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Making Scenes
Making Scenes is the debut novel of hypertext star Adrienne Eisen. An exploration into the psychogeographical states of mind lived by its main character, this is a story that traces the emotional fault line of America to its core, exposing all of the subliminal cracks and multi-tracks, while bringing back to life the rival tradition of American writing from Henry Miller to Kathy Acker.
- GenresFiction
174 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 13, 2012
I bought this book on a whim from Emily Books, and it serves as a testament to the power of curation. I'd never heard of the book or the author, but because Emily Books was carrying it, I was willing to take a chance. It's also an argument for the ebook, in the sense that I bought it, found myself on the bus having just finished a book, and decided to give it a shot. And there it was.
If the book hadn't hooked me from the first page, I probably would've shut it down, scanned Twitter and listened to The Replacements the whole way home. And I would've been happy. But I'm happier that I kept reading this book.
From page one, I was completely enthralled with the main character. A young woman living in Chicago and trying to play professional beach volleyball. What about that premise doesn't hook you immediately? How about if the main character is also suffering from an eating disorder and is simultaneously incredibly funny and wracked with insecurity? Not doing it for you yet? How about if I throw in some futures trading on the commodity exchange floor?
Okay. Enough of this belabored conceit. The point is that Making Scenes has an incredibly odd mix of settings and events happening, and it only serves to make the book feel more real. The main character will be with me for awhile, I think. When I was reading this, I had the feeling of simultaneously knowing the character and also maybe not knowing her at all. She's full of contradictions and not in the bullshit "I contain multitudes" sort of way that we traditionally think of complex characters. Rather, she reacts to events in her life in ways that were amusing, dismaying, disturbing, and ultimately authentic. She makes the kind of irrational, confounding decisions we all make.
I loved passages like this:
"I wait for the plane to take off. After initial turbulence, I put down the tray to write a list --
People who I wish had died instead of me and Andy breaking up:
Everyone."
John Cassavete's used to do this impression of someone watching one of his movies for the first time, how they would resist because the experience was so different from watching a Hollywood movie of that era. That was kind of what reading this book was like for me. I had no idea where it was going, and yet it had a narrative drive that made me want to read and read and read (present tense and a shitton of sex scenes probably helped with that). This was a character that felt human, and I couldn't stop reading about her. Highly recommended.
If the book hadn't hooked me from the first page, I probably would've shut it down, scanned Twitter and listened to The Replacements the whole way home. And I would've been happy. But I'm happier that I kept reading this book.
From page one, I was completely enthralled with the main character. A young woman living in Chicago and trying to play professional beach volleyball. What about that premise doesn't hook you immediately? How about if the main character is also suffering from an eating disorder and is simultaneously incredibly funny and wracked with insecurity? Not doing it for you yet? How about if I throw in some futures trading on the commodity exchange floor?
Okay. Enough of this belabored conceit. The point is that Making Scenes has an incredibly odd mix of settings and events happening, and it only serves to make the book feel more real. The main character will be with me for awhile, I think. When I was reading this, I had the feeling of simultaneously knowing the character and also maybe not knowing her at all. She's full of contradictions and not in the bullshit "I contain multitudes" sort of way that we traditionally think of complex characters. Rather, she reacts to events in her life in ways that were amusing, dismaying, disturbing, and ultimately authentic. She makes the kind of irrational, confounding decisions we all make.
I loved passages like this:
"I wait for the plane to take off. After initial turbulence, I put down the tray to write a list --
People who I wish had died instead of me and Andy breaking up:
Everyone."
John Cassavete's used to do this impression of someone watching one of his movies for the first time, how they would resist because the experience was so different from watching a Hollywood movie of that era. That was kind of what reading this book was like for me. I had no idea where it was going, and yet it had a narrative drive that made me want to read and read and read (present tense and a shitton of sex scenes probably helped with that). This was a character that felt human, and I couldn't stop reading about her. Highly recommended.
July 20, 2014
Unapologetic and unashamed accounts of incest and bulimia, so refreshing to read writing like this. I am inspired when people embrace truth and don't whitewash things or hold on to things that don't serve them (like being a victim). I wish she wrote more books.
October 1, 2019
Making Scenes is simultaneously disturbing and redeeming. The redemption comes in the authenticity of its main character: a 20-something woman living in Chicago, with aims of playing professional volleyball, wracked by an intense bulimia problem and nihilistic demeanor. 75% of people will read this book and think the narrator is absolutely wretched. The other 25%, myself included, will find her blatant depravity and brazenness refreshing. Adrienne Eisen is not trying in the slightest to make our narrator likable, relatable, or a metaphor for anything. Even if you find the narrator unlikable, which you probably will, it’s refreshing to see a woman written in a way that’s not appeasing anyone, even other women.
There’s a lot of discussion in literary criticism about writers portraying female characters in ways that appeal to men, but never really about the ways in which writers portray women to appeal or relate to their fellow women. I have to applaud Adrienne Eisen for writing something that’s unsettling and rough and lays out all the ways life can be so awful to us and the ways we can be just so awful ourselves. The book is quite directionless, but that’s okay, because I couldn’t resist being engaged with our narrator’s ruthlessness. Her refusal to play victim to what’s happened to her in the past was also an interesting paradigm. She acts and thinks in ways women may be embarrassed to admit or recognize in themselves but hey, here’s to not giving a shit 🎉
There’s a lot of discussion in literary criticism about writers portraying female characters in ways that appeal to men, but never really about the ways in which writers portray women to appeal or relate to their fellow women. I have to applaud Adrienne Eisen for writing something that’s unsettling and rough and lays out all the ways life can be so awful to us and the ways we can be just so awful ourselves. The book is quite directionless, but that’s okay, because I couldn’t resist being engaged with our narrator’s ruthlessness. Her refusal to play victim to what’s happened to her in the past was also an interesting paradigm. She acts and thinks in ways women may be embarrassed to admit or recognize in themselves but hey, here’s to not giving a shit 🎉
October 1, 2024
This book’s hypertext style of each segment able to stand on its own was interesting, albeit jarring at times. The Everywoman protagonist was irritatingly naive and overly sexual, yet unapologetically honest, so it was a different read from an unexpected perspective.
