Karbo will read
from Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me at Powell's,
1005 W Burnside St., 228-4651.
7:30 pm Friday, June 23.
Free.
Local novelist mommies Whitney Otto and April Henry will
read as
well.
Fast Company
magazine's end paper is called "The Spy in the House
of Work." Karbo is the spy.
Karbo will follow
lucy.com at the Hood-to-Coast race for a Fast Company
article. Her book on divorce, Generation Ex, will
be published next year.
She's fed sharks in the Caribbean and flown high on the
flying trapeze. She's gone to surf camp and shooting school.
She's tried street luging and monster roller coasters. She
even hung out for two weeks in her bathing suit next to
volleyball goddess Gabrielle Reece. Portland writer Karen
Karbo seems absolutely intrepid when she researches her
magazine articles, but she was truly challenged by something
that happens every day: "Nothing," she reports, "is as extreme
as having a kid."
The tall redhead looks like any Portland mommy, but unlike
most mommies, she goes to work in the waters off Venezuela
or on a San Clemente beach. "I don't think I'm a very good
journalist," Karbo confesses. "The stuff I do is professional
Guinea pig. I go and experience something that would be
hilarious for me write about for many reasons." Karbo offers
a novice's refreshing look at terrifying activities for
such magazines as Outside, Fast Company and
Condé Nast Women's Sports and Fitness. And
her new comic novel, Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me,
is more of the same.
Motherhood, set in Portland, tells the story of
a new mother whose friend, a financially independent single
woman, becomes pregnant herself.
"It was originally written in 1992," Karbo says. "We got
a few offers on it, but nothing really spectacular. My agent
felt that the tone of the book was too edgy for the way
most people perceived motherhood and mothers. I said I would
rather wait and hold onto it."
Sitting on a novel for eight years instead of taking the
money--any money-- is another example of the size of Karbo's
cojones. But in 1992, she had already proven herself
as a novelist.
Karbo grew up in Southern California and graduated from
USC film school. She spent a few years in L.A. writing several
screenplays, none of which ever saw celluloid. In 1982,
she moved to Portland and took a job at the Northwest Film
Center. "Out of desperation," she says, "because I was feeling
frustrated, I thought I'd write some fiction and see what
happens." In 1988, she won a General Electric Younger Writers
Fellowship. The next year, she published her debut novel,
Trespassers Welcome Here, closely followed by The
Diamond Lane. Both books were named a New York Times
Notable Book of the Year. So when she finished Motherhood
in 1992, she really didn't have to prove anything with
her fiction. She turned to new challenges.
"I began writing for Outside magazine in 1993,"
says Karbo. "One of the assignments I got was to do a profile
of Gabrielle Reece. That was turned into a book, and Condé
Nast Women's Sports and Fitness signed me on as a contributing
editor." She seems slightly surprised that she's developed
a reputation as a daredevil hooked on danger cocktails.
"It wasn't something I set out to do," she says, "but I
always liked to travel and I like to be scared."
Karbo's work takes her to places that most sane adults
would much rather read about than experience themselves.
"One year I went to surf camp in San Clemente, California,"
she says. "It was like, me and 20 14-year-old boys. It was
hilarious; I actually got a surfing nickname, which is Grown
Woman. Last year, I went to trapeze school at the San Francisco
School of Circus Arts." Karbo will always do something that's
a little terrifying, though she thinks she may be losing
her taste for it. "I took a little break after I did the
flying trapeze story. They told me it was going to be such
a big adrenalin dump and it was going to change my life.
But there I was, hanging, thinking 'This is high,
and my armpits hurt, but I'm not particularly afraid.' That
frightened me, that I wasn't feeling more terrified."
Few things actually terrify Karbo. She didn't like the
big roller coasters at Universal Studios but only because
she has a fear of throwing up. But sharks, heights and big
waves don't faze her. "I did a story on women in extreme
sports and interviewed a street luger, an extreme skier,
a snowboarder and a BASE jumper who jumps off bridges. All
of them said, 'Oh, this is much easier than having a child.
Giving birth--whoa, that is extreme.'"
Karbo wrote Motherhood Made a Man Out of Me when
her daughter was an infant. "I was moved by how uncompromising
the experience was. I was shocked. I remember being in labor
thinking, 'This is really inhumane. I can't believe that
nature--that evolution--thinks this is a better idea than
laying an egg.'"
Men will probably enjoy the book too (there's lots of basketball
stuff), even though it contains many of childbirth's gory
details. "The first post-natal bowel movement," she groans.
"Oh my God, it's so painful, it's worse than having the
baby." There's no question. Karbo is one of Portland's most
extreme writers.
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Willamette Week | originally
published April 26,
2000
|
