Customer Reviews

The Lisa Diaries: Four Years in the Sex Life of Lisa Carver and Company

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We who use the internet are used to the concept of weblogs, on-line diaries made public day by day, often with a political or other agenda. Reaching back into history as far as 1999, predating most "blogs," was the work of Lisa Carver, who wrote "The Lisa Diaries" for Nerve.com, an enthusiastic and serious adult site that even has a mission statement. The statement begins, "We have created Nerve because we think sex is beautiful and absurd, remarkably fun and reliably trauma-inducing." Lisa's work fit into that mission perfectly, and her column became the most read part of Nerve. From 1999 to 2001 she wrote about her sexual activities, which included meeting Dave, falling in love with him, marrying him, and negotiating her way around an open marriage to keep it from falling apart. Now the diary entries along with earlier material have been published as _The Lisa Diaries: 4 Years in the Sex Life of Lisa Carver and Company_ (Black Books). It is frank, funny, and sometimes even moving. Lisa is actually a nice woman, out for a good time, and she enjoys the complications that this can cause. She writes of the marriage, "Ours is a tale of marital problems and solutions, just with a few more penises and vaginas than usual." Tellingly, the solutions are practical and rather sweet.

This is because Dave and Lisa really do have a high regard for each other, which shows through all her adventures. Lisa never tried anonymity, so Dave from the beginning knew he would be a subject in a public diary. Lisa has a rule of not having sex with her readers: "I feel like they would be too busy imagining how they'd be written up while we did it." Like most rules, it is one Lisa likes breaking. She had a contest among her readers, a multiple choice test of math and history questions, and the prize was to have sex with her and Dave. There are no entries in etiquette books to cover this sort of circumstance, Lisa handled it all with aplomb and good humor. In another adventure, Lisa sends Dave into a brothel for some R & R, and when Dave explains to the woman, "My wife sent me in here. She thought it would be fun," he got the reply, "Oh, well... huh, I guess if that works for you..." Lisa remarks, "A prostitute disapproved of our lifestyle!"

These adventures are shared between Dave and Lisa with considerable boldness. They trust one another, and get permission from one another to do naughty things, and if they can't get permission, they nicely refrain. Lisa likes doing outrageous things, but there is a sweetness here communicated in the middle of a lot of outrageous adventures. She knows that sleeping with someone else is different from loving that person: "... it would be wrong to let someone else borrow Dave's space in my heart, even for a minute." Or: "[Dave's] always right there, when I can't even go on a date without thinking about him." Lisa did not set out to write a didactic work, but there are good lessons here: "Anonymous sex or competitive sex never brings you the awareness of life that comes with love." Readers should be willing to accept that as true, since it comes from one who has enough experience to know. But readers will also be glad Lisa has written about all those other kinds of sex as well. This is an exuberant work from a woman with an original voice and an enthusiasm for oddity and novelty, but also, quite charmingly, for kindness and love.

It would be easy to label Lisa Carver as a younger smarter better looking female Charles Bukowski and that would not be such a bad thing for either party. However, while Bukowski was summed up as simply a filthy old man, Carver is a filthy young woman and SO MUCH MORE. Her diary entries are a bit perverted, sure, but they are also smart and well written and ultimately, quite touching. The Lisa Diaries is a wonderful read which can be harkened back to at one's leisure when one wants to laugh anew at the stuff that made one laugh in the first place. It's re-readable. Carver deserves to be read seriously while laughing uncontrollably.

Lisa Carver is back! This time she regales tales of her liasons and eventual marriage. As usual, she's hilarious. This book will make you laugh out loud. It's bawdy-- be forewarned--and brilliant. Buy this if you love: humor, sexiness, underground flavor, punkdom, music, life, and madness.

An observant woman of wit, humor, and incite. Her writing is organically urban in the Dover sense where all the people are on a stage in an empty movie house. She will become your hero. March on, baby.

I read The Lisa Diaries, just recently published by Black Books.

It's funny smart, entertaining and thought provoking. Great stories all true that make you laugh and learn too.

I recommend this book for men, and women. A long book but a very easy read w/ great photos & and a killer design with visual overtones with a diary theme.

You can open up to any page and get totally involved. Very entertaining. Lisa is exceptionally smart, and funny as hell.

If so, if you are a reader of her columns in Nerve.com then you should love this book. Its very much in line with her writing there but simply collected together in a chronological fashion. However, if you don't know who she is, I'm not sure you'll be that interested in her life. We are tossed into her life, given little background so if you don't find sexual autobiographies all that interesting... A must have for Carver fans but for the rest, borrow a copy first or check out her other work before you invest.

I inadvertantly gave this seller a "fair" review,,,I thought I was giving the review for a textbook I'd ordered online through amazon that came brand new as ordered but the binding was compressed and the book corners were bent in due to the shipping pckg not being sturdy enough for the weight of the book,,,(they should have put it in a box),,,anyway that's who I thought I was leaving the review for,,,but I was in fact leaving a review for this seller who emailed me wanting to "make it right" by re-sending another copy,,,and he was apologetic and compassionate about this issue,,,anyway my mistake was quickly realized and I removed the review for this seller,,,that was yesterday and there was not an option to re-submit a new review till today so (happily) here I am,,,giving the best review I've had the privilage of giving thus far for a seller on amazon,,,I received my purchase mailed from Hawaii in 5 days in perfect shape and I'm here in Clev. OH,,,my gratitude to you sir for your kindness and thoughtfullness,,,thank-you! :),,,regards,,,Michael