Other Fish In the Sea [Paperback]

Lisa Kusel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 3, 2003

In the style of The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing, interconnected stories about a restless and charming young woman looking for meaning and love.

Elly Fisher is searching for her place in the world and for the love of her life. Leading us through these 10 interconnected stories, Elly links one intimate tale to the next as she drifts through Europe, sleeps with a married man, tangles with a roommate from hell, creates a stir on a cattle ranch in Colorado, answers singles ads from a Seattle newspaper, and more.

Clever and original, Kusel offers readers a kaleidoscopic perspective of a young woman's life, told from many points of view and in the voices of several related characters. Each of the stories build upon one another to create an effect like that of a novel. What shines through is Elly's delightfully unique journey of self-discovery. Other Fish in the Sea is an intricate, involving, disarmingly funny, and powerfully personal work, in the tradition of Alice Munro and Lorrie Moore.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Elly Fisher, the central character in Kusel's debut collection of 10 linked stories, leads an active life of romantic adventure (mainly on the West Coast), but lacks insight or wit. In the first story, "Juvenile Hall," Elly shares uninspired entries from the diary she kept as an adolescent: "I went to the bus stop and talked to a really cute guy named Doug. He lives down the street from us. He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt and flip-flops." This passage's banality sets the tone for letters Elly later receives from boyfriends and a journal she keeps in her 20s. Traveling in Germany, she writes, "I'm hungry, but nobody speaks English, so I don't know how to order." In "Bars," the protagonist clingingly falls in love with a man seeking an independent woman; "Bones" finds her recalling her "almost love" affair with another woman. At book's end, Naomi, a bored new mother, finds Elly's diary at a garage sale, reads it, and tracks her down. Elly becomes Naomi's romantic guru and offers advice like "Just don't assume you should be looking for something you can't find right here." The book's patched-together structure and shallow characters make for a disappointing first effort.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Kusel's debut falls halfway between a novel and a story collection; Elly Fisher figures into all 10 stories in some way or another, but she's not always the central character. Elly's intense search for love is always a factor in the stories, whether she's bemoaning a recent break-up or pursuing a new conquest. In "Prairie Dogs," Lydia, a young woman who has been hired to paint a mural at a rich senator's ranch, watches as Elly waltzes in and flirts with Wade, the man she has a crush on. Wade just happens to be the brother of the man who brought Elly to the ranch in the first place. Tom, a researcher at the San Diego Zoo, becomes infatuated with Elly until he learns firsthand how clingy she can be, in "Bars." In the final story, "The Other Side," a young mother finds Elly's diary from her postcollegiate European trip and goes to meet the older, possibly wiser Elly. An intriguing look at a young woman's quest for fulfillment, love, and maturity. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; 1 edition (September 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786888024
• ISBN-13: 978-0786888023
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,839,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Lisa was born in New Jersey two miles from where Thomas Alva Edison first recorded sound; in fact she and her adolescent peers would often be found lounging beneath the art deco tower that was built in his honor, making-out or puffing on stolen cigarettes. Just as Lisa was getting comfortable wearing bold-colored maxi skirts, her parents moved her and her two brothers to California, where she quickly adapted to making out and smoking cigarettes on the beach instead.
She went to college and studied biology. She went to graduate school and studied anthropology, both fields providing exceptionally useless fodder for gainful employment. After years of writing copy for non-profits, selling surplus cosmetics in Russia, and living off rich married men, she accepted an editorial position at that little-known Open Office competitor, Microsoft. There she created MATTER, the company's first online magazine read by the 34 people who were patient enough to wait the twelve minutes it took the GIF's to download through their 56K modems.
She got married. Left Microsoft. Went to Africa. Moved back to California. Wrote a book of interconnected short stories about a girl looking for true love. Found an agent who sold it for shitloads of money. Had a baby. Wrote another novel about a ménage a trois gone bad. Wrote another one after that about WWII. Then she moved to Bali to save her wounded marriage.
She presently lives in Vermont, where she is writing a book about All Of The Above.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I know Ms. Kusel wasn't aiming for me as a reader, but..., December 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Other Fish In the Sea (Paperback)

as a 40-year old male, I found this book an excellent ride.

Funny, insightful, and a clever use of personal letters to say so much about a character without having to come right out and say it.

Travel, strange dreams, and love in a dentist chair -- what more does a book need? Oh yeah, good creative writing and it has that, too!

I'm looking forward to another dozen hours of fun with Lisa Kusel's next book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUTSTANDING give us more, September 27, 2003

By 

Sophia M (Irvine, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Other Fish In the Sea (Paperback)

This is my first review on a book, and the only thing I can say is Lisa Kusel has done an outstanding job with "other fish in the Sea". WOW I haven't read a book written in this manner, the short stories, the view points from other people in Elly's life, everything that she goes though, the people that touched her life. I was truly moved by this book, if truth be told people men or women can relate to everything Elly goes though. I can't tell you which chapter was my favor because there isn't one. The editorial review done on this book couldn't be more WRONG, this book is about what really men and women go though heart breaks, happiness, lose, things that regular people go thorugh to find love and themselves. All of my male friends like "other Fish" to I highly recommend this book. I can't wait for the next book by Ms. Kusel

5.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good!, June 28, 2005

By 

Cynthia "Books Are Like Shoes" (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Other Fish In the Sea (Paperback)

I was surprised how much I liked this book. Its a collection of 10 stories that all have the same character, a woman named Elly. Usually I don't really like short stories or a book comprised of a collection of stories. Its just by the time I get to know & enjoy the characters, background, and the plot, the story ends. They're just too short! Hence the definition of a short story.

I liked how some stories centered around Elly and in some stories Elly was a secondary character. My two favorite stories were "Praire Dogs and "Other Fish in the Sea." I liked the character "Praire Dogs" focused on, a young artist named Lydia. I think it would be neat if the author decided to write another book similar to this one but use the character of Lydia as the common thread connecting all the short stories.