Review
------
Praise for Difficult Women:
“The characters who inhabit Difficult Women . . . aren’t just
characters. They are our mothers, sisters and partners. They are
human. They are us.”―USA Today (4/4 stars)
“Sharp, poignant and daring . . . The stories here are myriad,
inviting comparisons to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Toni Morrison
and Salman Rushdie.”―Houston Chronicle
“There’s a distinct echo of Angela Carter or Helen Oyeyemi at
play; dark fables and twisted morality tales sit alongside the
contemporary and the realistic . . . It feels like the book we
have been waiting for Gay to write.”―Los Angeles Times
“Gay has fun with these ladies . . . With Difficult Women, you
really have no idea what’s going to happen next.”―New York Times
Book Review
“Because Gay is such a vivid writer, her stories have a
remarkable visual sweep . . . Gay writes of chances missed and
unexpected joy, love gone awry or resurrected, and the slivers of
hope that keep these fascinating women alive.”―Boston Globe
“The language is stark yet meaty; it lives with you the way
memories do, in the deepest crevices of the body and mind . . .
powerful.”―Arizona Daily Sun
“A master of the short story . . . A tribute not only to
difficult women, but also to the circumstances that made them
that way.”―BUST Magazine
“Like Joyce Carol Oates’ Where Are You Going, Where Have You
Been? or Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle,
this is fiction pressed through a sieve, leaving only the
canniest truths behind . . . Addictive, moving and
risk-taking.”―San Francisco Chronicle
“Roxane Gay, the accled American essayist and novelist,
charges from the gate in her debut collection of short fiction .
. . These are the places I’m going to take you, Gay seems to be
saying. Are you prepared? . . . Provocation operates on different
levels in this collection. First on the level of theme―the
presentation of female sexual desire, both masochistic and
otherwise, is vigorous and forthright, the language refreshingly
frank and graphic―then on the level of technique.”―The Globe and
Mail (Canada)
“I’m currently reading Difficult Women, by Roxane Gay, and I’m
getting my life from it . . . Roxane Gay seems to have a knack
for fearlessly telling the truth. Even in her fiction.”―Gabourey
Sidibe, The New York Times Book Review (“By the Book”)
“Gay’s signature dry wit and piercing psychological depth make
every story mesmerizingly unusual and simply
unforgettable.”―Harper’s Bazaar
“In so many ways, Gay’s Difficult Women feel simultaneously
fictitious and like they could (and probably do) live right down
the street. Perhaps they even live inside of our coworkers, our
friends, our sisters and ourselves . . . Gay’s writing is
unparalleled.”―Forbes
“Difficult Women . . . deftly and terrifyingly underscores the
absurdity of a society tacitly ordered by skin color and the
privileges accrued by those who have ended up at the winning end,
circled and watched by those who have not . . . Gay peels it all
back, exposing the raw, the enraged and the perversely
beautiful.”―New Republic
“Gay’s work is as varied as women’s experiences. Each story
feels fresh and new, a blanket of snow you both want and don’t
want to muddy with a footprint. Difficult Women . . . solidifies
Gay’s place as one of the voices of our age.”―National Post
(Canada)
“Gay excels in her allowance for human complexity . . . One of
the book’s greatest achievements is Gay’s psychological
acuity.”―Washington Post
“Writing that seems to cut to the . . . These stories of
sisters and mothers and daughters and lovers are haunting, and
their quiet voices linger . . . they draw you in.”―The Seattle
Times
“The stories, phenomenally powerful and beautifully written,
demonstrate the threats so many women in reality face, but also
how, whatever their situation, they have agency, resilience and
identities away from stereotypes created and reinforced by
men.”―The Guardian (UK)
“Powerful, sometimes infuriating, often sad and always gentle .
. . A wonderful and varied collection of stories, with a terrific
range of subjects and emotions giving it just the right
balance.”―Toronto Star (Canada)
“The women in Difficult Women are all deliciously complex, and
their relationships are just as multifaceted.”―Baltimore City
Paper
“Gay brings the powerful voice that flows through her work as a
novelist and cultural critic to [these] 21 short stories . . .
