Cutting Lisa

by Percival Everett

Retired Virginia obstetrician John Livesey, recently widowed and discouraged by the world's crumbling morals, meets a man who has just performed an unnecessary cesarean section on his wife so as to be the one to deliver their child. Though initially appalled by the act. Livesey finds himself recalling it later when he learns a friend is dying of cancer, when his affair with a younger woman ends in disillusionment, and when, during an extended visit to his son and his family in Oregon, he realizes his daughter-in-law's unborn baby does not belong to her husband. Coming to admire the calm directness with which the man took matters of life and death into his own hands, Livesey begins to reconsider what he values and what he will protect.

Genres: Fiction, Literature, African American

147 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

Percival L. Everett (born 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

There might not be a more fertile mind in American fiction today than Everett’s. In 22 years, he has written 19 books, including a farcical Western, a savage satire of the publishing industry, a children’s story spoofing counting books, retellings of the Greek myths of Medea and Dionysus, and a philosophical tract narrated by a four-year-old.

The Washington Post has called Everett “one of the most adventurously experimental of modern American novelists.” And according to The Boston Globe, “He’s literature’s NASCAR champion, going flat out, narrowly avoiding one seemingly inevitable crash only to steer straight for the next.”

Everett, who teaches courses in creative writing, American studies and critical theory, says he writes about what interests him, which explains his prolific output and the range of subjects he has tackled. He also describes himself as a demanding teacher who learns from his students as much as they learn from him.

Everett’s writing has earned him the PEN USA 2006 Literary Award (for his 2005 novel, Wounded), the Academy Award for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (for his 2001 novel, Erasure), the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature (for his 1996 story collection, Big Picture) and the New American Writing Award (for his 1990 novel, Zulus). He has served as a judge for, among others, the 1997 National Book Award for fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1991.

Reviews

[Betsy Robinson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this book is copyrighted 1986, it sounds to me like it may have been written in Percival Everett's student days. The writing is kind of stilted and the dialogue is awkward. Yet there is the Everett imagination. I kept reading because the tension sustained me. I don't really believe the plot turns; they felt like the imaginings of a very young writer with good, albeit immature, ideas for a drama.

If you have not read Everett's later novels, stay away from this one. I think it will mainly be of interest to diehard fans (like me) who are so enthralled that they are interested in the genesis of Everett's work.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

As Kant was so fond of saying, ‘Holy fucking Christ, wow!’ As a man operating in what he sees as a deterministic universe, John Livesey prepositions himself as the lone and free willed God. This retired obstetrician is just the most brilliant of creations in this fatalistic minor masterpiece. Everett’s growth between novels one and three is uncharted, his ability to balance the heaviest of pressures and idiosyncratic funny bone has blossomed absolutely. Already. Goddam.

Livesey is a cypher for Everett to explore what would become a great many signature preoccupations through subsequent decades. The man is every bit as alive as you or I while the reader is in this fully reified world. It’s a book of creep, crawl, and cragginess, and I suspect it will end up in the cache of my most beloved Everett novels. It’s a bold claim to make only a third of the way into his bibliography, but it’s that monumental a peak.

I almost forgot (unintentional Matthew Sweet reference): one of the great 1-2 opening and ending combinations in ‘recent’ literature. I’m talking Ali-Frazier great, to tax the analogy to my favorite science, the sweet (and FUCK! What could easily be misconstrued as an intentional Matthew Sweet callback inadvertently writes itself—sometimes you can’t win for losing.)

[Stephan Benzkofer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Percival Everett's third novel veers in a completely new direction and again defies genre. The dust jacket copy is bizarre; I think the publisher didn't know what he had. This is a psychological horror thriller wrapped in a literary family drama — like a mashup of Stephen King and John Updike — with Everett telegraphing the ending and daring you to turn away. I couldn't.

[Jan Priddy · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was "okay" and that was disappointing. Lots of readers I know love Everett. He was featured in Poets & Writers and I chose this novel to read because I found it mentioned when I skimmed the article and because I discovered much of it (nearly all as it turns out) is set in Oregon. It is very short, structured in a straight forward arc and of a length I would designate a novella rather than a novel. [2024 update: novellas are having a moment just now.] It is perhaps thirty or forty thousand words. The plot is really excellent—intriguing, with a continuous what-will-happen-next? push. Each event, once revealed, seems obvious, the “well of course” sensation writers aim for when constructing plot. I did not like his characters, but Everett doesn’t mean for me to like his characters.

John, the retired obstetrician, is emotionally isolated and behaves with the absolute certainty in his right to control which is familiar in doctors and in many Americans. I don’t like him because he rapidfire-attacks vegetarians, liberals, gays, nondrinkers, and nonsmokers; he has an affair with a woman young enough to be his granddaughter; and he assumes it’s his business [hubris] to make everything right. But I think, I hope, that was Everett’s intent.

