January 14th, 2010
Some reviews about “Making Scenes”
Adrienne Eisen: Making Scenes
Alt-X Press (Trade Paperback), ISBN 0-374-52704-0
I read this book from cover to cover, only putting it aside when the demands of my life became too persistent to ignore, and then I thought to myself, Wow!
I knew from other reading that Adrienne Eisen won an award for her electronic writing. So I ran a quick Google search to learn more about a genre called hypertext fiction at which she evidently excels.
From what I can gather, this mode of writing attempts to exploit the capacities of hypertext in order to create a layered, non-linear, reading experience for its audience. A piece of hypertext fiction therefore, comprises a few dozen or so individual scenes, linked to each other either directly or in roundabout way for the reader to browse in whichever sequence appeals to her, perhaps as she might view a collage of visual images. The reader assimilates all these bits in her mind, together with her own experience to synthesize a unique work of art — one conceivably quite different from the one that another reader might compose from her readings.
The tangible nature of a dead-tree book can’t properly reproduce this kind of text, yet Eisen manages to approximate some of the adventure of hyper-textuality inMaking Scenes. She constructs her entire book as a number of vignettes and scenes narrated by her protagonist. Then she arranges them randomly in terms of time and place to try and escape the bounds of linearity. She also introduces an occasional subtle discrepancy between the young woman narrator’s version of events and that which an observant reader might detect as what really occurred.
Making Scenes traces the life of a twenty-something-young woman rebelling against her parents’ expectations by underachieving academically and over-indulging in sensory stimulation. The disjointed nature of the text evokes very effectively the confusion and pain of a young person trying to make sense of the experiences of her childhood. Perhaps not a novel to enchant the faint-hearted reader, but it will pique the reader whose comfort zones gladly engage with assault.
Moira Richards
Information found in: http://www.crescentblues.com/7_12issue/bk_eisen_scenes.shtml
Book Review: Eisen’s Everywoman:’ She’s Neurotic to the Bone
“Making Scenes” is now in wide release.
She’s just about the only person I know who has kissed her own dad. And not in that dad-kissing kinda way. The nameless narrator of Adrienne Eisen’s “Making Scenes” moves to L.A. and does all the “typical L.A. girl stuff.” That is to say she marches through a foray of shocking sexual affairs with admirable perseverance and zeal, binges and purges, thinks she might be a lesbian and spends all of her time traipsing around in her bikini. She may not have a name, but she’s infinitely recognizable.
Adrienne Eisein is better-known for her award-winning hypertext writings and Making Scenes is her first novel. The influence of her hypertext background shows itself in the discontinuous and non-linear (some might say choppy) presentation of the events of the novel. For those veteran novel readers approaching Making Scenes, Eisen’s hypertext-esque narrative style can be a bit uncomfortable.
Like Eisen herself, the narrator is a native of Chicago. The novel opens with her flipping out upon college graduation, refusing to accept money from her wealthy suburbanite parents and moving to Los Angeles to pursue a career as a professional beach volleyball player. At first glance it looks like it’s going to be a funny book. And while it is funny, at the same time it’s really, really not.
She can’t hold down a relationship because all the guys she goes for are married or engaged. She can’t hold down a job because she gets fired for stealing food to support her bulimic activities. But she’s not stupid. She’s not ugly or fat. She’s smart, she’s athletic and she loves to read. She wants to go back to graduate school and when she does I’m both exuberant and dejected, because it’s just another great thing her hang-ups will make terrible for her. There’s no way it can last, just like everything else she tries to do.
If you feel like it, you can read the novel online at her website www.apc.net/adrienne. It’s the same novel, but it’s not as optimism-crushing as reading the whole thing in its entirety without interruption (yes, even having to click the mouse can make a difference, I think). Both are written discontinuously and you start to wonder what the heck is up with this girl until you find yourself in the middle of her childhood (after you’ve just been in the middle of her adult life) and things start to make sense. It’s interesting to see where she’s coming from after you already know where she ended up.
Eisen’s narrator is identifiable but still completely isolated in this novel that takes you through non-chronological snapshots of her life. While she’s dancing all over the continent chasing dreams and fleeing nightmares, watching which baggage she leaves behind and which new baggage she picks up is a rewarding and sobering experience.
Information found in:
http://www.dailycal.org:8080/article/8497/book_review_eisen_s_everywoman_she_s_neurotic_to_t
”Scenes” offers glimpse of post-college life
BY: JULIA GOLDSTEIN
FOR THE DAILY
PUBLISHED MARCH 6TH, 2002
At the end of the undergraduate experience, each of us is left with but one question to answer: now what? In her debut novel, “Making Scenes,” Adrienne Eisen employs a spunky, independent, yet nameless woman to explore the possibilities of post-college life. From the first page, societal expectations are cast aside as Eisen”s principal character begins, “I announce that I am no longer accepting money from my family. I write a letter to my advisor thanking him for all the honors-student-research-money he finagled for me during the last four years, and p.s. I withdrew all my applications to graduate school I want to play professional beach volleyball.”
Fortunately for the suspecting reader, Eisen”s work does not develop into a defiant rags-to-riches tale. Her heroine fails several times, in several ways. There are endless troubles involving work, love, as well as her physical and mental well being. The constant struggle enables readers to empathize with Eisen”s generic first person narrator throughout her eccentric twists and turns.
If the description so far remains vague, it is the strategic working of Eisen herself. She has structured the book so that the narrator”s name is never revealed, even in the midst of several passages of dialogue presented in screenplay form. This main character, without exception, refers to herself as “I” and is referred to by others as “you.” Many concrete biographic details are also omitted. We never learn where the narrator attended college, or where exactly she grew up.
When she does begin to reveal intimate experiences she shares only enough to create an enticing tale, and carefully avoids letting the outside world in to view her true feelings. One such instance occurs as she allows her father to photograph her in the semi-nude. She concludes her description of the event by divulging, “For the last shot he ties my arms above my head with his belt and I struggle to get loose.” The audience is left wondering about the exact nature of this strange father/daughter relationship, or how the narrator herself feels about it. There are other similarly sexually twisted tails that remain unexplained throughout the novel.
Since much of the emotion of the work remains on the surface, this book quickly becomes a plot driven romp through the life and times of a gutsy, yet anonymous woman. There are numerous twists of fate and changes of heart to keep things interesting. Eisen”s narrator has an affair with a married man, tests the waters of lesbianism, and steals thousands of dollars from the home furnishing favorite, Crate & Barrel. So much of the driving force behind the piece relies on the action of the story that it becomes weird, grotesque, and at times pornographic in its attempt to keep the pages turning. This woman, while lacking any interest in discussing her attraction to her father, or her bulimic hatred of her perfectly toned body, has absolutely no qualms about openly sharing her erotic encounters with a rubber spatula. With the wildness of her work, Eisen risks the alienation of her audience as it becomes too embarrassing at times for some readers to stay connected with the book.
Amidst the eerie sexually explicit recounts there are some light-hearted moments reminiscent of Helen Fielding”s Bridget Jones. When ending an evening with her ex the narrator slams the car door. She recounts, “I do it dramatically, and when he drives away, I fall over because my beach bag is caught in the door.” These tidbits are what salvage “Making Scenes” and offer a glimmer of hope for future Adrienne Eisen works.
Information found in: http://www.michigandaily.com/content/scenes-offers-glimpse-post-college-life-0