The List is an irreverent, sophisticated take on the classic breakup story. In fierce and exquisite prose, Tara Ison has written an astonishing story of love and hate.
Isabel is finishing medical school and destined to become a brilliant heart surgeon. Al is a video store clerk, a one-hit-wonder director whose first and only film became a cult classic. Their electric, passionate, and deeply maddening relationship can't possibly work. Tired of endlessly coming together and breaking up, they make a list of ten things to do before they finally say good-bye. But after a few perfect dates the list takes a dark turn, and their plan spirals out of control as they realize they would rather destroy each other than let go.
Tara Ison is the author of the short story collection BALL, the novels THE LIST, ROCKAWAY, and A CHILD OUT OF ALCATRAZ, a Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Awards. Her essay collection REELING THROUGH LIFE was the winner of the 2015 PEN Southwest Award for Creative Nonfiction.
Her novel of WWII Vichy France, AT THE HOUR BETWEEN DOG AND WOLF, will be published in February 2023.
Her short fiction, essays, poetry and book reviews have appeared in Tin House, BOMB, Salon, O, the Oprah Magazine, The Kenyon Review, Nerve.com, Black Clock, Publisher's Weekly, The Week magazine, The Mississippi Review, LA Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Chicago Tribune, the San Jose Mercury News, and numerous anthologies. She is also the co-writer of the movie Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead.
She is the recipient of a 2008 NEA Creative Writing Fellowship and a 2008 COLA Individual Artist Grant, as well as multiple Yaddo fellowships and Pushcart Prize nominations, a Rotary Foundation Scholarship for International Study, a Brandeis National Women's Committee Award, a Thurber House Fiction Writer-in-Residence Fellowship, the Simon Blattner Fellowship from Northwestern University, and a California Arts Council Artists' Fellowship Award.
Ison received her MFA in Fiction & Literature from Bennington College. She has taught creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Goddard College, Antioch University Los Angeles, and UC Riverside Palm Desert's MFA in Creative Writing program. She is currently Assistant Professor of Fiction at Arizona State University."
Why are two people who are so obviously mismatched compelled to be together? Reason dictates that if you are miserable together, you should be able to part ways, never to look back. What mysterious force draws us back and binds us to each other? What makes us remember the most obscure detail (a gesture, a scent) and turns it into a reason to stay? And should these little reasons be enough? The List, by Tara Ison, explores these excruciating puzzles within a tumultuous relationship.
Isabel and Al are as incompatible as couples get. One is driven and high-strung while the other basks in his slacker life-style. They can never seem to keep their relationship going for long, and yet can not resist the urge to reunite. Does the need to hang on to each other come from the fear of missing out on experiences left unshared? Isabel and Al set off to find out with unexpected, and often undesirable, results.
So much rang true in this story. Jealousy, anger, affection, desperation, lust, and memory whirlpool around this couple as they search for closure before moving on from their emotionally violent love. We watch them fight. We watch them profoundly misunderstand each other. We wonder how two people can ever come together in midst of all that is hurtfully said, and all that is felt and never said at all. And yet, when we are given a glimpse inside their heads and shown moments of tenderness and wonder, we understand why these two persist in hanging on.
In reading The List, I found myself torn, like the characters, not knowing whether to root for separation or reconciliation. Like most really remarkable books, this one gave me insight into myself and my own stormy relationships. Being able to observe this familiar couple was a strange, sometimes painful experience. I would guess the vast majority adults have been through a relationship of this ilk. The List is a wonderful sympathetic novel for all of us who have ever questioned ourselves in terms of our emotional bonds, our fears, and our choices.
There is something so honest about this book that I knew within the first few pages it would be one I would always have at the top of my favorites and must read list.
Isabel and Al have broken up before, but this time, they vow, will be the last time. Isabel is about to start her surgical residency and Al is ... going to continue working in a video store, watching lots of movies, and lounging on the nearest available comfortable couch.
But before they really, truly call it quits, why not enjoy their final days together? They've got two weeks before Isabel's residency, so why not share some final experiences before they civilly, maturely part for good?
So Isabel and Al make a list of "mutually agreed" experiences: they'll eat steamed clams at the Santa Monica pier, they'll sleep on the roof of the Holiday Inn on Sunset, they'll watch I, Claudius and they'll go Rollerblading. Once they've finished the 10 items on their list, they'll be finished, too.
Their friends think they're crazier than usual. Al's pal Jules insists that Isabel is manipulative, that she doesn't properly appreciate Al's shaggy puppy qualities. Isabel's friend Van chides her for giving up a prestigious residency to stay with Al, and for all the times she's been late, hung over, or unprepared because Al is a bad influence.
The friends, of course, are right. As Isabel and Al progress through the list, their love-hate relationship becomes more obviously destructive, progressing from emotional wounds to "accidents" that hit each where they are most vulnerable.
