THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 5, 1997 TAG: 9701060179
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY JULIE PARKER
LENGTH: 52 lines
LIVING IT UP
Humorous Adventures in Hyperdomesticity
KAREN FINLEY
Doubleday. 148 pp. $15.95.
It will come as no surprise to those who know Karen Finley's work that her new book is just a wee bit outrageous. OK, it's more than that. But you wouldn't expect anything less from the woman whose semi-clad visual performances found her squared off with a certain North Carolina senator over the question, What is Art?
(After the uproar with Jesse, Finley's work with the medium of chocolate pudding was adjudged outside the ``general standards of decency'' by a beleaguered National Endowment for the Arts, and she was denied grant money.)
In Living It Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyperdomesticity, Finley blatantly spoofs the good-taste maven Martha Stewart. If you don't think this is a form of sacrilege, you'll probably have a good time with this book. Finley gives a full calendar year's worth of fanciful and novel ideas for holiday gift-giving and decorating from the perspective of a woman who thinks of nothing else.
For instance, in January she gives you the perfect solution for what to do with all those pesky pine needles that keep surfacing long after the tree's been dragged out. She sprinkles them in her silverware drawer and uses them to make underwear sachets.
In February, to ward off those deep winter blues, she creates a ``depression room'' with ``a personal altar to everything that makes me feel good, that gives me a sense of purpose. I include my coffee grinder, my cappuccino maker, my stain removers, my double-stick tape, my super thin, long vaccum attachment to reach in those hard-to-get places like radiators, my KitchenAid blender. . . . '' You get the picture?
Finley encourages you to let your imagination run wild with theme parties and projects based on O.J., Tonya and Nancy, and the Menendez brothers. I wouldn't dream of giving away her John Wayne Bobbitt Father's Day centerpiece, or her idea for a July 4th decoration that uses a picture of Rush Limbaugh.
Living It Up is basically a one-joke deal, but Finley plays it with childish glee, serving up disgusting recipes that a 5-year-old might invent. Her accompanying illustrations are wonderfully spare. (You'll be thankful for that).
Besides her obvious debt to Stewart, Finley owes a debt to early-1960s ``pieces'' by Yoko Ono. You have to be grateful to anyone who can momentarily take your mind off of the mayhem that for many is life in the '90s. MEMO: Julie Parker is a writer and artist who lives on the Eastern
Shore.