Ghost Pains

by Jessi Jezewska Stevens

With her novels  The Exhibition of Persephone Q  and  The Visitors , Jessi Jezewska Stevens has proven herself as our preeminent purveyor of comical, techno-millenarian unease. Now, with this first collection of her acclaimed short fiction—originally appearing in such venues as The Paris Review , Harper's and Tin House —some of her very best work is at last readily available to readers.

Stevens's women throw disastrous parties in the post-party era, flirt through landscapes of terror and war, and find themselves unrecognizable after waking up with old flames in new cities. They navigate the labyrinths of history, love, and ethics in a fractured American present, seeing first-hand how history influences the ways in which we care for—or neglect—one another.

With each story exemplifying Stevens's ability to examine the big questions through the microscope of a shambolic human perspective, Ghost Pains  is a triumphant statement of purpose from one of our greatest young writer-thinkers.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Contemporary, Collections

304 pages, Paperback

First published March 5, 2024

Reviews

[Katia N · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mavis Gallant said: ”Stories are not chapters of novels. They should not be read one after another, as if they were meant to follow along. Read one. Shut the book.”

I’ve done just that with this collection. That is one reason why the rating here is even more pointless than usual. I liked some of them a lot and a few did not create any impression on me. Jezewska writes with erudition, self-deprecated humor and wit. I came to this collection because I enjoyed reading some of her essays on line. Here her ability to see an absurdity but also fragility and grace of every day moments shine through. I liked “The Party” the first story of the collection for this reason.

There are two slightly dystopian tales: “Siberia” and “Rumpel”. But strangely they’ve created the opposite impression. I was moved by the understated tragedy of the former but the critique of techno-capitalism of the later didn’t do anything for me.

I found the title story “Ghost pains” a well researched but little laboured. While the last story of the collection “A new Book of Grotesque” appeared to be both well researched, smart but also very poignant and quietly rebellious.

“The letter to the Senator” contained the echos of Malina by Bachman (not in the scale and effect, but in the small but striking detail). “Dispatches from Berlin” reminded me somewhat of Benjamin’s One Way Street And Other Writings.

And “Gettysburg” has appeared to be the most memorable. I cannot explain why, but the image of a girl’s dress in the hands of an older woman got stuck in my mind. Is it what makes a piece of fiction powerful- something one cannot totally explain but that works.

[Bill Hsu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stevens' characters live in troubling worlds just a few small nudges from our own. They go about their daily activities, engaging in awkward interactions with ex's and co-workers, making only occasional references to the larger problems (gentrification, ubiquity of tech, environmental destruction etc).

Her prose is sharp, the humor biting. The text on the cover opens the first story, should be a good indication of whether this is for you. The next two are more hit-and-miss, but "Siberia" ends beautifully:

He listens, waiting for her to catch her breath, finish her sentence, call him back. Obviously they'll learn, and they'll speak whatever she likes, he'll tell her everything she's ever wanted to know in as many languages as he can manage, Schnee and neige, and when the time comes, should it ever come to that, he'll talk her softly into death. The silence stretches on, indifferent as a government --- but you know all about that.

Then the hilarious "Weimar Whore": a troubled woman, two men in her apartment, a psychiatrist, fear of rampant inflation. I'm a Berlin whore of sorts myself and loved all the references.

"Rumpel" opens:

Small towns have always produced dreamers, daydreamers above all. As a child, and even into adulthood, I often imagined myself in crisis situations. Say the nuclear power plant were to go on the fritz, or the particle accelerator, or a fire from the microchip factory to rip through town. I wondered: Would I be the first to respond?

We eventually follow the narrator's pursuit of an unlikely and almost clearly doomed romance. (Through a hole in his wall!) Of course I'm rooting for him, but the loose ends proliferate like Rapunzel's endlessly cascading hair in the video game.

The last few stories are maybe a little uneven. But the writing is a pleasure.

[3.5 stars, rounded up]

[emily]

‘The delicate frost. For so long I had imagined the landscapes rendered by da Vinci to be mere fantasies of Tuscany; the soft edges in The Virgin and Child, the one with Saint Anne, belonged to a whole world made of butter.’

