'Queen of the Oddballs and Other True Stories from a Life Unaccording to Plan' by Hillary Carlip

Oddball might be an understatement in this off-beat memoir

By Anne C. Johnson
Published: August 30th, 2006 | 2:42pm

Hillary Carlip finally got noticed when she took on the persona of Breakfast at Tiffany's, Holly Golightly and was caught smoking on the playground at the tender age of eight. Not only did this incident get young Carlip an appointment with Eleanor Troupe, Child Psychologist, it also landed her a spot on the CBS television show, Art Linkletter's House Party. Dr. Troupe told her to just try being herself but this memoir, which spans four decades, shows how Carlip did quite the opposite with her a good chunk of her life.

Growing up in Los Angeles in a loving, yet chaotic household with an older brother who dominated what little attention was left from her well-meaning, but preoccupied parents, Mim and Bob, Carlip often felt invisible. Holly Golightly and the other characters she tried on - a go-go dancer from Hullabaloo and Wednesday from The Addams Family, to name a few - helped her with her feelings of inadequacy. Carlip came to realize she had a knack for performing and, in addition her more social conscious pursuits as a "teen-libber," became a Gong Show grand prize-winning juggler, who indirectly taught one of her idols, Lucille Ball, how to juggle.

Rather than a straightforward approach, Carlip experiments with the format of a few of the chapters that recount her unconventional life. "The King Case" is written as journal entries detailing Carlip and her friend, Greg, spending the summer of 1971 in Laurel Canyon unquestionably stalking Carole King and her band. Another, "Dear Olivia Newton John" is written as a make-believe letter to the actress narrating Carlip's romance with a dancer during the shooting of 1981's musical flop Xanadu. "Tyro Scribes Sell Spec for Big Bucks," is composed as a screenplay and dramatizes the rise and fall of the script "Skirts" written by Carlip and her then girlfriend. The results are cute and clever rather than gimmicky and are as engaging as Carlip herself. Events that contextualize each year she revisits are listed in bullets at the beginning of each chapter and very humorously inject social commentary and efficiently chronicle popular culture and politics from 1965 through 2004.

In a lighthearted, but not at all shallow way, the author deals with both some weighty topics, including the loss of her father, whose death teaches her to never stifle her creative side. Her being gay is a non-issue - possibly due to her having had "progressive, liberal" parents - is not the central focus here, just the relationships themselves and what they represent regarding her personal growth. The important lesson Carlip learns in the end - from Oprah, no less - is that if feeling as though she is "not enough" is what has driven her and caused to her have such a fulfilling life so far, then so be it.

Harpers, List Price: $13.95, 273 pages