Review: Beauty Talk & Monsters

Beauty Talk & Monsters
Masha Tupitsyn

Semiotext(e) Native Agents
Street: 05.25

Tupitsyn is no one’s fool when it comes to combining–in a po-mo blend of memoirs, astute observations witty one-liners, her life and love of her city. She combs the streets through the mitigating lens of the movies, and doesn’t question the visual dominance of culture. But while she is on one hand erudite as she talks about the class conflict of Dirty Dancing, there is something not quite right (or maybe forced) in the way cultural theory gets slipped in and out of the book like a drunk one-night stand. While I am usually turned off by what, on first encounter, seems to me as meaningless posturing running through some of the more bland spots (meditations on Susan Sarandon, Cher and Michelle Pfiffer, anyone?), Tupitsyn is a fine writer; a more expansive (and female) Nate Martin. –Erik Lopez