Kate Zambreno

You know that Sesame Street song, "One of these things is not like the others..."? A possible answer could be Lisa Galisa. First off, she's got a tremendously clunky name, which mirrors her stick-out-like-a-sore-thumb style, which leads us to the second thing. She's a fashion faux pas, the girl who replicates the exact trends fitted on anorexic mannequins that on her zaftig frame just look wrong. She's a retail slave, who blows her department-store minimum wages on the clothes that make her look just wrong. And she's a Bridgeport-born social climber who religiously reads the glossy local social mag and mistakingly views Roger Ebert as the supreme Chicago Renaissance Man, who will rescue the blue-collar princess from the lower echelons of society. One thing Lisa Galisa is not is Leslie Stella, author of "The Easy Hour" (Three Rivers Press), the former Lumpen co-founding editor's follow-up to "Fat Bad Jeff." Although Stella has worked as a wage slave and has even traveled to the ninth circle of retail hell--the day after Thanksgiving--that is where the comparisons between her and her character ends. As opposed to fishnet stockings and angora cardigan sets, jeans and thrift-shop sweaters fill Stella's closet. "I'm one of those people who can't buy anything if it's not on sale," says the TJ Maxx junkie, on phone from so-not-hip Mundelein, where she lives with her husband, Chris, another Lumpen founder. "I remember I bought a shirt once that was not on sale. It was two years ago. I remember this vividly, as I bought it because I needed a shirt to wear for my author photo for my old book. And I saw this shirt, it probably cost $59. It was such a trauma. I remember I came home and thought, 'Maybe I could pose in the shirt, and keep the tags on.' I was really thinking this." To research for the satirical novel in which Lisa Galisa becomes a personal assistant for a diva socialite and then attempts to sabotage the society pages by introducing fashionistas to the South Side way of dive bars and pantsuits, Stella poured through fashion magazines. But where does the fascination with Roger Ebert come in? Stella has in fact never met the Chicago Sun-Times film critic, although she's a fan of his work, and hasn't yet sent him a copy of her book. "I was all set to, and then I got cold feet because I thought, you know, it's not exactly the most flattering things that I'm saying about him. Although they're well-meant, I don't know how he'll take them."

Leslie Stella reads from "The Easy Hour" on May 8 at 7:30pm at Barbara's Bookstore, 1350 North Wells, (312)642-5044; and on May 19 at 7pm at Borders, 830 North Michigan, (312) 573-0564.

(2003-04-30)

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