davis describes a girl's Walkman music as "it bled out the tiny headphones." Music bleeding out headphones just feels real here-the authentic word for overheard, headphone music. And here, too, Davis is playing with language, using the verb "bled" to indicate the violence to come in the scene, during which Belly assaults and considers raping a young girl who is wearing his dead daughter's sweater. This is sophisticated language work that in the hands of less controlled writer, could turn into a bunch of cheap, obvious puns. Here, the layered meanings deepen the text.

Ultimately, Belly is a novel of redemption. But like so many other aspects of the book, this redemption is ambiguous. Yes, Belly agrees to fill out an application at Wal-Mart, which might be considered comic, except that his decision appears to signal his willingness to provide for his family and re-enter society, to somehow atone for his actions. Then again, his decision might just be another late-night grope at improvement that he'll never follow through on. Regardless, Belly's decision does say something about 21st -century America, that the big redemption in a person's life is a Wal-Mart application. And that's not comic. That's dark and bitter, sad and scary-and true.

I thought it would be nice to read a book centered around a nearby town. While I liked the references to known places I found Belly very depressing and couldn't wait to stop reading it. It made getting older seem worthless and gave me a strong feeling of sadness. I kept waiting for a great ending but that never happened. I wish I never read this book. I think zero stars would be a better rating.

This book is like finding some unpublished treasure by Richard Russo or Richard Price lurking on the "new fiction" table at your favorite bookstore. Indeed, Lisa Selin Davis, a name new to me, out-Russos Russo with her unsparing portrayal of an ex-con down on his luck and half-heartedly trying to make a new start in his old town, that has moved on during the four years he was in the pen for a gambling offense. Lisa Selin Davis does for charming Saratoga Springs what William Kennedy used to do for Albany, viz, turn back the sprightly facade to expose the horrifying underside--in this case, I'm tempted to call it the under "belly"--of a major New York State city.

Saratoga Springs, with its race track and its vast pool of crooked pols and gang related graft, is meaty turf for Lisa Selin Davis, and she chooses to frame her story with a modern updating of the old legend of the "Judgment of Paris." If you remember, Paris was given the questionable honor of having to award the golden apple to one of three goddesses. In BELLY, our hero has to come back and remake acquaintance with his three daughters, different as day is from night as they are from one another. One is a frustrated artist and a "mouse," another a Lesbian and largely offstage, though her girlfriend is very visible; Belly refers to her as his "Basset Hound," and finally there is Nora, the mother of three sons she has named after different rock guitarists, Jimi, Stevie Ray, and King (after B.B, King). Yes, it's the kind of heavily ironic and trashy signature that you find only in novels, but it works well in this context because otherwise you might have a bit of trouble telling Belly's different women apart.

Davis is great with creating male characters, but what keeps her ahead of the pack is her unusual interest in probing women and what makes them keep trying to love a man who has never done anything to them but put them down and treat them badly. It's like the Stockholm Syndrome, but in honor of Lisa Selin Davis' canny knack for characterization, I propose renaming it the "Belly Syndrome," for unlikeable Belly O'Leary might well be played by Jack Nicholson in the bittersweet film version of this novel, if one were made, and if Nicholson were on the market for an Oscar-worthy final role, a fitting sequel to "Five Easy Pieces" or "As Good as it Gets."

Lisa Selin Davis also has a poet's gift for language, and sentence by sentence there is always something memorable in every line, whether it is an unexpected metaphor or a new way to describe the seamy side of Saratoga Springs. She is a writer to watch out for.

In the middle of reading Belly I had the uneasy thought that Lisa Selin Davis, a woman I have never met, had written the story of my father's life. Belly O'Leary, the main character, returns home to Saratoga Springs in upstate New York. Belly served four years in jail for taking bets in his bar, an ironic crime considering the proximity of the famous racetrack and the plethora of OTB outlets scattered throughout New York. You can place a bet, you just can't do it in a bar.

Belly's reentry ordeal rivals anything NASA might offer a returning astronaut. Belly cannot and will not accept the diminished state of his life, his prospects, or his hometown. His daughter, Nora, his probation officer, grandkids, ex-wife, and mysterious mistress Loretta form an archipelago of failure, living reminders of Belly's shortcomings as a person, a father and husband. Through epic bouts of drinking Belly darkly pursues the ghost of his third daughter, long since dead. He is certain that Loretta will return to him, flush with their loot from the bookmaking, lifting him from the grasp of big box employment, the straight life, a nightmare of routine and regimen too harrowing to consider.

The author lets Belly run, but always keeps the hook in his mouth, the hopes and schemes, and the rage that fuels him. "Are you through ruining my party yet?" his grandson asks after a disaster at a confirmation party. The boy asks the question that everyone wants the answer to, certainly Nora whose house becomes the eye of the storm once her father arrives. Though exiled to the attic Belly prefers passing out on the living room couch where family members discover him the morning after. Belly is as startled as they are by the dimensions of his predicament. Only Loretta, the woman of his dreams, can release him from delusions of restoration, that time has stood still pending his release from jail. Equipped with memories both vivid and highly suspect, Belly weaves a universe of possibilities. When reality intrudes, he is forced to acknowledge that the idealized past was not much better than the dismal present.
Ms. Davis wraps things up with a metaphorical reference to a childhood trauma, one that is appropriate to the circumstance. Belly is a superb novel, one I highly recommend.

It's August 2001 in Saratoga Springs, Florida. It's hot and fifty-nine-year-old Belly O'Leary is being released from prison. He was sentenced six years for illegal gambling in his establishment, The War Bar; but got off early after four years for good behaviour.

