The Second Elizabeth [Paperback]

Karen Lillis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 9, 2009

Fiction. The story begins when Elizabeth encounters Beth, her new neighbor and coworker, whose resilience and originality awaken a memory of a younger self. THE SECOND ELIZABETH is a densely poetic meditation on love and language, Virginia and virginity, loss and longing, trauma and recovery. In lush, obsessive text the novel reveals the bonds of female experience, the politics of naming, and the sensuality of nature. As in her novel I, SCORPION (2000) Lillis uses the device of a double to great effect, to describe the nuances and contradictions of a woman's experience. "Karen E. Lillis writes with a cadence and a rhythm that are hypnotic...[The Second Elizabeth] celebrates what my theologian father called `the mystery in the ordinary" Eckhard Gerdes, Journal of Experimental Fiction.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

About the author. Karen Lillis is the author of the poetry chapbooks, VIRGINIA IS FOR LOVERS and GENTRIFY MY LOVE, and three titles of experimental prose, including the underground novel, I, SCORPION: FOUL BELLY-CRAWLER OF THE DESERT (Words Like Kudzu, 2000) and the illustrated novella, MAGENTA'S ADVENTURES UNDERGROUND (WLK, 2004). Her work was recently included in the collection, WRECKAGE OF REASON: AN ANTHOLOGY OF CONTEMPORARY XXPERIMENTAL PROSE BY WOMEN WRITERS (Spuyten Duyvil Press, 2008). She has read her work extensively across America and has been a writer-in-residence at Shakespeare and Co. in Paris.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Six Gallery Press (April 9, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0978296214
• ISBN-13: 978-0978296216
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,697,049 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Karen Lillis was born in Washington, D.C. during the Vietnam War and has lived in Virginia, New York, Austin, Paris, and Pittsburgh. A novelist, a freelance writer, and a small press blogger, she is the author of four books of fiction: the novels "The Second Elizabeth" (Six Gallery Press, 2009) and "i, scorpion" (Words Like Kudzu Press, 2000); and the novellas "Watch the Doors as they Close" (Spuyten Duyvil, 2012) and [under the pseudonym Carol Lewis] "Magenta's Adventures Underground" (Words Like Kudzu with New York Nights, 2004). She has written for Art Papers, The Austin Chronicle, Big News, Keyhole Magazine, New Art Examiner, New York Nights, Pulse/Berlin, Southern Quarterly, Verdure Magazine, and Undie Press, among others. She is currently at work on a book of nonfiction, "Bagging the Beats at Midnight" about her years as a bookstore clerk. Her micro-fiction story, "The Walker" was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2010, and her article on the independent presses of Pittsburgh was a finalist for a Golden Quill Press Award in 2007. She blogs at Karen the Small Press Librarian and she is the creator of the online literary portal, Small Press Pittsburgh.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Second Elizabeth --First Rate!, February 11, 2009

By 

Linda Haberman "Lin Haberman" (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The Second Elizabeth (Paperback)

The voice in this book is beautiful---mesmerizing--spellbinding--and soothing. The sheer poetry of the voice--draws you in on this wonderful journey--a search for identity and the meaning of life. You want to meet this author and say--yes, I get it..I am so there with you!

This book isn't for everyone--some people may not allow themselves to be 'carried away'. If you are looking for something different..a new voice..this is it!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A novel for anyone who believes in the power of friendship, February 6, 2009

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Second Elizabeth (Paperback)

There is very little bond stronger than friendship. "The Second Elizabeth" is a novel discussing the relationship between two women friends as their platonic bond greatly benefits both of their lives. With a strong influence of poetry, Lillis crafts a complex and moving story that many women will relate to when discussing their true best friends in life. Moving and inspiring, "The Second Elizabeth" is a novel for anyone who believes in the power of friendship.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful!, September 22, 2009

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NYC Reader (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Second Elizabeth (Paperback)

One summer in Charlottesville, Virginia, two girls paint graffiti on a train: Karen Lillis's debut novel, THE SECOND ELIZABETH, is as much an adventure in language as it is the story of one young woman teaching another how to take up space in the world. Lillis's use of language, her intricate coaxing repetitions and variations, reveal startling, luminous, and durable dimensions to everyday phenomena: a deli job, a suburban street, a middle initial.

Lillis withholds the language of hero-worship from the rock stars of this world and reserves it for an ordinary young woman just a little bit more self-possessed than the speaker. She uses the language of poetry to hallow overlooked, everyday experience. In both of these choices, THE SECOND ELIZABETH reflects the feminist, DIY bent of the small publishing outfit Lillis founded, Words Like Kudzu Press. "Considered by most a tiresome weed," Lillis explains on the Words Like Kudzu MySpace page, "kudzu is a beautiful deep-green plant which could cover a building, say an eyesore of a modern building, in three days. (Consider it.)"

Sweaty, swooning, hypnotic, hopeful, and honest, THE SECOND ELIZABETH tells the story of how its speaker gropes her way from loneliness toward connection and joy in imagery as ordinary and miraculous as kudzu in its beauty and its power.