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THE BATTALION
Wednesday, March 6, 2002
aking Scenes
r yper text author Adrienne Eisen
iscusses her first print novel
Making Scenes
Adrienne Eisen
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By Lizette Resendez
THE BATTALION
Author Adrienne Eisen has been making waves.
Bulimics, hypertext students, athletic women and
n craving fellatio have tried contacting Eisen
fler reading her novel Making Scenes.
Eisen said girls suffering from bulimia have
t|ld her she captured the true essence of the dis
order.
I Readers may feel Eisen's protagonist is easy to
relate to partly because the main character and her
many experiences stem from Eisen’s life.
I Eisen said she drew from herself and the peo
ple around her to create the main character.
I Another way Eisen succeeded in creating a
believable character was by not giving her a name.
I “I write a lot from my own experiences,”
Eisen said. “If I gave the character a name, I
would get bored.”
I Eisen said giving the character her name would
make the novel similar to a memoir.
I The main character is a 20-something who
leaves college to move to Los Angeles and
bt come a professional beach volleyball player.
During her journey she stumbles across numerous
sexual encounters — one with a faithful lover
“|\ho refused to use sharp objects” and another
with a Jewish lesbian bulimic.
I She also changes jobs as fast as she changes
her sexual identity.
I Her honest questions about life and her
search for self-identity make it easy for readers
to sympathize.
I Eisen said her book has been especially pop
ular among college students.
I “1 think 20-year-olds have a lot of ambition,”
Eisen said. “The world is at your feet. It’s really
hard to describe the sheer ambition and thrill of
being able to do anything, but most people fail,
even though the world looks like they can do
anything.”
Eisen said she tried to balance the excitement
of going into the world with the disappointments
that accompany the trip.
Making Scenes is Eisen’s first printed novel,
however, she has many writings in hypertext.
In 1993, Eisen began writing for CD-ROM.
While in graduate school, the Internet grew and
Eisen was forced to drop CD-ROMs in exchange
for hypertext markup language, or HTML, to take
her writing online.
“In 1994, I learned how to do HTML,” Eisen
said. “(It) was a total nightmare.”
In fact. Making Scenes was initially published
as hypertext and divided into four stories.
“I think that each piece stands on its own for
the most part” Eisen said. “Literary magazines
like them because they’re short.”
However, it took Eisen five years to complete
her book.
Eisen, who said she did not know she was writ
ing a novel at the time, said she began with page-
long stories.
“I did that for like two years, I got the hang of
it and saw that I could put a book together,”
Eisen said.
Eisen “lined up” her short stories, had friends
edit her work and then filled in the holes.
She said the most thrilling part of the book is
the self-discovery that comes with completing
the novel.
“In order to make a book work, you have to
know something about yourself, if you know
everything about the book before you sit down,
it’s boring,” Eisen said. “The process of discov
ery is a payoff. It’s really thrilling at the end.”
Eisen also had to consider the reader’s feelings
and ask what her readers will take from the novel.
“In order to structure my feelings in a way
that makes sense to everyone else, I think I had
to think a lot of what I had gone through,” Eisen
said. “What does that mean and why does that
matter? In a diary you can just spew. In a novel,
you owe it to your reader to be interesting.”
"I look through the specks of vomit for
sleeping pills ... 1 push the vomit on the
floor into a pile and lay my face in it."
Making Scenes is filled with a young
girl's experiences with bulimia, lesbian
ism and beach volleyball, among other
things. Squirmish readers should avoid
Adrienne Eisen's new book. However,
those ready for a dose of reality should approach the book
as though they are approaching an altar.
Making Scenes is a coming-of-age story about a young girl
ready to conquer the world of professional beach volleyball
in Los Angeles. She also has an insatiable desire for sex,
food and literature. She devours each as if it was precious
fuel.
Along the way she switches jobs as often as she makes
herself throw up Doritos and whipped cream.
She holds jobs at a book store, a Crate & Barrel, works
alongside commodities traders and signs autographs for a
celebrity.
The down and dirty language is shocking and, at many
times, hilarious.
While many readers may not be able to relate to the
protagonist's problems, they will find themselves sympa
thizing with her and cheering her on as she confronts and
conquers one problem after another.
Overall, Eisen has done an effective job of telling her story
to her readers and teaching them the lessons she learned.
(Grade: A)
—Lizette Resendez]
-X ^ ML
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