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Elly Fisher is confused --- and confusing. The jacket copy for Lisa Kusel's OTHER FISH IN THE SEA describes Elly, the link between the ten stories within, as "a brash, searching, adventurous young woman whose desire for love and understanding takes her to places as far flung as a ranch in Colorado, a newspaper's personal ads, Europe, and even into the arms of a married man." The confused part is evident from this brief description; Elly hasn't settled down and perhaps doesn't know what she wants.
What makes Elly confusing is more complicated. Kusel's device of weaving Elly in and out of the stories from different perspectives shows the author's cleverness, moxie and finely tuned sensibility. Her mother, carefully groomed inside and out, comes to life in "Juvenile Hall." Lydia Jimenez, the self-taught artist and narrator of "Prairie Dogs," experiences Elly's unsettling presence on a cattle ranch. Scott Rusk, D.D.S. sees Elly through the lens of his own troubled marriage. From Elly's therapist to her friends to her sometimes hapless and nearly always temporary lovers, we learn about aspects of her life but are never sure of the precise chronology.
Trying to grasp Elly Fisher seems impossible, like trying to catch a single minnow with a normal-sized fish hook. That may of course be Kusel's point: which character in this collection might claim to truly know Elly? Even Naomi sees a different Elly than the one who appears in the previous stories: "She liked the fact that Elly didn't find complete happiness in her travels, either in love or in adventure, but she wouldn't say that out loud." Like the stories of so many of the other fish in our various seas, Elly's remains incomplete. In "Bones" therapist Maxine asks Elly, "How do you want to be?" and Elly answers, "I want to be able to take more initiative without thinking of the outcomes before they even happen." In some of these stories, it seems as if the author herself thought of the outcomes and then became inhibited by them.
While there are problems with OTHER FISH IN THE SEA --- some unconvincing dialogue and thin characterization in spots --- there are also moments of true insight and beauty. The title story (at sixty pages, the longest and most fully realized) brings together the ideas of dream narrative, perfect love and fate. That's a lot, and the story isn't perfect --- but it is haunting. Given a choice between achieving perfection or making an impression, my guess is that both Kusel and her character Elly would choose the latter.
--- Reviewed by Bethanne Kelly Patrick
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