Monkey Girl (Swingin' Tales)

In her first collection of short stories, celebrated spoken-word artist Beth Lisick evokes the rollicking world of post-boom America. An impoverished but proud office drone ("I am the reigning queen of the Toshiba BD copy machine") gets a makeover. A teenager is drugged by her fraudulent, sadistic orthodontist. On a five-hour flight to Cabo San Lucas, the author psychically bonds with a flight attendant. In this collection of 25 hilarious, anecdotal short stories, spoken-word performer Beth Lisick creates a panoramic tapestry of strip malls, junk-food habits, and yuppie pickup joints, unveiling a world that most of us simply drive past. Blending the everyday and its sometimes grotesque underside, hallucinatory detail, and stripped-down dialogue, Lisick's descriptions are almost hypnotic with their complex rhythms and cadences. These stories - all of which Beth Lisick uses in performance - imbue the ordinary with unique and unexpected hilarity. Striking, witty, and vividly contemporary, these stories evoke what it's like to live now, in the suburban wasteland of the '90s.