The Easy Hour: A Novel of Leisure [Paperback]

Leslie Stella (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 2003

Welcome to the “Easy” life!

When overworked, underpaid women’s wear retail slave Lisa Galisa (the rhyming name is only the beginning of her agonies) suddenly becomes the personal assistant to an infamous Chicago socialite, she accidentally, hilariously, becomes the toast of the town. Catapulted into the role of trendsetter, this frustrated working-class girl seizes the opportunity to unleash some South Side mayhem on a gullible society that hungrily embraces the next “new thing.”

Lisa offers them the “Easy” lifestyle, encouraging her new crowd to shake it up and party alongside janitors, fry cooks, and bricklayers. Soon she has the upper crust patronizing dive bars, wearing cheddar-hued polyester, and grooving to the bewitchingly canned melodies of easy listening—the emperor’s new music. And the social set is having it.

But as the Bridgeport-born-and-raised charlatan begins to buy into her own fraud, longing to leave behind the land of retail hell and Polish “saah-sidges” for life among the beau monde, her eccentric family and a mysteriously handsome janitor with a penchant for astronomy dip into their own bag of tricks to keep her on the right side of sanity, if on the wrong side of the tracks.

Join Lisa Galisa and the rest of these charming oddballs at the Easy Hour, where they find the best remedy for a hard existence is a little easy listening.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Like her first novel, Fat Bald Jeff, Stella's sophomore effort is a comedy of working life. Lisa Galisa (yes, it rhymes) sells sportswear at Chicago's Fishman's Department Store, where she seems destined never to earn the coveted brown senior salesperson name tag. She does get to play Maria Callas as part of a storewide Greek Islands marketing theme (catering to "the shipping magnate in all men"), just what she needs to take her mind off being mocked in print by society columnist Babbington Hawkes, just because she threw up on him at socialite Honey Dietrich's Halloween party (to which the Fishman's staff is always invited, in exchange for keeping quiet about Honey's penchant for buying half-price irregulars). Her luck changes, however, when her friend Fred Wysocki asks her to help launch a retro-themed "Easy Hour" that evokes 1960s jet-set decadence at the tavern that his Korean-Polish family runs in the working class neighborhood of Bridgeport, where Lisa grew up. The Easy Hour becomes a hit with Bridgeport locals and high society alike. Honey hires Lisa to be her personal assistant, and soon Lisa is planning an Easy Christmas party for the social set. She's also falling in love with science teacher Ray Fuchet (yes, it rhymes), who works as a Fishman's janitor during the teachers' strike and plays Aristotle Onassis to her Callas. The funny, raffish Lisa is a more likable, less self-absorbed heroine than the one in Stella's debut, and this sparkling novel probes the humiliations and class divisions of the workplace with intelligence and wit. FYI: Stella was a founding editor of the political and cultural zine Lumpen, well known in the Chicago area.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

“Laugh? I nearly wet my Pucci pant-suit. And I’m sending Leslie Stella the dry-cleaning bill.” —Adèle Lang, New York Times bestselling author of Confessions of a Sociopathic Social Climber

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 265 pages
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press; 1 edition (April 22, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609809725
• ISBN-13: 978-0609809723
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,512,972 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost TOO hilarious, June 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: The Easy Hour: A Novel of Leisure (Paperback)

This is another well-written, witty "rage-against-the-machine" novel by the super-talented author, Leslie Stella. If you enjoyed her first book, "Fat Bald Jeff", you know what I am talking about and you'll adore this one as well. Stella's writing and characters have really grown since the first book. Sentence after sentence is jam-packed with humor. Guaranteed, you'll laugh out loud reading this one, too.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Smartest Chic Lit EVER, April 2, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Easy Hour: A Novel of Leisure (Paperback)

All you Bridget Jones fans, prepare to meet Lisa Galisa!! This book is HILARIOUS and smart and fun. Leslie Stella knows how to tell a story that hooks you right in. From the amazingly creative setting of Fishman's department store to the subplot of Lisa's friend Tim's job, you finish the book (in too short a time!) and want MORE. And anyone from Chicago will love reading her takes on our cultural rituals.

Read this and pass it on!!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Just Another Fun Novel, July 7, 2003

By 

Colette von Hessen "Colette von Hessen" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Easy Hour: A Novel of Leisure (Paperback)

I became acquainted with Leslie Stella's work when she submitted one of the best short stories my magazine had received all year (look for it in the Fall 2003 issue of THE ADIRONDACK REVIEW, as well as an interview with the author). Since the story was serious and literary in nature, I was unsure how I would react to THE EASY HOUR. It sounded fun, but would it be worthwhile? I wasn't sure. Let me tell you that it was difficult to put down. EASY's protagonist, Lisa Galisa, had me unsure if I was going to like her or be annoyed by her in the beginning -- but as she grew as a person, she grew on me.

I thought the characters were very well developed, and I could easily see this book becoming a movie. It has all the right elements: great plot twists, lovable eccentric sidekicks (and not overdone!), a fast pace, and tons of charm and wit. It had humorous moments -- perhaps not of the knee-slapping variety, but the kind that makes you smile a lot, and wish the book would last just a few more days.

This book has a lot of insight, much more than the blurbs might have you believe. It's not just a fun novel. You'll see more underneath, subtly spelled out in Stella's refreshingly non-preachy manner. Frankly, although I already very much believed in Ms. Stella's capacity as a writer, I just wasn't sure if I would be able to relate to the setting and characters since they were so far removed from my own life and I usually find these kinds of characters annoying, petty, and predictable. In the end, it's what made this whole book so enjoyable -- getting into someone else's world and being able to indentify with someone you thought you would neither be able to nor particularly want to. Lisa Galisa is a sympathetic character and you find yourself rooting for her most of the time, yet she is still human, which makes her both more and less attractive as a person. Her sister, a McDonald's worker-turned-pet-psychic, is particularly gentle and quirky. Her stereotypically gay friend, Tim, is portrayed well as her "best friend," but the nature of their relationship is brought under the light at one point and forces Lisa to wonder how close she really is to him, and why they are friends in the first place.

I very much enjoy Leslie Stella's style of writing: she is witty, highly observant, as all good writers are, and compassionate while retaining subtlety throughout. I warmly recommend this book and look forward to reading Ms. Stella's next novel.