by JULIET WATERS

At first glance, few people would think Liza Normal is actually normal. We're introduced to her in Cintra Wilson's first novel, Colors Insulting to Nature, sometime in the late '70s at age 13. Auditioning for the role of spokeschild for Otter World Fun Park, she is a vision of blossoming sleaze. The judges are less disturbed by her well-worn miniature stiletto heels and stage banter that sounds like it should be coming from a middle-aged lounge singer, than how comfortable she seems in this role. But they feign appreciation, mostly out of fear of Peppy Normal, stage mother from hell.

The more you get to know Liza, however, the more normal she seems, at least on the inside. Liza's problem is she's been encouraged to actually act out the humiliating daydreams of the average girl of her generation. Peppy, however, is a different story. The more we get to know her, the more admiration we have for Liza for not being more psychotic.

Wilson achieved cult status with her vicious and hilarious critiques of California pop- and subculture, A Massive Swelling: Celebrity Re-Examined As a Grotesque Crippling Disease. Anyone who hasn't read her essays should at least read her brilliant critiques of the Oscars 2002 and 2003 on Salon.com. Her first novel, however, takes some settling into. Few people can nail an insult with the same precision. Exhibit A: Describing the role of Montreal-born Colleen Dewhurst in the '70s pre-teen weeper Ice Castles as the "barking crustbucket." But for the first 75 pages this incessant nailing of perfect little zingers can actually make the brain hurt.

Some of this is a basic construction problem. To set the story up for the "young readerlings," a certain amount of building needs to be done. Not everyone is old enough to recall the allure of Robbie Benson or to have seen Fame the requisite number of times to fully appreciate the psychological abuse of Peppy's promise to Liza that she'll be going to the High School of the Performing Arts. Fortunately, the story starts to hit its stride when Liza begins high school instead in Marin County.

Only the cruellest heart will remain untouched by Liza's transformation from Solid Gold skank to Wendy O. Williams old-school punk priestess. In a fabulous perversion of the Anne of Green Gables love/hate teen romance formula, Liza meets her male muse in the form of bratty-cool-rich-kid Tonto Grosvenor. In the classic coming-of-age story there was Gilbert Blythe hissing, "Carrots." In our '80s update there's Tonto passing her a note that reads, "YOU ARE A SPUNK-DRENCHED BAG OF USED SLUT-MEAT." Pulling pigtails in the schoolyard has been replaced with shaving a mohawk after a pseudo date rape. Ah... young love.

Fortunately, by this time Liza has found salvation in the sage friendship of another freak of sorts, Lorna, the daughter of the local drug-dealing hippie single mom. Lorna convinces Liza that acting like she chose this mohawk is her only chance at recovering a scrap of self-esteem. That she pulls this off is the first real sign of character lurking beneath Liza's desperation for celebrity. So begins Liza's formula for achieving, if not success and love, then at least something interesting out of failure and abuse. This will fare her well through a quest for fame that will lead her into an affair with an underground L.A. drug dealer, a membership in a San Francisco elf cult and a relationship with a washed-up boy-band superstar.

There are those who will inevitably accuse Wilson of being as celebrity-obsessed as those she satirizes. This is like suggesting that alcoholics can't make fun of alcoholism. For all her hip quotient, Wilson leaves no doubt that she too once knew all the words to Karen Carpenter's "Superstar." A tender heart beats beneath the cultural carnage. This is what will keep most people reading, this and the seemingly effortless poetry of lines like, "Oh, you worthless sacks of elf shit."

Colors Insulting to Nature by Cintra Wilson,
Fourth Estate, hc, 368pp, $24.95