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REVIEWS
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November/December Book Sense 76 Pick!
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"This is a great original debut. The central character of Elly is uniquely portrayed through interconnected short stories that span time and geography to illuminate her desire to find true love."
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Jamie Jacobson, Book World, West Caldwell, NJ
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read bookreporter.com review
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In this paperback original, Lisa Kusel makes her debut with 10 interconnected stories about a young woman searching for love and trying to find her way in the world. Elly Fisher's journey of self-discovery takes her from San Diego to Colorado and on to Europe, Rhode Island, and Seattle, with each destination bringing new characters and interesting adventures into her life. Similar in style to A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, Kusel's amusing stories present a fresh and compelling new voice in women's fiction.
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Pages Magazine, September/October 2003
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Kusel's debut falls halfway between a novel and a story collection; Elly Fisher figures into all 10 stories in some way or another, but she's not always the central character. Elly's intense search for love is always a factor in the stories, whether she's bemoaning a recent break-up or pursuing a new conquest. In "Prairie Dogs," Lydia, a young woman who has been hired to paint a mural at a rich senator's ranch, watches as Elly waltzes in and flirts with Wade, the man she has a crush on. Wade just happens to be the brother of the man who brought Elly to the ranch in the first place. Tom, a researcher at the San Diego Zoo, becomes infatuated with Elly until he learns firsthand how clingy she can be, in "Bars." In the final story, "The Other Side," a young mother finds Elly's diary from her postcollegiate European trip and goes to meet the older, possibly wiser Elly. An intriguing look at a young woman's quest for fulfillment, love, and maturity.
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Kristine Huntley Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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"Simultaneously haunting and humorous, Lisa Kusel's Other Fish in the Sea is a moving reminder that before embracing love we must first remove the sharp edges."
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Laura Wolf, Author of Diary of a Mad Bride and Diary of a Mad Mom To-Be
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"In these clearsighted, courageous stories of modern love, Lisa Kusel explores the distances-of emotion, geography, and time-that exist between women and men attempting to come together. Love is here portrayed as elusive, intractable, desirable-a struggle between privacy and intimacy, dependence and self-knowledge. In Kusel's world, passion and romance are often set against the landscape, which functions alternately as haven and hindrance. I found myself rooting for Elly, the character who graces, in some way, each story. Once I entered her world, I couldn't put this book down-I had to find out if she would ultimately find real love."
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Andrew Winer, Author of The Color Midnight Made
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"Lisa Kusel work's is compelling, rich and multi-layered. Her style is tender and sophisticated and yet at the same time true, and she even dares to be harsh. Her approach is innovative and her characters intriguing. I felt she brought me dozens of lives to dip into."
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Adele Parks, Author of Playing Away: A Novel
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"In Other Fish in the Sea, Lisa Kusel has accomplished quite a feat: a collection of interconnected stories and perspectives that reads, ultimately, like a novel, with a novel's satisfaction. An adroit debut from a fresh, caustic, amusing, and always engaging voice."
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Sands Hall, Author of Catching Heaven
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A series of ten interconnected stories provides snapshots of the life of Elly Fisher, following her from her teens to her thirties. Elly is not the main character of all of the stories, but she manages to emerge as the focal point even in the tales that seem to be about something else entirely. In "Perdition," a story about a young married couple, Elly mixes things up when she has an affair with the husband and then leaves town. "SWM" chronicles a number of dates Elly endures after responding to personal ads. The final story, "The Other Side," focuses on Naomi, who married young and regrets the adventure she feels she's missing. After finding and reading Elly's travel diary and meeting Elly to return the book, Naomi realizes that she can find what she's longing for closer to home. All of the stories include, to some degree, Elly's relationships with men. In the end she is married, but how that came about is left to the imagination. With its linked stories, Kusel's debut collection recalls Melissa Banks's A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, but without the hype... Recommended for large public libraries.-Karen Core, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
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Library Journal
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The moment I picked up Other Fish in the Sea, the debut fiction by Lisa Kusel, I was hooked. Told from multiple perspectives, these 10 interconnected short stories take you on a journey through the life and travels of Elly Fisher as she grows from a naive teenager into a woman in her 30s as she searches for love and meaning in her life. I found this book to be not only witty and insightful, but filled with charming and relatable characters. Humorous and easy to read, this book is definitely a must-read.
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SGMAG.COM (Surfer/Skater/Snow Girl Magazine) Review by Lauren Flenniken
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