Lisa Selin Davis' debut novel gives a peek into the life of Belly O'Leary during the week following his release. Despite being a proud Catholic, he's an "adulterer, gambler, liar, abuser, lazy drunk" and a terrible father. Throughout his reintegration into society Belly thinks only about how everything relates to him. His own self importance prevents him from connecting with his children, who desperately want a father, and getting to know his grandkids. He sees himself as their hero and can't figure out why they don't.

Davis' book reads like Belly has been in jail for 10-15 years instead of 4. Belly goes on and one about how this building or business has gone and this has been replaced by that. Especially his bar being replaced by the yuppie Cafe Newton. All of these endless changes really did not make sense to me and it was not until the end I realized why. Before prison, Belly wasn't present in his own life. He was blind to everything except, drinking and gambling and having sex with his mistress. In the end he comes to this realization. Jail was literally his wake up call.

Belly's story is an excellent example of how we can take the people around us and our surroundings for granted. Life keeps going on whether we pay attention or not. Davis is very subtle. Her prose is clean, smooth and to the point. Only once I was thrown off when she talked about the "gurgling" fat under someone's arms.

I really hated this book most of the way through, correction, I really hated Belly. He's not a likeable guy. I constantly fought with putting the book down for good or reading until its conclusion. With the last few chapters everything falls into place, if you're watching. Having finished it, I'm pleased I stayed around for the whole ride.

My take on BELLY is very different from the other reviews on this site. Lisa Selin Davis' first attempt at a novel claims in the liner notes that she's a professor of creative writing. Which makes sense because she writes like someone who teaches other people how to write. Each word has been selected for a very precise reason to send a certain message, and each word drowns out the ones around it. The funny thing is I read an online interview with Davis where she claimed to be caught up reading Hemingway while writing this book. Her end result is about as far from Hemingway's tight crisp prose as a writer could get. The grammar is 100% correct and it is devoid of any real emotion or sensation.

The plot never develops. It moves along at a snail's pace with none of the characters making any notable progress on their journey.

The central character of the book is one William O'Leary, known about town simply as `Belly'. He's been in jail for the past four years for running an illegal gambling service out of his bar. Now that he's out he expects to reclaim his former position with the powers that run the town of Saratoga Springs. Instead, in his first week of freedom he ends up an outcast in his town and a stranger to his family.

His family has potential for bringing out the story the Belly is trying to tell. One daughter who has a house full of boys with another on the way, a husband that works more than he's home, and a non-affair with her high school sweetheart agrees to let her father live with them. Another is in a bad marriage and about to move to Alabama to study the art of binding books. One is a television news reporter in New York, but her lesbian `friend' is living in his old house. The forth has been dead since before Belly went to jail, and is still by far his favorite. Each of them has a separate dysfunction and multiple issues to deal with. Yet none of them really come into full form.

Belly is not a nice guy. In fact, he's the kind of guy that gives a bad name to all men everywhere. It would be wrong to describe him as the hero of this book and the term anti-hero doesn't really fit either. He's a drunk that used to hit his wife and kids. He cheated on his wife for sport. His home town has been overtaken by Wal-Mart and chains of coffee shops that he refuses to acknowledge. He got into the book making racket to please a mistress, then gave her all of his hidden cash before he went to jail. Belly was having sex with his mob mistress when his daughter died in a car accident. He steals a truck and some cash from his daughter. He ruins his grandson's confirmation party. But his biggest crime is that he can't even manage to have a decent enough epiphany to give this book a meaningful climax.

The ending, where all the tension and emotion should crash together to change the central character is weak and stereotypical. There is no real life changing moment, no point that the reader can look to and say `he'll be different now.' This book was full of potential and just enough came out at key times to make you want to keep reading. Too bad that none of it was realized enough to make Belly a satisfying read.

I can't bring myself to recommend this book. Davis come off as a man-hater that shows all men as abusive to women on some level, and all women as sage and wise in subtle ways that the men around them are too dull to understand. BELLY needed more work before being published. Maybe a good creative writing teacher could have fixed it.

"Belly" O'Leary is coming home to Saratoga Springs after four years in prison on charges of running a gambling operation in Florida. And life in his old hometown has changed drastically.

Those fancy-dancy coffee outlets are everywhere; a new WalMart has opened; democrats are in charge of city hall; and those he thought to be his friends have all but left the area or shrugged him off. It's enough to drive a 60-year-old man crazy! Or at least into the home of one of his kids.

Nora is one of Belly's three surviving children. She has two boys who are handfuls, and a husband who's never home. Now she has to take on a third child, ala Belly, her father. He's a drinking, abusive, stubborn, and contradictory person (just like a two-year-old, but without the beer breath.)

Nora's house and Belly's past are like a match and a stick of dynamite. One is bound to eventually find the other.

Or are they?

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Author Lisa Selin Davis, a confessed creative writing teacher, debuts with a strong narrative novel right out of the shoot. Her prose is often times beautifully flowing if a bit wordy. But she does get the reader right to the heart of the matter, showing us this dysfunctional family in a very intimate way.

I had a really hard time rating this book, but settled on four stars because it was just an easy read and had some excellent dialogue and descriptions.

But there were problems, the most notable of which was the simple fact that Belly spent only four years in prison, but exclaims on all the changes to "his town" after his release. This bothered me quite a bit because things don't change that much in four years.

The ending, too, is a bit of a let-down, as there is no great message or changes noted in any of the characters. They just ...are.

Still, the book's an enjoyable read from a prose standpoint. Now Ms. Davis just needs to learn a bit more on plotting and finishing.