Make Me, Lisa Stathoplos’ searingly honest and dark humored memoir explores how one comes to be. Comes to live in their own skin; exist in their very bones. In 1958 Lisa landed on this earth with a whack and a wail and a highly uncomfortable feeling that she shouldn’t be here. Regardless, here she is. Born into a fusion of the French and the Greeks, Lisa’s wickedly smart and loving family nurtures her from fussy baby, “moody” child, into a passionate, rebellious young woman.

Set in the beauty of Southern Maine, with a few forays to the Caribbean, the Atlantic shipping lanes and Greece, Make Me is both as tempestuous and tranquil as the sea when Lisa takes us on her voyage toward acceptance and authenticity. Her stories of growing up Catholic, coming of age beside the turbulent Atlantic Ocean, discovering dance, her activism and becoming a successful professional actor as well as a fishwife, are fraught, rewarding and often hysterically funny.

Make Me follows Lisa’s memories in and out of chronological time, landing on the significant ones that shaped her most of all. The language is crisply straightforward, hauntingly witty, and emotionally fathomless. Make Me is an oceanic ride into Lisa’s very soul and should be read by anyone who is becoming who they truly are or has already arrived.