Had to immediately go read ‘Fleabag’ again just to ‘check’ if I was somehow desensitised, but thank God, Fleabag: The Scriptures still fucks hard. JJS’ writing just didn’t work for me (it just doesn’t do it for me; and so much so that I don’t think I’ll ever change my mind on this). It’s not badly written obviously. I wouldn’t consider it ‘bad’ writing at all, but it’s a book I wish I didn’t spend time reading. But I’m sure someone else/a different reader would feel otherwise.

‘Sometimes these exes called up too late to ask, “What are you doing right now?” “I’m soaking my nipple in salt water.” “What?” She repeated, “I’m soaking my nipple piercing!” Tina never was very good at lying.’

In hindsight, I should’ve stopped reading from the first couple pages. I knew then and there that I didn’t like the tone/form/style. But since this was an ARC, I wanted to try a little more. Unfortunately, I can’t be any more certain that this is just not for me. I don’t know what I can compare it to, but I needed some PWB’s ‘Fleabag’ to cleanse my biblio-palette so to speak (it was an involuntary reaction I should say). Makes me want to immediately go and read more Lynne Tillman and Miranda July; perhaps even Ottessa Moshfegh.

“But compared to most programmers, I guess I seem emotionally intelligent. What about you?”

The worst thing one can do is ‘try’ to love, right? If you vibe, you vibe; if you don’t, you don’t. Right? It’s my fault, obviously. Probably should have been reading The Pugilist instead. Could have even read William H. Gass. What else (short stories-wise)? Lorrie Moore. Ha Seong-Nan. Joyce Carol Oates. Norman Erikson Pasaribu. Alice Munro. Alice Walker. ZZ Packer. Jeanette Winterson. Felisberto Hernandez. Bora flipping Chung’s Your Utopia (translated by, of course, Anton Hur). Or even finish Chen Chuncheng’s 夜晚的潜水艇 ,‘A Submarine in The Night’ (the English translation will be published some time next year by Honford Star/Riverhead Books; so thrilled about this). Fine, I’ll chill my fucking tits and stop listing books from my TBR.

‘I ask her, Really, how are things at home? I am home, the daughter says with a frown. I ask her what she thinks about the election cycle and find that she is pessimistic. They’re both screwy, we’re all screwed. I’m exhausted by the way she flaunts her breasts, but what can I say? That she must vote. That it would mean so much to her father if she visited more often. How about your father? she says.’

‘For certainty is difficult to come by, these days, and I am reluctant to ruin it all. Beliefs are such a comfort to other people until you ask them to explain.’

Definitely not for me, unfortunately. The ‘dialogues’ and characters in particular were not-for-me. And their ‘relationships’ were just not ‘it’ for me. If anything they made me feel just a bit uncomfortable? Is it (meant to be) satire? Even if it was satire, it just didn’t work for me; instead they simply made me feel super disconnected to the writing. I wanted to like it so desperately because the title is so brilliant (and I also really, really like this publisher), but alas the writing is just not to my taste at all. It’s just as simple as that.

‘Anand suppressed a smile.
“What’s so funny?”
“Same to you.”
She laughed. “Nothing’s funny.”
It came to light that they’d both been wondering what the driver of the pickup had thought about a couple like them.’

Also, the narrator(s) reminded me of what one of my friends had said once (about someone we both knew). She had very specifically described her as ‘mousy’ which made me laugh. And I didn’t know what she meant, and she repeated, ‘I mean, you know, she’s kind of ‘mousy’’. And I was like I think she is kind of cute, no? And she responded again with, ‘Probably, but she’s kind of ‘mousy’ though, you know what I mean?’ Did I fully know what she meant? Maybe, but even more so now. Did the conversation go anywhere? No. Was it a serious/important conversation? Again, no. But reading this book made me think of that particular friend and it made my heart a little fuzzy/tender. At least that is one ‘good’ thing I managed to salvage from my experience of reading this book. So if anything, thank you for that.

