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Shout Her Lovely Name
"Coming of age is a painful and beautiful experience in Natalie Serber's hands. These are funny and poignant pieces, building a book that feels novelistic in sweep, yet true to the precision and direct aim of the short story. A real pleasure." —Antonya Nelson
Mothers and daughters ride the familial tide of joy, regret, loathing, and love in these stories of resilient and flawed women. In a battle between a teenage daughter and her mother, wheat bread and plain yogurt become weapons. An aimless college student, married to her much older professor, sneaks cigarettes while caring for their newborn son. On the eve of her husband’s fiftieth birthday, a pilfered fifth of rum, an unexpected tattoo, and rogue teenagers leave a woman questioning her place. And in a suite of stories, we follow capricious, ambitious single mother Ruby and her cautious, steadfast daughter Nora through their tumultuous life—stray men, stray cats, and psychedelic drugs—in 1970s California.
Gimlet-eyed and emotionally generous, achingly real and beautifully written, these unforgettable stories lay bare the connection and conflict in families. Shout Her Lovely Name heralds the arrival of a powerful new writer.
www.natalieserber.com
Mothers and daughters ride the familial tide of joy, regret, loathing, and love in these stories of resilient and flawed women. In a battle between a teenage daughter and her mother, wheat bread and plain yogurt become weapons. An aimless college student, married to her much older professor, sneaks cigarettes while caring for their newborn son. On the eve of her husband’s fiftieth birthday, a pilfered fifth of rum, an unexpected tattoo, and rogue teenagers leave a woman questioning her place. And in a suite of stories, we follow capricious, ambitious single mother Ruby and her cautious, steadfast daughter Nora through their tumultuous life—stray men, stray cats, and psychedelic drugs—in 1970s California.
Gimlet-eyed and emotionally generous, achingly real and beautifully written, these unforgettable stories lay bare the connection and conflict in families. Shout Her Lovely Name heralds the arrival of a powerful new writer.
www.natalieserber.com
226 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2012
64 people are currently reading
1919 people want to read
About the author
Natalie Serber
4 books71 followersI grew up in Santa Cruz, California, an only child of a single mother, I spent my youth riding my bike and reading incessantly. My college days were spent at University of California at Irvine where I studied English with a writing emphasis and then I studied at UC Santa Cruz taking a degree in education. I imagined I would be a teacher like my mother, or maybe I would write for magazines. When I had my children, I loved being a stay-at-home parent. I gardened, cooked, volunteered at their schools. When my youngest entered preschool, I took a writing class and then I took another. Soon I gave up gardening and took up early rising to write at my desk. With my kids in elementary school I wrote in coffeehouses and at the library, in the parking lot where I waited for them after school. I published in small journals, The Bellingham Review, Inkwell Magazine, Third Coast, Fourth Genre, Hunger Mountain to name a few, and those publications sustained me, they allowed me to continue believing in my work. I was lucky enough to win some prizes, John Steinbeck Award, Tobias Wolff Award, H.E. Francis Award, I was short listed in Best American Short Stories. All of this led me to Warren Wilson College for graduate school where I received my MFA in fiction. Through the raising of my family I continued writing. Now as my youngest enters college and I teeter on the cusp of an empty nest and a new decade of my life, my book, SHOUT HER LOVELY NAME is forthcoming with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. There’s a lovely symmetry to my timeline and if I wrote it in a story, no one would believe it.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
June 2, 2019
An emotional roller-coaster as we watch promising young women (and some older ones, too) just fling themselves out there into trouble,
"Heroine" by graphic artist Hayley Gay
usually by falling in love with the wrong people (too self-centered, too irresponsible, too darned reliable, or even a smidgen too smelly); falling pregnant when they don't want to be; or all of the above. Exhilarating, shattering, and ironic by turns.
The last story is easily my favorite; the first story is my least. Funny, because both stories feature mothers and their children scrambling to control their lives. Story #1, "Shout Her Lovely Name," is a mother's journal of the many ways she tries to help her anorexic daughter. Yes, it's a serious topic, and no, this story doesn't tell you one thing you didn't already know.
