Adventures on the Isle of Adolescence by Loca
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I was at UCLA when this book came out and there was a reading at Brentano’s in Westwood. It was upstairs and there was a full bar.
The reading was completely awesome–everything an undergrad interested in the Beats could hope for–a fired up female poet reading semi-pornographic poetry to a crowded room of drunk literary types.
Reading the book now it still holds up very very well–there are 18 poems most of which are rather short, but the few longer pieces like the Title poem, Why I Date Black Men, or Mayan are all really wonderful pieces from a time that seems to have been forgotten. Strange sketches of a California that I remember very very fondly. Creative, multicultural, ironic, clever, strong poems that feed on place, personality, culture cross references and the angst of being human and never quite alone.
Pamala “La Loca” Karol seems to have kind of disapeared since her fantastic work of the late eighties / early nineties + I for one kind of hope she makes a come back of sorts–I could use more of her work.
David Given Schwarm 
Leave a comment