A la Cart: The Secret Lives of Grocery Shoppers (Hardcover)

by Hillary Carlip (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Ever since she was a teenager, performance artist and author Carlip (Queen of the Oddballs: And Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan) has been collecting strangers' lost shopping lists and imaging the lives and people behind them. With the help of expertly applied makeup and outlandish costumes, Carlip has turned herself into the men and women that she imagined. From a wife-seeking, Fu Manchu–mustached redneck to an octogenarian stand-up comic, a washed-up lesbian rock star to a 20-something goth boy, Carlip takes inspiration from both the mundane—potatoes—and the disturbing—mousetraps, cheese, mouse. The 26 vivid photographic portraits and accompanying narratives display the author's humor, grace and a brilliantly creative eye. Carlip's alter egos are larger than life and twice as entertaining. Fans of Sloane Tanen's Bitter with Baggage Seeks Same should flock to this hilarious, delightful, unique achievement. (Mar.)
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From Booklist
Carlip, the self-described “queen of the oddballs” (from the title of her acclaimed memoir), draws on her love of story, passion for performance and transformation, eye for found art, and gift for comedic and empathic improvisation in a unique portrait gallery. A populist Cindy Sherman, an American Tracey Ullman, a female Eddie Murphy, and a disciple of Lily Tomlin, Carlip used her quirky collection of discarded shopping lists as inspiration for 26 characters, assuming the identity of men and women shoppers of various ages, backgrounds, and preoccupations. Carlip poses with great verve in brightly colored store aisles as Kim, a leathery biker momma grasping a bottle of Jack Daniels, her shopping list a tattered piece of red paper with “Jimmy Den” and “soda” crossed off and “Liqor” written assertively four times. Then there’s supermom June and her meticulously typed list for her Tourette’s-afflicted son’s birthday party; flannel-shirt-wearing, Fu Manchued Woody; tattooed punk pinup Heather; and lonely healthy-eater Fran. Each of Carlip’s ingeniously composed, funny, and insightful vignettes is a microcosm of struggle and hope. --Donna Seaman

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Virgin Books (March 18, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905264178
• ISBN-13: 978-1905264179
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #44,999 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pinnacle of Performance Art, April 19, 2008

By	Grady Harp (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Hillary Carlip is first and foremost a comedienne as her previous 'autobiographical' book QUEEN OF THE ODDBALLS confirmed. But at the heart of comedy is tragedy, something every fine writer of comedy understands, and it is that turn of words that makes a potentially tragic story the seed of comedy. In her newest book A LA CART: THE SECRET LIVES OF GROCERY SHOPPERS Carlip has selected the idea of exploring the creators of random shopping lists found in markets, parking lots, and other unlikely places and from these tidbits of notations she has created the persons who wrote them - which turns out to be twenty six individuals whose lives become the matrix for Carlip to bring to the performance stage of this book. Each character is imagined with insight and sensitivity and then physically transformed into a 'real person' by the actress Carlip and her crew of makeup artist, costume designer, and, very importantly, her photographer, Barbara Green.

In this very well-designed book are images of the found lists, the 'characters' who wrote them as impersonated by Carlip and photographed by Green in the marketplaces the characters might have used, accompanied by a short story about each person, written with great skill and humor and pathos by Carlip. It is a 'compleat' experience as we are allowed to meet each of the 26 list writers, people who range from hookers, to porn stars, to teenagers, to coupon clipping ex-quilter Helen, a street person, a therapist who is clearly out of joint, to Latinas with oddly utilized cafés or frustrated careers as airline hostesses, Latinos of varying sexual persuasion - the list is so varied that it includes men and women whose lives at first seem comical, but whose emotional states are at times in tatters.

Carlip never fails to entertain with her multiple personalities, but she also follows the rule of comedy in sharing the humanity beneath the façade that allows us to laugh while we empathize with the potential sadness each character suggests. This is a beautiful little book, a delight to read, but one that offers some rich lessons in sociology and humanity. Hillary Carlip continues to prove that she is one of the more important messengers of comedy at work today! Grady Harp, April 08

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tell this secret!, March 28, 2008

By	Carolyn M. Mason (Tuscaloosa,, AL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Before I could even open my new copy of Hillary Carlip's , A La Cart, my 18 year-old daughter snatched it away and read it cover to cover. When I finally got it back, she hung over my shoulder as I read, laughing again at each character and their grocery list. The premise; make up characters based on their discarded grocery list and then have clever photographer shoot you playing all the characters.

One reason she likes it so much is because we've always played what we call "airport people." When we wait for our flight, we take turns making up bios about the people waiting around us.
We also grab left over grocery store lists from the bottom of random carts. We've just never put the two together. But we will now.

Her favorites: Darcy, the punker who grew up listening to The Dead Kennedy's and wants to be a comic book author.
Derrick, who listed, Mouse Traps, cheese and mouse on his post it note. Ooh,,the goth guy.
My fave: Lloyd, hunched over in his motorized wheelchair, trying to adjust to wife Sylvia's death and Woody who wrote: Coors and oreos on the inside of box of matches. Love THAT!
The photographer, Barbara Green, does an amazing job with each shot. Woody made the front cover with his package of Oreos. .

It's a fun, lively book, great gift for,,anyone, even jaded teenagers like mine.

I just wonder what Carlip would create from MY grocery list this week: Beer, bagels, bread, bacon and brownie mix.

My to do list: Get the Oddball book next.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hillar-IOUS! Ms. Carlip has done it again (maybe better this time)., April 9, 2008

By	Nanny Cahill "N. Cahill" (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews

I was a huge fan of Hillary Carlip's last book - "Queen of the Oddballs" - her insights and humor and compassion in her writing felt fresh and funny and very alive. I have to say I think she may have topped herself with 'A La Cart' . Who hasn't seen a grocery list and wondered the kind of person who wrote it?? Well, now we know. I don't know who I love more -- Graciela, June or Pammy. I confess Troy scares me just a little.

Hillary brings performance art to the pages with these brilliant characterizations and amazing photographs. This would make a great gift too. I'm just saying...