But the other stories are unpredictable, and the last, "Developmental Blah Blah" shows Cassie, a "perfect" society mom who plans for her family incessantly and fantasizes that just one stinkin' time they'll That being highly unlikely (they're normal, for goodness' sake), she fantasizes alternately about Sigh.
Many of the stories center on mothers and daughters, either their bonding or their showdowns. But you don't have to be a mother or daughter to enjoy. Human will do.
"Heroine" by graphic artist Hayley Gay
usually by falling in love with the wrong people (too self-centered, too irresponsible, too darned reliable, or even a smidgen too smelly); falling pregnant when they don't want to be; or all of the above. Exhilarating, shattering, and ironic by turns.
The last story is easily my favorite; the first story is my least. Funny, because both stories feature mothers and their children scrambling to control their lives. Story #1, "Shout Her Lovely Name," is a mother's journal of the many ways she tries to help her anorexic daughter. Yes, it's a serious topic, and no, this story doesn't tell you one thing you didn't already know.
But the other stories are unpredictable, and the last, "Developmental Blah Blah" shows Cassie, a "perfect" society mom who plans for her family incessantly and fantasizes that just one stinkin' time they'll That being highly unlikely (they're normal, for goodness' sake), she fantasizes alternately about Sigh.
Many of the stories center on mothers and daughters, either their bonding or their showdowns. But you don't have to be a mother or daughter to enjoy. Human will do.
July 23, 2012
I rarely read Short Story collections. I'm not exactly sure why this is - but I tend to prefer investing reading time to a novel rather than what can feel like only a chapter.
This book was brought to my attention via Oprah's Summer Reading List featured in the July issue of her magazine - and I almost passed it by (because it's a series of short stories) ~ and for whatever reason, I not only read through the book's summary, but also clicked through to First Pages Excerpt (I receive O Magazine via my iPad)~ immediately purchased a Kindle version and finished the collection within days.
Several factors motivated these actions. First, the excerpt shared really connected with me and I just HAD to read the story in its entirety to see how/if resolution was reached. (See for yourself, here: Shout Her Lovely Name First Pages)
Next,9 of the 11 stories actually featured, in some capacity, two characters - providing slices of their lives in different time periods, highlighting their transformation as a result of history and/or life circumstances.
Finally ~ this is a book about Mothers and Daughters -- some Mothers we only get to know as Mothers, one key character, Ruby, we experience as both - a daughter first, then a Mother, and also - as a woman finding her way. It's a story about women coming of age and how relationships in our lives, and the ways we choose to meet them, can create life paths that may or may not serve us - and how we then respond to that.
I was grateful to have stumbled upon this book and rated it 9/10.
This book was brought to my attention via Oprah's Summer Reading List featured in the July issue of her magazine - and I almost passed it by (because it's a series of short stories) ~ and for whatever reason, I not only read through the book's summary, but also clicked through to First Pages Excerpt (I receive O Magazine via my iPad)~ immediately purchased a Kindle version and finished the collection within days.
Several factors motivated these actions. First, the excerpt shared really connected with me and I just HAD to read the story in its entirety to see how/if resolution was reached. (See for yourself, here: Shout Her Lovely Name First Pages)
Next,9 of the 11 stories actually featured, in some capacity, two characters - providing slices of their lives in different time periods, highlighting their transformation as a result of history and/or life circumstances.
Finally ~ this is a book about Mothers and Daughters -- some Mothers we only get to know as Mothers, one key character, Ruby, we experience as both - a daughter first, then a Mother, and also - as a woman finding her way. It's a story about women coming of age and how relationships in our lives, and the ways we choose to meet them, can create life paths that may or may not serve us - and how we then respond to that.
I was grateful to have stumbled upon this book and rated it 9/10.
November 11, 2012
I was turned off by the title story of this collection. It recounts the trials of a mother confronting and guiding her high school age daughter through a bout of anorexia nervosa--delicate subject--written in imperative sentences. The tone worried me; I thought I might be in for two hundred pages of sentimental whining. Not the case.
Most of the stories are linked to Ruby, the presumed anorexic girl mentioned above, and her daughter Nora, whose main challenges stem from the legacy of body image issues, tumultuous relationships with men, and alcoholism. The reader is allowed to fill in the holes of the two women's biographies: often 2-5 years pass between one story and the next, which is thrilling in its own way. Satisfyingly, as the two women make decisions (mostly about men), they manage to both surprise and confirm the reader's fears. You'll want to root for Ruby and Nora, and every misstep comes to feel like a personal failure. Serber has written two characters you'll get to know like family friends, and watching them change (or not) is like catching up with a distant relative at a family reunion.