‘He’d gained weight, lost hair, this past year. She’d be disappointed to see him when she did—He used to fantasize about fucking her in public restrooms, at parties, in other people’s kitchens; it would be such a relief to be caught, to confess. He swivelled in his chair and looked back into the soft white glow of the empty bath, the gleam of the tiles faint. He recalled the way she flinched, and violently, if he so much as touched a fingertip to the vertebrae of her neck. What he’d like to do is take her to the Russian baths, had they done that yet? He’d like to take her halfway around the world, up north, away from everyone they knew—Obviously they’ll learn, they’ll speak whatever she likes, he’ll tell her everything she’s ever wanted to know in as many languages as he can manage, Schnee and neige—.’

In any case, I am sure there are plenty of other readers who would love and appreciate JJS’s novel properly. I’m just not one of them who can or (ever) will. Hopefully this book falls into more compatible, deserving and loving hands (and/but never back to me ever again for the sake of both the book and me). Actually a big fan of this publisher, so am very excited to go and shamelessly devour Baltasar’s Mammoth.

[Regan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A few favorite passages that I hope convince you to pick up this collection:

"I lost entire minutes of my life trying to make their loveliness compute. How easily they wore it, like lines in novels you never forget: 'We carry death within us like a stone within a fruit...' The party swelled around the new arrivals, feeding on them like fish."

"There is a great dignity problem for the tourist in Italy. Is there supposed to be a Giotto in here? Isn't the dick a little small? Doesn't Jesus look a little fat? I was afraid of saying something stupid. Everywhere we turned I saw ourselves: young couples in blister-proof shoes and fresh white shirts, holding hands, craning toward cathedral ceilings. Older couples, too, were everywhere dreaming of home and separate rooms, where one can shut the door. They stared at us the way one stares into the past. There is a great dignity problem in getting married, I think."

"She'd played many roles over the years, never quite able to shake the sense that she was in fact performing for someone offstage, and that her life was therefore misdirected."

"A little church, no larger than a New York kitchen, thrust its snowy steeple into the air. The windows melted, an organ swelled; a choir was practicing inside. The beauty of it struck them dumb. When had people lost the habit of singing together? Tina closed her eyes. She wanted to dissolve into the choral hymns. The longer her own silence stretched, however, the more she sensed this man was going to try to kiss her, and clumsily."

And if you still need convincing (!!), check out my interview with Jessi at the Chicago Review of Books:
https://chireviewofbooks.com/2024/03/...

[Jarnold · Rating 4 out of 5]

there is a chronic condition known as MFA brain that metastasizes when white people move to berlin.

after being entranced by the quote on the cover of this, i began the first story and almost wept of sadness—would the whole collection be so awful? like diaspora poetry for germans?

luckily enough i was wrong. the first story is awful and the last one is OK, but everything in the middle is SENSATIONAL (shout out to rumpel and letter to the senator). an excellent short story collection! we just need to excise the berlin tumor!

[Troy]

fav stories: the party, honeymoon, gettysburg, rumpel, siberia

overall a pretty solid and enjoyable story collection and a great first foray into the authors work

[u das · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was fine . the good ones were outweighed by the boring confusing ones. i don’t like when standard prose randomly turns into screenplay formatting ❌❌❌

[Yoel Isaac Diaz · Rating 4 out of 5]

March 7
The party ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

March 9
Honeymoon ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

March 15
Siberia ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Weimar whore ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

March 22 and beyond
Gettysburg ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Ghost Pains ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Rumpel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Letter to the senator ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Duck, Duck, Orange Juice ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Dispatches from Berlin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

April 13
A new book of Grotesques ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[Taylor G · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

Some of the short stories were incredibly moving, capturing vignettes between two lovers engaging in very normal activities during very weird times. Some of the short stories were harder to follow, requiring me to reread them to understand what was going on. I recommend not reading straight through in a sitting but instead reading a story or two at a time and coming back to it.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ve loved Stevens’ two previous books and Ghost Pains is no exception. On a sentence level, she’s just brilliant. Smart, witty, and pushing the reader to work out meaning without being annoyingly opaque.

