In her 4th novel, Laurie Foos once again creates a world of unexpected events, absurdities, and characters who are doing their best to cope with situations that are way, way weird: but this time she brings a whole new level of maturity and daring to her writing. The main character of "Bingo" is a young woman who's an artist-figure--she makes dolls, and she's great at it--and she has got to reckon with terrible abuse from her past, abuse that was kept secret. The central point is the grotesque, abrud spectre of a grown man who has mysteriously changed into an infant--in a lesser writer's hands, this stuff would just be nutso. But in Foos's hands, it's highly effective. And the subplot of a teen beauty queen giving birth at halftime of a football game is absolutely unforgettable. It's a wild ride, this, and hugely worth it.

While "Portrait of the Walrus by a Young Artist" certainly contains some humerous passages, a likeable heroine and enough surreality to keep the reader engaged, the book lacks the depth nessisary to sustain the themes presented in its opening chapter. Really, reading the synopsis of the book and the first few pages is enough, as what follows reverts to cliche and cartoonish symbolism. Foos uses 175 pages to essentially state that normal life is a boring escape from the arduous personal experience nessisary to truely be an "artist." It's a theme present in countless other books, many of which take the subject on with some sort of insight or depth of perception lacking in this book. Chip Kidd's "THe Cheese Monkeys" for one contains many of the same ideas as this book, but his writing is consistent, his characters believable, etc.
This is not to say that this is a bad book, exactly, merely not the powerful testimate of an artist's coming of age as some reviewers suggest. It's recommended for anyone looking for something slightly off-kilter and entertaining. For more satisfying fare, you may want to check out "the cheese monkeys" or robert irwin's "exquisite corpse," both of which cover the same material foos does, but with more pleasing results.

This is a disturbing novel. It's unsettling. It has sharp corners, shadows. It explores the seamy underside of the unconscious. The young artist has to go on vision quest through the valley of her inner and outer demons in order to emerge whole and empowered, a heroine and artist in the end. The story functions as a vision quest. A young girl in American suburbia with a bouffant mother, an assinine (and threatening) stepfather, tries to use her art to reconstruct and resurrect her lost and damned sculptor father, and doing so, finds herself. The surreal symbolism is effective with its many references to the underwater world, mating walruses, sharks, drowning. The bathtub where the sculptor father drowns becomes the sea from which the reborn heroine emerges. Brilliant, cerebral, risk-taking writing from the most innovative young writers of our time. After you read this novel, you will never look at pizza or bowling balls the same way again.

This is a disturbing novel. It's unsettling. It has sharp corners, shadows. It explores the seamy underside of the unconscious. The young artist has to go on vision quest through the valley of her inner and outer demons in order to emerge whole and empowered, a heroine and artist in the end. The story functions as a vision quest. A young girl in American suburbia with a bouffant mother, an assinine (and threatening) stepfather, tries to use her art to reconstruct and resurrect her lost and damned sculptor father, and doing so, finds herself. The surreal symbolism is effective with its many references to the underwater world, mating walruses, sharks, drowning. The bathtub where the sculptor father drowns becomes the sea from which the reborn heroine emerges. Brilliant, cerebral, risk-taking writing from the most innovative young writers of our time. After you read this novel, you will never look at pizza or bowling balls the same way again.

I love modern books by modern women -- Kate Atkinson, Liz Jensen, Lisa Alther -- that have a sense of the irrational. I also love trawling the Fiction aisles for new women writers. Naturally I was intrigued by this title, and bought it to read -- what a letdown! This is book has no plot -- a woman loses her uterus, looks for it, gets scared that she'll never find it, then finds it. Big deal. It's completely improbable, but not even in a fun way -- reading about some guy using a power drill to try to re-open a woman's bloodless vagina, with skins shards flying everywhere, made me positively sick. This is not the type of thing where a woman will get it, and a man won't -- I'm a woman, and to me this book SUCKED.

This book was so funny I couldn't put it down--perhaps because I identified with the main character, a childess woman heading into the end of her fertile years. The book actually changed me--which is a rare and wonderful reading experience--especially if done while laughing out loud.

Despite the constant humor (ala Thomas Pynchon), the motivations of the each character's odd behavior(s) seemed very real and revealing to me especially when juxtaposed against lost uteruses, sealed vaginas that have "closed up shop" and a world full of erections.

It was interesting to see how people depend on each other in a whirlwind of crazness. The book isn't expensive and it's a small investment of your time too--big font on small pages and it starts out with a humorous bang immediately. DO IT! I'm following up by reading F/32, by Eurydice. It is also amazing and impacting.

There are so many tidy examples of stereotypical points of view about sexuality that fit into this short book. It's a cozy fit, just like Rita's womb sitting next to her in the booth at the diner.

It's a relief to laugh at common opinions that in normal life feel like sharp barbs.

Thank you Ms. Foos.

This book is advertised as a comedy but it isn't funny. It isn't much of anything except hard to follow, uninteresting and strange. I guess I'm just not "literary" enough to enjoy this type of book! I don't think it will ever be a best seller.

Laurie Foos is a magician. There are scenes in "Twinship" that leave you dazzled, and wondering, "How did she pull that off?" Her vision is unique and exciting, and every sentence is clearly the work of a writer who's an artist. When a woman gives birth to a baby who turns out to be a clone, the plot takes off into territory most writers would not dare enter, but Foos goes in with courage and daring. Underneath the sometimes wild momentum of the plot are deeply realized, very human experiences, especially when Foos turns her attention to the layers and layers of a mother-child relationship that's comic and profound. Reading this novel is that rare thing: an excellent adventure.

Laurie Foos delivers a howlingly funny send-up of ravenous research hospitals, overbearing mothers, and Royal groupies. Maxi is in her mid-thirties, unmarried, and desperate to please her mother, Minnie. With no spouse on the horizon, Maxi enlists the aid of her friend, Jerry--who may or may not be gay--to help "father" a child. Maxi and Minnie savor the gestation of "their baby," and eagerly await its delivery. But something goes wrong. Maxi gives birth to herself--a clone. Maxi goes into shock, Minnie goes into spasms of joy, and the frenzied medical community goes after the clone. Unfortunately for the research doctors, Minnie is faster, smarter, and more motivated than are they. Despite draconian security measures, she kidnaps the rapidly-growing Middle and disappears into the night. Will Maxi be able to recover from the shock and exhaustion of birthing herself to find Minnie and Maxi? What else will she discover along the way? Come along for the chase--by bus, by car, and by foot!

I loved this story. It is smart, funny, and ultimately thought-provoking. American women of all ages and gestational-status will laugh with, worry about, and cheer for Maxi and Middle. Grab a cup of coffee, settle into a comfortable chair, and prepare yourself for a great read.