Monkey Girl: Swingin' Tales Book

I loved Lisick's memoir, Everybody Into the Pool, in part because it's one of the few'perhaps the only'memoirs I've read that depicts a funny, weird, messed-up adult without pinning all those traits on a fucked-up, miserable childhood (No, look, my childhood is the MOST miserable! See how miserable it was? Wallow in the shit of my childhood a little more, plz).

ANYWAY...Lisick didn't do that! (Although Pool does contain a hilarious and squirm-worthy incident involving, um. Shit.) But I digress, as I'm actually supposed to be talking about Monkey Girl, her earlier collection of short stories/spoken word-type stuff. The idea of "spoken word" usually makes me cringe (that's not what I go to bars or coffee shops for, okay?) but as I said, I liked Pool, so I was willing to give this a shot. I'm glad I did. It's nothing revolutionary, but Lisick once again makes a good tour guide for the Bay Area underground: humorous, self-deprecating, not the least bit poseur-y, self-righteous, or faux. And I believe in her Bay Area; it touches on the Bay Area I experienced enough to make me pleasantly nostalgic. I'm not sure if this book would do much for you if the San Francisco/Berkeley scene isn't one with which you're familiar, but I liked it.