The Beautifully Worthless

by Ali Liebegott

A modern epic poem about a runaway waitress and her Dalmatian, Rorschach, who leave Brooklyn to find hope in a town named Camus, Idaho. Along the way they witness and partake in an American landscape filled with poverty, warm six-packs, roulette wheels, murder sites, and their own family.

Genres: Poetry, Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Lesbian, Romance, Audiobook

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Ali Liebegott is a lesbian American author whose work has appeared in numerous journals and anthologies. Her first book, The Beautifully Worthless, won the Lambda Literary Award for Debut Fiction. Liebegott is a recipient of a Poetry Fellowship from the New York Foundation for Arts. She taught creative writing at UC San Diego and currently lives in San Francisco.Her debut novel entitled The IHOP Papers was published in early 2007 and was awarded a Lambda Literary award for Women's Fiction, a Ferro-Grumley Award for LGBT Fiction, and was a finalist for a Stonewall Prize. She has toured the U.S. extensively with Sister Spit's Ramblin' Road Show and is represented by The Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.

Reviews

[BrokenTune · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5*

This was an audiobook I picked up on a whim not knowing what it was about.

As it turns out, The Beautifully Worthless is a work of poetic fiction that describes a road trip in letters to the protagonist's girlfriend.

Unsatisfied with her life the protagonist sets out with her dog to find a town in Idaho that she has read about. On the way she ponders about her life, her expectations, her interaction with others. It's a melancholy description of her experiences and her anxieties.

If I had known what the book was about, I probably would not have picked it up. However, I was pleasantly surprised by it. In parts it reminded me of Kerouac and Ginsberg - but not in a way that describes similarity between Liebegott's work and that of the two Beats. I've never been able to get into Ginsburg. He always seemed too pompous to me. And Kerouac seemed too self-indulgent. No, the link I struck between those two and Liebegott's book was one of difference: I wish Kerouac and Ginsberg had written with the same warmth and flair as Liebegott.

Anyway, I'm curious to read another of her books.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liebegott's unabashed melancholy and willingness to express/expose her self-loathing made this book irresistible to me. I'm not sure if I would have loved it quite as much had I not heard Liebegott read from it in San Francisco in August - after she read, I uncharacteristically felt the need to buy the book for the trip back to New York. And I confess... I asked her to sign my copy, which she did by drawing a cute little bird. Bonus points.

[Nat Jaeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is like watching a person have a nervous breakdown, whilst simultaneously trying to enjoy the beauty of a sunset.

[Bobbie Bomber · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one wild ride of a book and I could not stop reading it I finished in one sitting. Following our narrator through one bad choice after an another and how she is spiraling but knowing she is was so fascinating. There were parts where I couldn't help but relate and other where I was almost a disgusted by her choices.. I will definitely be looking forward to more from Ali.

[Mersini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. I loved this book. I suppose because I see reflections of myself in the narrator. It's not a hopeful book, I suppose, and at times, very strange, but well worth the journey. With its mix of letters and verse, its unique style brings something to the disjointedness of the narrator's life, filling in the spaces between events that the narrator leaves blank.

I have never been more glad to decide to read a random book in my life.

[Meg · Rating 5 out of 5]

an absolute favorite, a must-read/have/own/treasure. i have never read anything like this book. never.

[Daniel Levesque · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book makes me see the happy in the sad. Liebegotts voice is so vital, so clear, the reader falls instantly in love.

[Marlena · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book in my basement

[Jocelyn H · Rating 3 out of 5]

From 2005, a novel told in poetry/letters/photos about a queer woman in the ‘90s hoping to escape her depression on a road trip from Brooklyn to Camus, Idaho, a town whose name came to her in a dream. She and her dog, a Dalmatian named Rorschach, head out in her truck, a type of road trip narrative not often seen. The novel is told through poems, prose, and letters the narrator writes to her girlfriend back home.

There are parts of this book that feel familiar to me—urgently, suffocatingly familiar. A lesbian on a solo road trip in the ‘90s or early 2000s, with a fear in the back of her mind that one of the men glaring at her at a road stop service centre could end up murdering her; driving through Laramie, Wyoming and feeling so intensely the way Matthew Shepard’s murder impacted your life on a visceral level; going for a walk in a campground, alert with the knowledge that multiple pairs of lesbian hikers had recently been murdered in US national parks in several parts of the country. This all feels very real for the time.