There’s an element of absurdity in many of these stories—a modern woman who begins to act as if she’s living in the Weimar interwar period and a crypto-millionaire who trades his girlfriend to a binary-code-speaking imp in exchange for access to his crypto account—but they’re human stories at their core.

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5

[_beccareads · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book felt like I was inside their thoughts. Jessi’s writing style is chaotic, and difficult to follow, but that is what made these short stories so interesting to read.

There were a few stories that just didn’t have an impression on me, but also some that were so unique that I flew through them - duck, duck, orange juice being my favourite.

Overall, I’m not sure I fully understood all these stories or that I have the words to actually explain them, but if you’re after an interesting quick read, then this is a good one!

[Lottie Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ghost Pains is a stylish collection of stories exploring the chaos of the prosaic in times of extreme inordinacy. Softly powerful and full of warmth, Stevens discusses the many shapes and patterns of women at the edge of disaster.

From cataclysmic parties wounded by carnal dogs, to phone calls on stairwells at the end of the world, Stevens creates portraits on the verge of uncanny. Vibrant against the page and cosmically inspired, this collections ties together labyrinthine universes. Worlds that spill from the page with indulgence. With an eye for small intricacies and quirky details set alongside the vast ideas of violence, war, love and morality, Stevens’ first short story collection is definitely one for the books.

Stand outs from the collection are definitely Siberia and Dispatches From Berlin.

[Isabelle Longfellow · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t read enough short stories and I love short stories and this collection was fantastic. The first few grabbed me completely with the writing style and the depth of character that the author develops in such a short amount of time. I was transported and transfixed and I deeply felt the sorrow or contentedness or distrust she was trying to pass on to the reader. Some of the endings of the stories were, let’s say, open to interpretation, but it didn’t bother me. In my opinion, short stories do not have to wrap up cleanly and many are left open on purpose. you just have to know what you’re getting in to. i definitely want to read more from this author.

[Ida rosarot · Rating 3 out of 5]

some of these stories were quite brilliant, others - unfortunately - rather bland.

[Jessie Elland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Usually I read short story collections slowly; drip feeding myself each story, but Stevens’ writing is so addictive that I couldn’t help but read Ghost Pains in one gulp. As soon as I finished one story I immediately started the other in order to treat myself to whatever delicious syntax she had cooked up next. At times her writing reminded me of Deborah Levy who I LOVE, but for the most part Stevens’ prose is so inventive it’s hard to think of a direct comp.

[Lucinda · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 for me really. Sophisticated and well crafted, at times leaving me feeling left behind in class and a little like the main character in the first story who’s cowed by her own urbane party guests. At points I wondered whether I wasn’t smart enough to understand or whether some of the writing was too knowing and pretentious for me. Interesting though, and some amusing, insightful passages which I enjoyed even if this was one I had to apply myself to finishing.

[Uzma Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is not often a collection of short stories will hit for me… even less often that every story in the collection will be a banger… this is the exception folks.

From personal identity in marriage to personal beliefs in politics, Stevens covers it all. ALL. And her writing is so intriguing the way it lures you in a bit deeper with every sentence. A stylistic quirk I’ve noticed is that she writes about a seemingly unassuming cast of characters, allowing you to infer the purport, until she finales with a guttural proclamation that you barely have time to digest. Usually in the last paragraph. Stevens writes mysteries guys, where the mystery is her intent. She drops some honest clues here, some red herrings there, and if you can’t quite come to your own conclusion, she’ll spell it out for you. Then it all makes sense (at least to me… idk for others lol).

I journaled my thoughts after each story so I wouldn’t forget them. I find I do that with short stories, but now I can hold them better in my archive. I recommend you do that too! Because even though a story can mean one thing to Stevens, you may spin it in a different way. It’s really a delight lol. I had a lot of fun with these. And her writing is just impeccable I don’t know how to explain!!!! Just the right amount of girly imagery with honesty with historical reflection. I can’t quite get it right, but I’ll definitely be reading her novels.