August 21, 2025
Please write more books.
recommended by:
https://web.archive.org/web/202109250...
recommended by:
https://web.archive.org/web/202109250...
January 24, 2008
Adrienne Eisen, Making Scenes (Alt-X, 2001/2002?)....
Making Scenes is the story of (actually, four stories about, but we'll not split that hair here) the Everywoman of the 1990s as given us by Eisen. She's bulimic but handling it, unsure about her various relationships, trying to find a steady job in a shaky market, and dreams of being a professional beach volleyball player. Unlike most, she has an actual shot at it, and spends the majority of her time outside her various stress-causing activities either playing volleyball, getting ready to play volleyball, or coming home from playing volleyball. And while that may sound monotonous, it's anything but. No one writes novels about professional beach volleyball. And what we get of it here, especially filtered through the eyes of our protagonist (and her relationship crises-- after all, volleyball is a team sport), is interesting enough to have been a novel in itself.
It should have been, and I guess I have to split that hair. The novel lacks consistency, and I get the idea that this is because it's actually four separate stories that take place at various times in the protagonist's life as she attempts to reach her dream. Marketed as a related collection of short stories, I mgiht have been more prepared for the jarring between sections. Also, it often seems like the material on what's happening outside the volleyball obsession is somewhat extraneous. The bulimia aspect is obviously tied in closely, but the outside-volleyball relationships aren't. Perhaps I'm looking at it from the wrong POV, as the book has earned high praise from erotica aficionados, but I got the feeling Eisen was focusing more on the volleyball and that the erotica aspect was less important.
The two didn't quite mesh for me. ** 1/2
Making Scenes is the story of (actually, four stories about, but we'll not split that hair here) the Everywoman of the 1990s as given us by Eisen. She's bulimic but handling it, unsure about her various relationships, trying to find a steady job in a shaky market, and dreams of being a professional beach volleyball player. Unlike most, she has an actual shot at it, and spends the majority of her time outside her various stress-causing activities either playing volleyball, getting ready to play volleyball, or coming home from playing volleyball. And while that may sound monotonous, it's anything but. No one writes novels about professional beach volleyball. And what we get of it here, especially filtered through the eyes of our protagonist (and her relationship crises-- after all, volleyball is a team sport), is interesting enough to have been a novel in itself.
It should have been, and I guess I have to split that hair. The novel lacks consistency, and I get the idea that this is because it's actually four separate stories that take place at various times in the protagonist's life as she attempts to reach her dream. Marketed as a related collection of short stories, I mgiht have been more prepared for the jarring between sections. Also, it often seems like the material on what's happening outside the volleyball obsession is somewhat extraneous. The bulimia aspect is obviously tied in closely, but the outside-volleyball relationships aren't. Perhaps I'm looking at it from the wrong POV, as the book has earned high praise from erotica aficionados, but I got the feeling Eisen was focusing more on the volleyball and that the erotica aspect was less important.
The two didn't quite mesh for me. ** 1/2
May 27, 2013
Read this book in about 3 hours-getting inside the main character's brain in a series of vignettes or "scenes" made this book one that I could not put down. The main character could have been extremely unlikeable and some of the things she did I found repulsive at times; yet I understood where she was coming from. And the whole Jewish cultural theme running in the background was one I could definitely relate to- the religion part ONLY as my family was and is much less disgusting and dysfunctional which is WHY I found the main character so repugnant, yet I understood her plight and the reasoning behind her actions. The only reason I did not give this book 5 stars was the ending which was very abrupt and I felt offered not much of a resolution to any of her troubles. But I recommend this book- as I could not put it down all day until I was done! Great quotable lines in this book as well.
February 10, 2010
What a fabulous novel. It really resonated with me. The main character/narrator brought me on such an emotional roller coaster with her through all of her experiences-- with family, volleyball, relationships both romantic and friends, her sexual curiosity, her bulimia, her life. It's difficult for me to express in words how I feel about this book. I cried for her and Andy's relationship. By far one of my new favorite books.
April 24, 2012
Lacerating and self-aware, like being around someone who is full of guts, but a little aimless. At least they haven't had their soul entombed by whatever the most likely reason is these days. Sweaty pages that make much other fiction seem stylized, starched, overclean, and too concerned about being professional. Here is a recent interview with the author: http://goo.gl/nDroh
May 20, 2019
Despite the lack of linearity, this blurb-driven style kept me wanting to read more. The protagonist is a smart twenty-something woman with a stark, brutally honest sensibility and fears/insecurities that she battles to hide and then to overcome. Her life isn't extraordinary, but it's punctuated by quirky twists and turns.
September 22, 2010
The author of this book is also known as Penelope Trunk, who is aka the Brazen Careerist. The book was entertaining, but read more like a bunch of blog posts than a novel. (I guess that's convenient because she's a great blogger.)
January 19, 2016
This book wavered between a 3 and 4 star. The writing was good, and hard to put down, but the subject matter was sometimes repetitive. I liked that I got the book from an indie "e-book" store, though! Definitely not a book I would recommend to a lot of people, but I am glad I read it.
August 8, 2015
I loved every word of this book. Excellent.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews