Lisa’s Work
Explore a selection of my published works, from books to essays and more.
NEW YORK TIMES Notable Book of the Year
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JUST LIKE BEAUTY is a first novel that places a timeless theme -- the adolescent yearning for love from mothers (and others) -- against a jarringly futuristic backdrop of high-tech food, mutant animals, socially sanctioned violence, and despoliation of the planet. This surprising juxtaposition gives author Lisa Lerner a fresh and funny way to explore family dynamics, gender roles, competitiveness, and "the beauty myth" in a society that keeps reinventing them anew for each generation. In the mold of Don Delillo's White Noise, JUST LIKE BEAUTY offers a comically trenchant look at where our culture is heading and the absurdity that passes for ordinary.
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* EXCITING UPDATE *
Just Like Beauty is going to be a movie! Currently in production with Lars Von Trier's Zentropa Production Company, set to shoot in 2026!
“...captivating... a work of striking lyricism and jittery energy...Lerner writes in a prose style that is intricate, poetic, and full of surprises...In a lesser writer’s hands, such an exaggerated view of womanhood might have seemed silly or unbelieveable. But Lerner has the gifts to make it all work — the girls seem real, and you want them to escape.”
“...a gutsy and wildly imaginative first novel. It’s a freak show, but with human touches about the need for motherly approval and the ecstasy of first love. Bottom Line: Beautiful debut.”
“...more comic relief than feminist manifesto...weird, wacky and worth it.”
“...fiercely imagined... a bracing vision of how young women are taught to strive for a synthetic femininity.”
Essays
“College Essays of Disney Princeses Who Have No Transcripts and Want to Get Credit for Life Skills” (Little Old Lady, 2020)
“Ex-Boyfriend Herbed Frittata” (Little Old Lady, 2020)
“This Mom I Know” (Hobart, 2019)
“Libretto for a Fantasia Sung by a Family in Cranford, New Jersey” (McSweeney’s, 2019)
“Once Upon a Time in the Quiet Kingdom of Sacramento” (Queen Mobs, 2016)
Educational Publishing
The Little Soup Kitchen That Could
Silicon Valley Real Estate
Keeping Water Healthy
Fountas and Pinnell Literacy Project
I’m available for educational writing! Learn more here.