Though neither as sparsely lyrical nor as baroque, still reminiscent of Josephine Hart. Damage, indeed.
He's now wildly fiscally desirable; banks are thrusting low APRs at him, realtors are pouncing, he gets platinum cards, gold cards, silver cards, offers of high-ranking elemental credit coming daily in the mail, and all this despite still owing ninety-seven thousand dollars in student loans.
Fate's just a lull, but then it can't lead to anything good.
At Pali High there'd been a teacher who taught a sociology class called Contemporary American Problems, who'd fix each girl in the class with a piercing stare and tell them the way to choose a husband was simple, there was only one important rule, forget sex and money and status, turn Marvin Gaye off and remember that any creep can get his hands on a Beemer or have fancy business cards printed up, the rule was: Do you want this guy to be the father of your children? That's how a smart girl picks a guy. And at the time she'd thought: But what about if I have no interest in ever getting married, or ever having children? What's the rule for picking a guy then? Do I just go back to sex and money and status? Tell me that rule. Tell me the procedure, the protocol, for how to make the right, perfect choice.
Long story short, the book wasn't as good as I thought it would be. It jumped off the shelf at me, and because I have this sort of spiritual reverence about books (when I was a kid, I would pick a book at random off the library shelf and smell it, because I believed good books had a certain smell - that's how I read Shakespeare in middle school, D'Aulaire's illustrated Greek myths, the book on palmistry, my favorite Tamora Pierce books) I bought it. It was good - very The Time Traveler's Wife, in a way, with the alternating points of view and the trips back in memory, and the searing moments of remembering something intimate, not necessarily physical but often so. It was very well-written, and engaging, and my jaw certainly dropped at the penultimate chapter. But it didn't change my world the way some books do.
Slow read but enough to keep my interest to the end. The last thirty or forty pages are the best part of the book. Unfortunately the book climax's four pages from the end and than skips forward with no explanation or expansion on the best part. It's reminiscent of premature ejaculation with a girl that just lays there until your done. I don't think I could recommend this as a good read to anyone other than a romance fan.
Sometimes when you're in something too deep and it becomes confusing it's easy to obsessively try to unscramble it-- like you'll figure out The Answer to what is so wrong between you. (But of course it never happens.) Tara Ison manages to tell the story of one ridiculously disfunctional couple by interweaving each side and somehow unscrambling it into a complete picture. Everyone's right. Everyone's wrong. Mostly just really, really wrong for each other though.
dark take on an unconventional end to a dysfunctional relationship...i preferred the beginning to the end, very quick read...what sucked me in was the amazing details of the minutia of the relationship of the main characters- what brought them together woven in with what was tearing them apart...plus it was set in L.A., which is enjoyable for me to picture the places and people...
sorta interesting stuff with alternate perspectives and stream of consciousness. sentences were either too long or fragmented, very little in between. im gonna go back to playing bakery story 2 now
I can kind of see why this book has such a low rating—its prose and story structure are unconventional and some odd things occur with the “protagonists’” characterization at times—but I thought it was brilliant. Ison’s prose is beautiful and unique, often poetic, and it follows its own rhythm irrespective of convention. Given the core subject matter, I thought the constant shift from past to present, from reality to fantasy, was appropriate. We’re seeing a relationship in its dying throes and the attendant terminal lucidity before the two main characters leap back into cycles of self-destruction.
I’ve been in a similarly dysfunctional relationship, so perhaps this story resonated with me in ways that it wouldn’t for others. The hot-cold nature of it, the breaking up and getting back together. It’s a singular type of exhaustion and the epitome of “better the devil you know.” After a while, the toxicity becomes comfortable, familiar—seductive, even. And equally seductive are the genuine moments of tenderness and triumph in an otherwise bleak dynamic. Ison captured all of these messy nuances with a masterful touch.
My only qualms that prevented this from getting a solid 5 were that the dialogue was unrealistic in several scenes, which is a pet peeve of mine, and there were certain sections that went a little too hard with the navelgazing, thereby adversely impacting the pacing. They didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment too much, but they were salient.
This is easily one of my favorite books I’ve read in quite some time, and I’d encourage anyone reading to give it a go. It’s disheartening that truly awful books can net 4+ star averages while hidden gems like this remain sorely underrated.
