Lifting Belly
Worth buying if: You enjoy Gertrude Stein’s sentence-play and verbal music.
Skip it if: You prefer traditional plot-driven narrative or conventional character arcs.
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780941483513. The Amazon link uses this ISBN, so the product page should open to the edition shown here.
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Summary
Lifting Belly (108 pages) gathers Stein’s compact prose experiments—fractured sentences, rhythmic repetitions, and playful syntax—that foreground the body, voice, and the act of reading itself in short, intense bursts.
Why this book now
Naiad Press’s 1989 edition reminds contemporary readers how Stein’s formal risks in Lifting Belly still unsettle expectations about voice, gender, and embodiment.
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Best for readers who...
Good fit if you want...
- You enjoy Gertrude Stein’s sentence-play and verbal music.
- You read experimental prose that centers the body and voice.
- If you liked the pacing, the conversation drives the plot forward.
- You prefer traditional plot-driven narrative or conventional character arcs.
- You expect straightforward exposition about physiology or self-help.
- You need the newest edition, freshest examples, or the most current framing.
Decided it fits?
Exact edition: Edition shown · ISBN-13 9780941483513
Worth buying if: You enjoy Gertrude Stein’s sentence-play and verbal music.
Skip it if: You prefer traditional plot-driven narrative or conventional character arcs.
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.
Reader guide
Cues to help you decide faster.
Reading commitment
Quick Easy to move through
At roughly 108 pages, Lifting Belly is a short, concentrated read that rewards slow re-reading and attention to repetition rather than a single linear pass.
What stands out here
This Naiad Press 1989 edition highlights Stein’s late modernist experiments—notice the compact page count, spare design, and emphasis on rhythm and bodily language.
Best way to approach it
Approach Lifting Belly like a poem: read aloud, pause at repetitions, annotate surprising turns, and allow sentences to refract meaning through rhythm rather than plot.
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Exact edition: ISBN-13 9780941483513
Check Amazon for the current price and availability of this exact edition.