The book starts off and ends in a fairly forward-moving narrative, but it gets really wonky, halfway through. The narrative gets really disjointed and somewhat confusing, and it seems that the narrator is spiralling out of control (with alcohol, gambling, and likely a mental health break). The narrative shift is a bit jarring. Perhaps it’s meant to be.

Despite some sections that didn’t work quite as well for me, altogether I liked this quite a bit. The short letters home to her girlfriend were my favourite part.

Liebegott won a Lambda Literary Award for this book (and her next).

*3.5?

[Denise DeSio · Rating 4 out of 5]

As you must know by now, I am an audiobook reader/listener, which has advantages: a) I could play candy crush AND completely focus on what I'm hearing, b) I won't know if the author can't spell. Among the disadvantages: I didn't know for sure that this was actually a book of poetry.

I did, however, hear the poetry, both in the cadence of the author's voice ( Ali Liebegott read her own work) and in her concise, beautifully-strung wording. I loved the format. Short letters to the lesbian lover she left behind alternate with interconnecting poems that form a sort of journal of her angst-ridden travels.

It's a short book, well worth reading or listening to if you come across it.

[Charleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fragmented narrative. She follows a dream of finding a magical town that will heal sadness. It doesn't exist, but she does have a moment in a cave, and then obsesses over the teenage Peter. What happens next isn't clear, but there's casinos, the police, and possibly a stay at a mental hospital involved.
The most reliable parts of the story are her letters to her (ex?) girlfriend in Brooklyn. The poetry parts echo and expand certain themes or feelings sparked by the experiences detailed in the letters, while also paying homage to other poets (there's a list at the start of the book, I only caught on to the nod to Emily Dickenson).
Rorschach is a great name for a Dalmatian.

[Maggie Dubris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite contemporary poetry books. The epic format works beautifully, and the writing is both striking and without the usual cliches of academic poetry. A truly timeless work, yet totally of our times.

[aisu · Rating 4 out of 5]

And I with her—in sewage Ditch / Made our Heaven—Here.

[E. Rickert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ali Liebegott is so, so real

[Devon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed me in so many ways. I feel less alone now and I wish I could find a way to message the author and tell them so.

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

i really wanted to be feeling this book but i'm not so i shelved it. i like liebegott's general concepts but just as "on the road" no longer reads as so poignant, angsty and full of meaning for me, neither does this. the fact that it's a novel in verse only makes it slightly more engaging. and i like her novel in prose a lot more, though i sort of wish she'd create a different kind of character. it's odd that this is supposedly her better work bc i'd say the other is stronger.

[City Lights Booksellers & Publishers]

"Ali Liebegott's The Beautifully Worthless is a mixed-genre tour de force, a classic yet subverted road story, an original and fierce claim on this country, and the generator of an unusual, moving canon. It's saturated with Liebegott's signature gifts: a peerless sense of humor and a capacity to bear witness to and articulate the darkest corners of fear and despair. I stand in awe of Liebegott's talent and heart. She is one of the best we've got."—Maggie Nelson

[Reet · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though this author did have some beautifully lyrical and imaginative words and phrases, I didn't care too much for this, for two reasons: it's a love story and it's not prose.

When I checked it out from the library, I didn't realize it was in poetry form. Poetry isn't usually my thing, though I do have a couple of authors I like. W.H. Auden is one of them.

[lianne · Rating 2 out of 5]

i'm just not a fan of poetry.

however, some parts of this book were interesting. alright... i just really liked the cave part and peter. but yeah. couldn't get into it.

maybe it just seemed too much like a crazy lesbian diary.

[butterbook · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry, stories, and letters. Liebegott writes about traveling through Idaho in her truck, lost love, struggling for connections, making her way in the world. Worth the read if you find it laying around (unlikely, as it's published by a super-small publisher, but ya never know).

[Keelyn Healy]

can't wait to read

[Herbie]

I wrote down some thoughts about this book and now I lost them. Because i have no home base and live a nomadic lifestyle. Fuck it!

[joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

a favorite.

[Cat · Rating 4 out of 5]

this has to be some of the best verse i've ever read in my entire life. i do, however, prefer liebegott's fiction to her poetry. but still a beautiful and haunting read.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

i'm a sucker for ali liebegott.

[Amy D.P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most beautifully, messed-up written books I have ever read...brilliant!

[Rachel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I really wanted to like this, but I couldn't even finish it. It's spectacularly overwrought and way too contrived for my tastes.