Hmm I don't know what to say about this book--I almost didn't understand it well enough to fully review it probably because I got lost in parts it was well written and interesting yes but there was a lot of extraneous information and vague huge plot lines and I reread and still came up lost at parts LOL..so okay readers the basic plot, there are two really fleshed out and annoying people who have found each other and despite every reason to walk away and leave each other alone forever decide to stay together and basically ruin each other just to stay together. So you meet Isabel, bright brilliant and aspiring heart surgeon who is aggressively pursuing her career and despite her amazing knowledge and future plans she meets Al, a lazy slobby video store clerk that barely meets any girl's expectations who is sweet and sometimes caring and though they are truly from different worlds and Al's laidback irreverence to life awakens Isabel but also destroys her perfect attendance and performance..so is that wrong, should she stay with the guy who makes her happy but ruins her life or live a great life and not have the silliness and fun? she finds with her loser boyfriend..well she chooses to leave him and for the hundredth time it seems they decide to break up--but just so there are no lingering feelings they decide to write a list of all the things they want to do together before they break up..here I was with the book I liked the concept and okay the list was cheesy but I read on, and it just got really weird fast..So inside basically each number of the list they took the time to destroy each other mentally by choosing the most antagonizing things for each of them, by snide digs and comments and by dragging along their best friends who crazily follow this destructive duo around..As they almost kill each other twice, break things, go blind and attempt a wild ass foursome-(really:>?) so yea the book was well written for sure, with great vocabulary and imagery but it got confusing at the end, it just ..what? Okay so yeah done and ready for a new read but for the writing it gains a star...Next please :)
It's an interesting concept, this. Having been in one or two destructive relationships, I could empathise with both the characters, and am having some perverse delight in watching them drive each other crazy. Been there, done that, take sadistic pleasure in watching it happen to two complete strangers! But even if I hadn’t, the way the characters are introduced entices the reader into their lives in such a way that one feels a part of their lives. It's all written in the present tense, of which I'm not usually a fan, but it works here, keeping the reader involved in the action. There’s also the added twist of the chapters being narrated, turn and turn about, by the protagonists, so that the inner thoughts of each are exposed.
This had moments of very dark humour that had my doing my "Evil Mastermind" laugh every now and then. It gets slightly surreal near the end as the actions of the characters get more twisted and extreme, but it still manages to keep on track and delivers an ending that is perhaps slightly unexpected.
Not having read Ison’s previous novel, I can’t say whether or not this style is typical of her, but her style is certainly appealing and I would be interested in reading more of her work in future.
How do I feel about this book..I really don't know. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either. It was the story of two people that are basically addicted to each other but can't seem to get rid of each other, even though they are so wrong for each other, so in a way I can relate (as I think that most people can)
I'm not in love with the authors writing style. At first glance when I looked at this book I figured it was an easy to read book that I would get done in a day or two, MAX, but it took me longer. It just didn't flow like I like books to flow.
Also...one minor complaint...the author kept using a word (I can't for the life of me remember what it was and I couldn't find it flipping through the book) it was a word I've never heard/read/saw before, which doesn't bother me but it was obviously a super obscur word (at least in my world) and she used it several times. I just thought it was annoying...but that is more of a personal thing :D I would like to find it again so that I can look it up and see what the hell it means :D
I did not like this book. I kind of hate that I wasted time reading it. The idea that a relationship can be toxic but the couple still just can't let go makes sound relatable. But it lacked passion so bad. The redeeming qualities that they try to talk up in each other just weren't passionate enough in the delivery to be believable. It's like two people who like to have sex and drink. But because they like it. Not because they love it. He loves her comfy bed and couch and the light in her apartment. I don't think there was anything she really loved... They don't even love the same things? or even like the same things? I don't even think the book delves surface deep into these two people. But they continue this relationship that isn't really toxic until the very, very end. So it's just two people that like to not be alone, and are together, but also don't want to be in a relationship. And as far as I can tell they just don't want to be in a relationship with each other because. That is all.
Tara Ison breathes life into a breakup story to elevate her novel to a new perspective. In her novel, a couple agrees to complete a list of perfect dates before they break up, in order to find closure in the end of their on-again off-again relationship, What makes this novel truly remarkable is its balanced perspective. Even though she tells the story of a breakup, Ison refuses to glorify or vilify either side. She remains sympathetic to both, even in the depths of their vindictiveness. The story felt human because there were no absolutes—neither character was completely responsible for the downhill turn in their relationship. She balanced their perspectives by alternating chapters in limited third person, keeping their voices equal but delineated. The symbol of the heart is perhaps overplayed in Ison’s novel. While references are grounded in the protagonist’s study of cardiology, the heart is such a cliché for romance novels. It came off like a very calculated, writerly move.
This turned out to be a surprisingly tedious read. The conflict of perspectives was intriguing, and the writing is so well articulated and refined, but there were points where I had to put the book down and stare at a wall to drive all the irritation out of my system. The book basically unravels to a point we knew was coming--this is a destructive couple. Great. They go their own separate ways because they both seriously need to start fresh. Great.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I just pulled this off the shelf at the library (while holding a very heavy one year old and chasing a 3 year old). It was ok...vaguely interesting at moments.
I'm not mad I spent time reading it, but definitely wouldn't read it again.
I don't know? It held my interest enough to want to know what happened but was still a struggle to read. I guess I could give more details, but I need to go to bed having stayed up too late to finish this book. I did not like Isabel.