Though the stories that don't follow Ruby and Nora are just as carefully crafted as those that do, I selfishly wanted them to be cut for other titles with the growing characters. Something about their absence threw the pacing off for me, though this may be a personal problem. Regardless, they cover similar thematic ground and bridge the gaps of the book in pleasant ways.
Most of the stories are linked to Ruby, the presumed anorexic girl mentioned above, and her daughter Nora, whose main challenges stem from the legacy of body image issues, tumultuous relationships with men, and alcoholism. The reader is allowed to fill in the holes of the two women's biographies: often 2-5 years pass between one story and the next, which is thrilling in its own way. Satisfyingly, as the two women make decisions (mostly about men), they manage to both surprise and confirm the reader's fears. You'll want to root for Ruby and Nora, and every misstep comes to feel like a personal failure. Serber has written two characters you'll get to know like family friends, and watching them change (or not) is like catching up with a distant relative at a family reunion.
Though the stories that don't follow Ruby and Nora are just as carefully crafted as those that do, I selfishly wanted them to be cut for other titles with the growing characters. Something about their absence threw the pacing off for me, though this may be a personal problem. Regardless, they cover similar thematic ground and bridge the gaps of the book in pleasant ways.
August 25, 2012
I wouldn't call myself a Short Story person. I have this thing in my head where if I'm to open a book I want to be enveloped and in the knowledge that I'm going to be taken on a ride. I want a commitment. But like poetry where some speaks to you and you nod your head Yes- I get that, I know what the poet was feeling when she wrote that---You can sometimes read a short story and say wow- that packed a punch.
Shout Her Lovely Name did just that. Each story drew me in and made me feel like it was so much bigger and deeper than the 15 or so pages each story was. I was sad to see it end. How talented Natalie Serber is with her characters and their entire lives put on the page.
Most of the stories involve Ruby and her daughter, Nora and the glimpses of their lives at various stages from the men they're involved with and the lifestyle choices for the times. There are a sprinkling of stories unrelated, a mother fretting over her teenage daughter's eating disorder to a wife coming to terms with letting her kids (walking in on sexual escapade) go while planning her husbands 50th and him getting matching tattoos with his son, to a woman on an airplane with her somewhat controlling husband dealing with her infant and another passenger who's a butthole.
The stories are slices of life that burrow deep into a woman's heart. They are about struggles and female bonds and growing up and growing older and moving on with acceptance. I loved every story and it reminds me of the charms and loveliness of story in it's short form.
December 24, 2011
Serber's debut, a wonderfully spare collection of beautiful short stories is a delight to read! Readers who don't have a lot of time on their hands can read "Shout Her Lovely Name" in short snatches, but you'll want to read it all in one gulp!
July 20, 2014
It is so rare, especially now when it seems like everyone has a story to sell, to find a book where no writerly wall exists between you and the story. Where the author doesn't seem to be trying to impress you with style, at least a little. I was more than three quarters of the way finished with Shout Her Lovely Name (which I devoured, comparatively, these days) before it struck me that recurring character Ruby is not a real person.
You can ascribe that feeling to characterization that speaks truly of the human experience -- its deep chasms and small bursts of hope -- sure. But I was even more impressed by Natalie Serber's ability to be transparent while breaking my heart. One of my writing professors used to say to our class of wannabe prosers that this is the highest achievement of an author: to write fiction well without drawing a reader's attention back to you. (We, for the most part, failed at this. It's hard.)
Shout Her Lovely Name also connected with me deeply on a personal level. The women in these stories struggle with unmet expectations -- for insecure motherhood, for their mostly ill-matched men, for their bodies. My nineteen year old cousin is pregnant, forced to drop out of full-time college for now and finish very slowly through online courses as she and her boyfriend raise their child. While their relationship is stable, her situation has made me somewhat obsessed with examining the ways that I'm reckless in my own relationship, which is newer but less stable. How easily my life could be thrown askew by an "accident." My own fallout, though, would be more like single mother Ruby's, not my cousin's. Shout isn't a preachy sort of book, but Ruby's arc ends exactly at the quiet loneliness it started with. That seems about right.
