Her droll observations on male evolution in "Bachelors Over Thirty" ("BOT"s) are revealing and helpful for any female who frequently or infrequently comes in contact with the gender: "the nineties...are a time of wild experimentation. Not with regard to sex, but to men and women living for longer periods of time without each other. Prolonged bachelorhood, however, is not good for men or their health. Even in relatively early BOTs...you can notice the first twitches of creaky codgerhood." (Larry, for instance, is caught wielding a shoehorn!)
She has a unique way of chopping longer essays into cute chunks announced by headlines like "The New Multinaturalism", "Multiculturalism: It's the Law!", or "And Now I'd Like to Salute That Beloved Chinese Philosopher Charlie Chan", making these pieces prime candidates for the web, by the way. But cute headlines or not, the longer essays are a bit labored. I found myself skimming for the one-liners (which are many). The narrative in the longer works is loose, but crowded with insider winks at her native Southern Cal. That said, I wish I had read her work when it first came out and I wish I had caught her at my local bookstore earlier this summer. Performance writing is a busy field today, but I bet it was jaw-dropping when she broke onto the scene doing piano gigs on freeways, rolling in dollar bill confetti on stage in the late 80's. Her interviews are engaging, and her energy and creativity level buzzes.
Listening to (or reading) Loh is like taking a drive with an engaging and enthusiastic friend who points out subtleties you wouldn't have noticed on your own. I recommend her NPR and radio work --you will like it. Let her do the interpretation for you. She'll add pauses, breaks and emphasis in all the right places while you sit back and listen. You'll crack up. You'll be a fan. You'll notice how odd reality is. And then, don't forget, pick up Depth Takes a Holiday or her Peter Mayle parody A Year in Van Nuys.
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