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

'The Visitors' was my favorite book out of everything I read the year it was released, so I was overjoyed at hearing there was an upcoming collection of stories. I am a sucker for a great short story collection. Surprisingly, most of the stories in this collection are more down to earth than much of the absolute bonkers details of 'The Visitors'. I thought it would be easier to stretch to be more bonkers in short form rather than a novel, but here I am wrong! Sure, there are still some bizarre elements in these stories, but then there are, for example, many mentions of tea. Oh, I just love her writing-- fun details like a fridge being "empty save my collection of half-finished jams." Overall, I don't think much can match 'The Visitors' in terms of how special it is to me, but I definitely appreciated reading more from the mind that created it. And would read more! Even so, many of these stories collected here are now some of my favorites. Any weird and wonderful short story fans out there? Make sure to pick this up.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the narrating character in each story. They seemed a bit similar to each other as characters although of course in very different situations. Mostly they were quite different to myself but with some relatable aspects, which made getting to know them interesting. I also liked the settings such as a few set in Berlin, and there was plenty of originality. The writing style was distinctive and I enjoyed that too.

The stories seemed quite literary but unfortunately I did not grasp all the meanings. In particular it seemed like the last couple of paragraphs of each story were where the meaning was supposed to emerge, but I was often just confused by those parts. This is why I’m only giving 3 stars.

[Ruby · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was a sexy first read of 2025. jessi’s writing is wry & full of whimsy, with a lot of joie de vivre! & deadpan irony. my favourite style is this: theatrical, joyful, funny, staccato sentences, a modern day that feels both entrenched in the Past and the Future and the Fairytale! i enjoyed the socio-politics of Berlin that were threaded throughout these stories albeit some of it went over my head. standouts were the party (which i’ll think about forever!), honeymoon, gettysburg, rumpel (soooo strange and fabulous!) and duck, duck, orange juice. loooove and can’t wait to read soooo much more from her

[Stipe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes, you buy a book because something catches your eye - the title, the cover, whatever - and sometimes you are pleasantly surprised by your discovery. I liked the title, I bought it, I read it. Pretty happy about that little random impulse!

It is a fine collection of short stories. I have enjoyed most of them. It is rather uncommon for me to read modern short stories (perhaps some peculiar aversion has developed over the years), but they somehow feel fresh and timeless. Sometimes it gets a little bit too dull, or too absurd, but overall, I would recommend it. The themes are diverse, there is something for everyone here.

[Keating Zelenke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a fan of her style. Writing was compelling, characters were compelling, situations were compelling. Also often funny and unconventional. Definitely want to read more stuff by this author!! However, I would say at some points it was difficult to follow because her style is so individualized/not always super straight forward. But ultimately, I was a big fan. My favorite stories were the title story, the first story, and the last one! But I liked plenty of the ones in between too.

[Avery Van Natta · Rating 4 out of 5]

what an odd little book. so many underlined phrases are now in my copy, the syntax was different without being fussy or ostentatious. it felt difficult at times to ascertain the point of the stories, but that did not detract from the beauty of the writing and clarity of the prose, even if it did make the collection feel a bit opaque at times.

[Kimberley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I struggled with this collection at first and after reading the first four of the eleven stories I ignored it for several weeks. I came back to it and found I warmed more to the second half and got through it quite quickly. Rumpel was probably my favourite, Dispatches from Berlin and Gettysburg stood out as well.

[William Hsu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmmmm not always a huge fan of short stories…… but beauitful writing although confusing at times….. Idk why it’s so hard for me to read short stories, maybe because my short attention span or maybe because it unconsciously forces me to pit them against each other as the best short stories ever…. Anyway, cute read!

[Cosmictimetraveler · Rating 1 out of 5]

So pointless it really shouldn’t even be called a novel

[Hannah Sofia · Rating 3 out of 5]

“Beliefs are such a comfort to other people until you ask them to explain.”

[Lou · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Siberia’ is the BEST thing I’ve read in m o n t h s

[Meg Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 for inconsistency in the quality of stories, rounded up to 4 for the prose :)