This book makes me excited about not just reading, but writing again. These stories are what I hoped I'd write before desk jobs sapped my enthusiasm for extracurricular creativity. And to think that at first I just picked it up for the pretty cover.
You can ascribe that feeling to characterization that speaks truly of the human experience -- its deep chasms and small bursts of hope -- sure. But I was even more impressed by Natalie Serber's ability to be transparent while breaking my heart. One of my writing professors used to say to our class of wannabe prosers that this is the highest achievement of an author: to write fiction well without drawing a reader's attention back to you. (We, for the most part, failed at this. It's hard.)
Shout Her Lovely Name also connected with me deeply on a personal level. The women in these stories struggle with unmet expectations -- for insecure motherhood, for their mostly ill-matched men, for their bodies. My nineteen year old cousin is pregnant, forced to drop out of full-time college for now and finish very slowly through online courses as she and her boyfriend raise their child. While their relationship is stable, her situation has made me somewhat obsessed with examining the ways that I'm reckless in my own relationship, which is newer but less stable. How easily my life could be thrown askew by an "accident." My own fallout, though, would be more like single mother Ruby's, not my cousin's. Shout isn't a preachy sort of book, but Ruby's arc ends exactly at the quiet loneliness it started with. That seems about right.
This book makes me excited about not just reading, but writing again. These stories are what I hoped I'd write before desk jobs sapped my enthusiasm for extracurricular creativity. And to think that at first I just picked it up for the pretty cover.
December 29, 2013
This group of short stories is a beautiful read that should be part of any women's studies college course. Estranged daughters, attached mothers, women learning about life and strength and change. The story about the airplane felt like Serber snuck into my postpartum head and stole my thoughts and emotions right out from me. Do you have a mother? Then you should read this book.
July 16, 2025
The pros: The theme of this collection is the mother-daughter relationship, which is handled deftly and tenderly. The majority of the stories follow the same two characters, as if you’re peeking in on them at different points in their lives. As a result the collection reads almost like a novel.
The cons: The choice to center the collection around specific characters but also include two unrelated stories felt a little bizarre. Especially given that the collection takes its name from the very first story, which is not one of the interlinked ones and is borderline bad? Other than that one the stories are well crafted and the theme fully explored, but there isn’t anything here that makes this book a stand out.
The cons: The choice to center the collection around specific characters but also include two unrelated stories felt a little bizarre. Especially given that the collection takes its name from the very first story, which is not one of the interlinked ones and is borderline bad? Other than that one the stories are well crafted and the theme fully explored, but there isn’t anything here that makes this book a stand out.
March 25, 2020
The first couple stories were threes, the middle ones were fours, and the last story knocked the wind out of me. Mother-daughter relationships are beautiful and doomed and heartbreaking, and reading about them makes me want to call my mom and thank her for every sacrifice I don’t know about.
April 13, 2025
I randomly picked this book up from the Library and I loved it! It was raw and beautiful and perfectly reflected real life.
December 9, 2013
My original plan had been to cross-review this with Blueprints for Building Better Girls: Fiction which I'd started reading around the same times I'd started reading this.
This, however, I read during my half-hour lunch breaks so it took me a really, super, amazingly long time to get through it whereas I read the Blueprints book at home in, like, five days and now I've forgotten what I was going to say to compare the two, other than both are books of short stories that explore relationships females have with other people, specifically mother/daughter relationships.
So, instead, I'll just give my thoughts on this book and then go write the review for that book and it won't be half as clever and erudite as I'd planned.
This book.
Because I'm not an artistic-thinking individual, I was confused by the layout of this book. Now, I must remind you that I was reading this during lunch breaks and was often interrupted in my reading so it took me three stories to realize that I was reading about the same girl named Ruby. I was thrown off because the first story, "Shout her lovely name," is about a nameless mother whose nameless daughter is suffering from an eating disorder and they're trying to navigate teenagehood and parenthood around this serious illness. But then the next story, "Ruby Jewel," starts in with the Ruby stories. She's a teen coming home from college and having to deal with her drunk father and her distant mother after having tasted her own life for a semester, or however long it's been. Then there are two more Ruby stories, then a story about a woman on a plane with her husband and their baby. Then it goes back to Ruby stories, only now Ruby has a daughter named Nora. Slowly, we move into Nora stories and then the book ends with a woman named Cassie who has two teenage children and they are planning a birthday party for the soon-to-be-50-year-old dad.
