Everybody Into The Pool

Beth Lisick
Regan Media (2006)
ISBN 0060834269
Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (8/06)

I found “Everybody into the Pool” to be quirky, extremely honest and very funny.   Beth Lisick is a natural storyteller who describes her life in a way that most of us only wish we could.  Lisick developed this amazing sense of humor while growing up in a normal “Leave it to Beaver” household during the 1960’s and 1970’s sexual revolution.  Her tales span from idolizing her “hippie” babysitter to chronicling San Francisco’s alternative lifestyles. 

Lisick laughs at herself as she describes her early transformation from geeky kid to ultra tanned homecoming queen in high school while wearing an oversized puffy sleeved plaid fashion disaster with royal blue, lime green, canary yellow, and bright pink with just a touch of purple.  From there her stories lead through college to her beliefs in her own sexuality.  Her total honesty in the Chapter “My Way or the Bi Way” where she believes she is bi-sexual is definitely not for the conservative reader.  Lisick’s experience with a woman was described as “There’s no doubt I enjoyed myself, but it was similar to the way I enjoyed waterskiing for the first time or eating uni.  I jumped in with a positive attitude, realizing it was an activity beloved by millions, but it didn’t exactly push me over the edge.” 

Always underpaid, living on the edge of poverty, even working as a giant banana, Lisick’s describes her artsy life on the fringe of San Francisco’s counter culture.  During her dives into this culture she finally meets her husband, Eli, in the chapter titled “The One”.  Eli is a product of a homosexual father and lesbian mother who are very open about their sexuality.  Of course, Beth takes this in stride and really likes the family. Not surprisingly. It turns out that Eli is a poor musician living illegally in a Mission District warehouse in a drug infested neighborhood.  After Lisick moves all of her things into this warehouse, the sewage pipes from the residential hotel above them explode, sending excrement and toilet paper all over her things. This leads her to decide that Eli really is “The One”.

The litany continues describing her first home purchase in a drug infested neighborhood to motherhood.  I especially enjoyed the chapter “Little Bundle of Entropy”.  She had me laughing as she lives life in the counterculture while cooking, driving a station wagon and being a mom.  I really believe that Beth is the way to the top, and of course her arrival there will be on her terms.  I would love to see her do an HBO or Comedy Channel special.  For a good light read, you don’t want to miss “Everybody into the Pool”.

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