Gay’s ‘difficult women’ are unforgettable.”―BBC.com
“Her pitch-perfect ins to these female archetypes are so
Gay―candid, observant, concise, stirring.”―Ms. Magazine
“Gay is at her best when merging vivid yet straightforward
language with stories that contain an element of folklore . . .
Refreshing yet intricate, in the vein of Clarence Major’s Chicago
Heat and Other Stories.”―Library Journal (starred review)
“Unequivocally excellent . . . roughly urgent and skillfully
timeless . . . Gay’s voice is lyrical throughout, mesmeric and
unflinching. This collection shocks, despairs and
triumphs.”―Bookreporter
“The emotional and interior lives of her difficult women are
authentic and affecting.”―The Spinoff (New Zealand)
“This collection begs for a slow, serious reading.”―Minneapolis
Star Tribune
“The titular subjects in the literary star’s short-story
collection are strippers and engineers, participating in fight
clubs and elite suburban dramas. Each one is compelling, thanks
to Gay’s illuminating prose.”―Entertainment Weekly
“A collection of short stories that will make your spine tingle
with intrigue.”―Bustle.com
“ and powerful . . . an unforgettable story of modern
American womanhood. A compelling collection that will stick with
you long after you finish the last page.”―Bustle.com
“Women’s lives have been Gay’s most consistent subject . . . In
these stories, she writes fearlessly and with in about love
and power between men and women, about the horror of sexual
violence and its inescapable aftershocks, about the fierce and
flawed tenderness of mothers for their children.”―Tampa Bay Times
“ A powerful collection of short stories about difficult,
troubled, headstrong, and unconventional women . . . challenging,
quirky, and memorable.”―Publishers Weekly
“Incredible . . . These stories are so lovely the book is best
parceled out into multiple readings, so the reader doesn’t miss
the nuance and the dark beauty of each tale.”―Charleston
Gazette-Mail
Haunting and powerful stories which run the gamut between real
and surreal . . . Rendered with great specificity and empathy,
Gay’s characters are unforgettable―and certainly, in their own
ways, are difficult women, but also real human beings in whom we
may all find ourselves reflected.”―Buzzfeed
“Astonishing, arresting, and staggering.”―Book Riot
“The collection is often dark and disturbing, but also deeply
empathetic . . . In her deliberate and often exquisite attention
to detail, she crafts stories that will haunt the reader long
after the book has been put away.”―Washington Independent Review
of Books
“Gay tells , deep, wry tales . . . Be they writer,
scientist, or stripper, Gay’s women suffer grave abuses, mourn
unhomable losses, love hard, and work harder.”―Booklist
“Roxane Gay is a force . . . These are stories about women, in
all of the difficult, glorious, inexplicable forms that we
take.”―The Rumpus
“Gay’s writing encompasses so much―simultaneously direct, funny,
whipsmart, sometimes painful, and always
thought-provoking.”―Chicago Review of Books
“Unified in theme―the struggles of women cling independence
for themselves―but wide-ranging in conception and form . . . Gay
is an admirable risk-taker in her exploration of women’s lives
and new ways to tell their stories.”―Kirkus Reviews
“Gay is a master of memoir, personal essay, creative nonfiction
and lyrical prose, which gives her writing a smart, modern edge
that’s hard to look away from.”―FUSE
“[Gay’s] characters . . . aren’t superheroes, and they aren’t
intimidating or ‘lethal.’ They are like us, whether they live in
gated subdivisions, apartments or run-down houses with sagging
ceilings. They . . . are haunted by painful memories of abuse and
loss. Some are loved and some are lonely, although these
categories are not mutually exclusive. They are horny. They are
not nice. They are calloused and d and yet, somehow, they
endure.”―Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“It is impossible to read Roxane Gay’s Difficult Women and not
be chilled by its prescience . . . Gay is an engaging, beguiling
storyteller who . . . captures the fragility of love and the
awful mundaneness when relationships start to fail . . . One of
the most important writers in contemporary English
literature.”―Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )
About the Author
----------------
Roxane Gay is the author of the novel An Untamed State; the
essay collection Bad Feminist; and Ayiti, a multi-genre
collection. She is at work on a memoir, Hunger, and a comic book
in Marvel's Black Panther series. She splits her time between
Indiana and Los Angeles.
Read more ( javascript:void(0) )