Lizard Wine [Paperback]

Elizabeth Engstrom (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2001

Three drifters meet up with three coeds out looking for a good time. A snowstorm slams them together in a deserted campground high in the Cascade mountains. Over the course of the night, each is forced to take a long look at who they really are and where they are headed. Not all elect to survive.

An internationally-acclaimed thriller.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Lizard wine is a metaphor for the unpleasant, self-defeating things we sometimes do because we think they offer a way out of life's trap. This intense, violent novel is about three female college students who meet up with three male drifters and their unfolding stories during a long, cold night in Oregon. What's remarkable is that although each character is nailed by circumstance with the bare implications of being either a man or a woman, the predator-prey roles are unpredictable, and for each person, their unique character is the ultimate determinant of their destiny. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Engstrom writes a dark, disturbing story about six misfits who endure a terrifying road trip. Rebecca, Tulie, and Elise, students at the University of Oregon, decide to drive to the resort town of Bend to drink, dance, and investigate the "possibilities" at a local cowboy bar. Meanwhile, odd-job laborers and social outcasts Songster, Niles, and Buck are at loose ends and decide to spend the night camping out in Buck's car. When the girls' car breaks down in the middle of a storm, they hike to the campground to find a phone and encounter the three men. Buck manages to fix the car, but Tulie decides to stay behind while Rebecca and Elise go on to Bend. The girls' harrowing adventures at the cowboy bar are almost as frightening as what happens to Tulie at the campsite. None of the six emerges from the horrifying, violent night untouched or unchanged. Like so many recent books and movies, Engstrom's novel paints a sordid, sensational, and thoroughly grim--but nonetheless powerful and deeply affecting--picture of contemporary society. A mesmerizing read with an unsettling undercurrent of violence. Emily Melton --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: TripleTree Publishing (March 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966627210
• ISBN-13: 978-0966627213
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,268,704 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elizabeth (Liz) Engstrom grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois (a Chicago suburb where she lived with her father) and Kaysville, Utah (north of Salt Lake City, where she lived with her mother). After graduating from high school in Illinois, she ventured west in a serious search for acceptable weather, eventually settling in Honolulu. She attended college and worked as an advertising copywriter.

After eight years on Oahu, she moved to Maui, found a business partner and opened an advertising agency. One husband, two children and five years later, she sold the agency to her partner and had enough seed money to try her hand at full time fiction writing, her lifelong dream. With the help of her mentor, science fiction great Theodore Sturgeon, When Darkness Loves Us was published.

Engstrom moved to Eugene, Oregon in 1986, where she lives with her husband Al Cratty, the legendary muskie fisherman, and their Duck Tolling Retriever, Jook. Liz holds a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing and a Master of Arts in Applied Theology, both from Marylhurst University. A recluse at heart, she still emerges into public occasionally to speak at a writers conference, or to teach a class on various aspects of writing the novel, essay, article or short story. An avid knitter and gardener, she is on faculty at the University of Phoenix and is always working on the next book. Learn more at www.elizabethengstrom.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Unpredictable and Almost Believable, May 8, 2002

By 

Gregory Bascom (San Jose Costa Rica) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Lizard Wine (Paperback)

The lives of six troubled, insecure protagonists, and one author, converge during a snowstorm in this suspense thriller. Their current situation is enticingly unpredictable and believable, except for the concatenation of bad choices made by everyone. But we learn that is to be expected, given the tragic or pitiful backgrounds of each character, which the author intertwines, one at a time, with the current story.

It is an ambitious endeavor, handling six POV's, since each of their backstories has enough psychosis or twisted irony to warrant a separate novel. The author solves her problem by condensing the six histories to pivotal events, and clearly stating the lessons unlearned. She wraps up her plot in a similar manner, making certain that her readers will not have compassion for any of her sorry characters.

I did find the suspenseful wait for the next typo invigorating, however.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful surprise, July 7, 1998

By 

[e-mail] (Ian Mond) (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lizard Wine (Paperback)

This was my first taste of Elizabeth Engstrom and now I can't wait to read more of her work. What I found fascinating about Lizard wine was that it used character to drive the plot, rather then the plot highlighting the characters. The story is dark, disturbing and atmospheric; you even feel the freezing cold weather, shivering side by side with the characters. This is a wonderful book and I heartily recommend it, especially if yiu enjoy reading something that delves straight into a characters heart and tell us something about ourselves and the people around us.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lizard Wine is a Disturbing Classic, April 1, 2003

By 

Jennifer Tyree (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lizard Wine (Paperback)

Three down on their luck buddies spend their last bit of money on gin and head into the mountains, on an ill-equipped, spur of the moment camping trip. Confined to the car by the October weather, they begin to reveal themselves to each other, discovering that perhaps they're not such tight friends after all.
Three co-eds from the local university get dressed up and head to a mountain cowboy bar, to generate some interest and perhaps some income. But their car breaks down outside a closed mountian campground. Arguing and unsettled, the three girls enter the deserted campground looking for a phone,and finding the three heated men instead.
One girl un wisely elects to stay with the men rather than go along with the other girls, and a women in the close confined car is exactley what the men don't need. Explosive tension builds with the addition of the sexual energy and the tequila she adds to fuel their fire.
The two girls get their car started and begin their own horrible adventure, and when they eventually run, wounded, scared, and dangerous back to the camp ground to get their friend, what they find is not exactly what they expected.
Lizard Wine is a disturbing classic. With a true literary voice, Elizabeth Engstorm details the madness of human relationships. Reading this book is like sitting in a snow bounded car with three very dangerous men and three vulnerable young women, and watching in thrall as the balance of power trades hands through the night. But the truth is every decision seems reasonible, every step conceivable, you can imagine yourself in the situation, and as it all goes sour, and you keep trying to find ways for everyone to escape. Engstorm involves her readers equally with the pitiful and the pitiless, and as the sun rises on the living and the dead, we close this novel reminded that we can make our lives, or our lives can make us.