The author picture on the back cover shows a tough, bad-tempered, man, the kind of portrait my male students would admire because they want so desperately to be tough, so maybe I’m giving Everett too much credit. He makes mistakes about Oregon (maybe not a “young eagle” but a golden eagle), about horses (it is always girls who volunteer to work in stables, always always), and about dialogue. He is best with the jolly camaraderie between guys.

From what I can tell, Everett has nailed that adult male joking. But he has no notion of a nine year old’s conversation. Children do not answer the unspoken question. They either answer the one you ask, or respond in a manner which reflects their primary concern: what they want from you. They do not see through to the question you really want answered. Arriving home an hour late and asked where they have been, the child will either be too frightened to answer, or answer literally, or respond with defensive explanations why they should not be punished for being late because this is what they have been worrying about ever since they realized they are about to be in trouble. It is only with age that their first response is I’m fine, nothing happened, which is what the parent is really asking.

Everett’s characters all seem to process information in the same manner and to speak in pretty much the same manner with only slight adjustment for gender (vulgarity) and temperament (the niceness/naiveté factor).

A friend on Goodreads loves Everett, so I went looking for my review of the book I remembered reading and not liking much. The above is from my notes during my MFA program (2005-2007). I also wrote that "I might read him again for plot, but I have little faith in his characters, dialogue, or themes. It is always easiest to be cruel." Nothing I have learned about Everett suggests he ever shies from cruelty. So, no, I haven't read more.

I came back after not liking the 2023 film American Fiction as much as almost everyone I know, except for my husband who liked it even less. The film is based on one of his earliest books, Erasure and is meant to be ironic, more ironic than the film manages. Ironic too that part of the irony of the novel is that Monk is very dark and the actor who portrays him isn't. Great performances in the film, but from what I can tell, a number of story elements I would have appreciated were left out. I really will have to read another of his novels.

[Travis Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in 1986, his third published book, this one is a bit of departure from Everett's canon. It's written in third person, his protagonist is a retired white physician, and his usual savage humor is practically nonexistent. Everett's usual fury manifests at a very subtle level.

Everett is always pointing out the imbalances between the rule of the white patriarchy; here, without coming in swinging on the side of feminism, he makes it clear just what that white patriarch is capable of. The protagonist is even more appalling today than he must have been forty years ago.

But don't start reading Everett with this book. Start with The Trees or My Name is Not Sidney Poitier or even God's Country.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

unsettling. i don't know what else to say.

[Heather Coe · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have mixed emotions about this book. Overall- easy read and the author does a good job at engaging the reader the entire time. Towards the end of the book it is a little unsettling...even suspenseful.

[Charlotte Young Bowens · Rating 4 out of 5]

You've got read this book and let it be the experience it's going to be.

[Desiree Collier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great read

Very engaging story. You grow to like the main character, even though he's a bit rough. With the usual wit, Everett does it again.

[David McNally · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good early book by my favorite author.

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cutting Lisa (his third novel) and The Body of Martin Aguilera (his eighth) are similarly-vibed rural mysteries featuring an elderly protagonist with close a bond to a cute granddaughter becoming embroiled in fishy business in the locale. In the latter, the curious case of a vanishing corpse, in the former, the unhappy pregnancy of his daughter-in-law. Cutting Lisa (the strange title refers to an implied ending foreshadowed in the beginning) is a chatty one that unhurriedly explores the dynamic between a bunch of folks in outback Oregon, breezing along on Everett’s ear for pithy, realistic dialogue and strong knack for pacing. Half of Everett’s novels are laconic pastoral tales with a sardonic, professional tone, miles removed from the unhinged comedy of his more successful (and way more exciting) novels. Many of Everett’s works are out of print, these two among them. Ebooks available of both from Dzanc.

[David Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

A short novel that starts with an interesting hook...A man, wanting to deliver his own baby, performs a Cesarean section on his wife.

90% of what follows is a decent story of the doctor who treated that woman making an extended trip west to visit his son and his son's family. Along the way, he forms a strong friendship, falls in love with a younger woman and discovers that his pregnant daughter-in-law is carrying an illegitimate child. All of this lends itself to presenting some sensitive moral dilemmas and climactic intrigue. Instead, there is a deluge of unresolved drama hastily attacked in the last 10-15 pages with only one resolution suggested at by the stories ending.

Overall, I thought this book was better-written than Everett's earlier work. But it still left me wanting more...especially the way it ended. I would have preferred the end of the book to be the setup and the rest of the book exploring the individual results of three or four separate conflicts.

[Jeff Wait · Rating 4 out of 5]

Woah. This one ruled. I liked getting a peek into Everett’s early work. This one is rough around the edges, but you can see the foundation of the writer that he is to become. There are plenty of funny moments; but twice as many touching ones. The biggest difference is that he doesn’t tackle race in the way he does in his later works. In fact, he doesn’t even mention it. Our main character is just your average old dude. He used to be an obstetrician, and the prologue shows what must be his most insane case… then we never hear of it again. I thought it would tie in at some point, but no dice (unless I missed something). Sometimes it feels a little ho-hum. But the vibe and the writing style kept me hanging out in his world. It’s a quick story (only 147 pages) that I’m sure will keep me thinking for the next few hours.

[Gary · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is really a short story disguised as a novella disguised as a novel. It is short and totally pointed to a particular outcome. The protagonist, John, is a 66 year old retired obstetrician, whose wife has died. He is off to visit his son, wife, and granddaughter in Oregon. He is a classic curmudgeon: a smoker in a non-smoking house; a drinker in a non-drinking family; and a proud meat eater in a land of vegans. But he settles in without too much disruption, makes friends with the elder neighbors and even strikes up a romance with the much younger owner of a nearby riding stable. But he also quickly figures out that things are not going well with his son and his wife. And he takes matters into his own hands. . . . A good quick read.

[Daniel LeSaint · Rating 4 out of 5]

Father-in-law from hell horror story? Or a mild existential reflection on our species? I suppose you could look at this from several angles. Kept reminding me of McCarthy’s Whales and Men (written about the same time) with all the light chatter and lunch and drinks and the sea scape blah blah blah and I really never did feel invested to any of the characters…and yet right there at the end we finally get what Everett was driving at and any disappointment we might have been preparing for is revealed as a false alarm.

No, Everett does not disappoint. This was his third publication and definitely felt a little different, a little more aloof and free flowing than his first two…on to #4.



“People are hard to figure.”

[Lisa]

In 2024, I read my first Percival Everett book - and also my fifth. So more or less, every other month I was reading a book of his. And I loved them! So I guess I've had a bit of a gap in getting to this, my 6th, and wow, this was not for me. I can't tell how much of it was because I'd fallen out of practice with the author's writing, or if this was the earliest of his works I've read, or if it just so happened that I share a name with the daughter-in-law and my father shares a name and a state with the Oregon-based father - or if it was more of the plot. I'm sure there's a level where I could have appreciated this book, but I did not reach it.

[Coates · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is a long set-up to the punch line. John's relationship with his granddaughter is a bright spot. But the rest of his friends and family didn't have the same gravity. Lorraine's character is interesting but often faded when you wanted to hear her more. Solid novel, but not as compelling as his first two.

[Mia]

"My Review: Moods: Pace: Character Driven: Character Development: Loveable Characters:156Flawed Characters:"

[Jes Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5

[Nicole]

Very random, odd atmosphere. Little of the story has mentiions the woman with the makeshift cesarean. The final 1/3 of the book the pace picks up, but i didn't love the ending

[Billy · Rating 5 out of 5]

He's got a big thing for Fathers. Reading his short stories, and then this novel from the mid-late eighties was crazy.

The opening scene reminds me of some Vincent D'Ornfornioioioio character. But there is that awesome "Cowboy" style still inherent.

And a Salinger smoking habit.

Old doctor, adultery, East Coast vs West Coast (Staunton to Oregon).

Real, real good.

[Shannon · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this so long ago I can barely remember it. I remember like it but it is not on of my favorites of his.

[Meer · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first introduction to Mr. Everett. Love this book on some many levels.

[Darrin Doyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of Everett's early novels, this is a really tight and controlled story that builds tension beautifully before the creepy and shocking ending. Highly recommended.

[Rob Harvilla]

But the water was footing, in a way, after the fall, a place he was instead of a place he was going.

[Wes Young · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good but rather dark and an atrocious ending. Everet always is a great read.

[Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This counts as one of Everett's flirtations with realism. John Livesey is a retired obstetrician who is spending a summer with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Just before he leaves there is a striking encounter with a man who performed an amateur c-section on his pregnant wife—this is the gun, cocked and loaded, that Everett shows us in the first act. The balance of the novel details Livesey's interactions with his family, an older couple who live near his son's summer home, a younger woman he has a fling with, and a few other locals. The key issue has to do with the daughter-in-law Lisa's pregnancy. No one in the family (apart from the granddaughter) seems particularly enthused about this and over the course of the book we come to know why. The question quite naturally is what, if anything, Livesey is going to do about it. Everett here engages in a longstanding habit of ending his book at a moment that leaves what happens next squarely in the lap of the reader. So why is it so good? Everett's fictions, especially in the latter half of his career, seem particularly given to flights of fancy, modernist turns and even bouts with magical realism. In this somewhat earlier novel, he shows that he is completely capable of the realist two-step. Every beat in the book is well-prepared for, the lean prose working efficiently to delineate character and move the plot in believable ways that are only a few degrees aslant from reality (as opposed to Everett's more typical fun-house mirror way with verisimilitude). It's a quick read, but quite moving, as the novel engages the reader in Livesey's struggle to come to terms with a host of changes over the course of a single summer. A very fine book.