The end.
Why was this book set up that way? Why were the bulk of stories about Ruby and then Nora, making a sort of novel, only to have the stories bookended and bisected by unrelated stories? I mean, I get that ther reader gets to know Nora after the woman on the plane (not snakes on the plane) story, but why are the three non-Ruby stories random, as in they are not about anyone related to the Ruby stories and they don't seem related to each other, either. I do not understand what I'm supposed to get from that.
The stories were fine. I didn't really connect with any of them. I'm not a mother. I am a daughter, but I didn't connect on that level, either. Ruby is a teen in the 70's, I believe. I was a little kid in the 70's. My experiences were way different, even if I did recognize the environment. Nora's childhood wasn't totally different from mine, but dissimilar enough that I didn't really sympathize with her, either. It was like I was just watching these people in these stories, never truly feeling their feels.
Even so, the stories are well-written and describe moments of life that are worth reading about. They explore relationships women have with other women, with their mothers, their daughters, with siblings and friends, with men and I always find such things interesting.
This, however, I read during my half-hour lunch breaks so it took me a really, super, amazingly long time to get through it whereas I read the Blueprints book at home in, like, five days and now I've forgotten what I was going to say to compare the two, other than both are books of short stories that explore relationships females have with other people, specifically mother/daughter relationships.
So, instead, I'll just give my thoughts on this book and then go write the review for that book and it won't be half as clever and erudite as I'd planned.
This book.
Because I'm not an artistic-thinking individual, I was confused by the layout of this book. Now, I must remind you that I was reading this during lunch breaks and was often interrupted in my reading so it took me three stories to realize that I was reading about the same girl named Ruby. I was thrown off because the first story, "Shout her lovely name," is about a nameless mother whose nameless daughter is suffering from an eating disorder and they're trying to navigate teenagehood and parenthood around this serious illness. But then the next story, "Ruby Jewel," starts in with the Ruby stories. She's a teen coming home from college and having to deal with her drunk father and her distant mother after having tasted her own life for a semester, or however long it's been. Then there are two more Ruby stories, then a story about a woman on a plane with her husband and their baby. Then it goes back to Ruby stories, only now Ruby has a daughter named Nora. Slowly, we move into Nora stories and then the book ends with a woman named Cassie who has two teenage children and they are planning a birthday party for the soon-to-be-50-year-old dad.
The end.
Why was this book set up that way? Why were the bulk of stories about Ruby and then Nora, making a sort of novel, only to have the stories bookended and bisected by unrelated stories? I mean, I get that ther reader gets to know Nora after the woman on the plane (not snakes on the plane) story, but why are the three non-Ruby stories random, as in they are not about anyone related to the Ruby stories and they don't seem related to each other, either. I do not understand what I'm supposed to get from that.
The stories were fine. I didn't really connect with any of them. I'm not a mother. I am a daughter, but I didn't connect on that level, either. Ruby is a teen in the 70's, I believe. I was a little kid in the 70's. My experiences were way different, even if I did recognize the environment. Nora's childhood wasn't totally different from mine, but dissimilar enough that I didn't really sympathize with her, either. It was like I was just watching these people in these stories, never truly feeling their feels.
Even so, the stories are well-written and describe moments of life that are worth reading about. They explore relationships women have with other women, with their mothers, their daughters, with siblings and friends, with men and I always find such things interesting.
July 11, 2012
I have to be honest, I tried to finish this book but I just couldn't do it. This book, albeit interesting and extremely real, dropped the F-word way too many times for me. I tried to ignore it, but after ignoring it over and over again, the F-word was paired up with taking the Lord's name in vain. I shut the book and was done. I honestly don't understand the need to include vulgarities such as this. It does nothing to further the story. I would love to finish this book sans the F-word. I was taken in by the honesty of the book, the reality of her stating people’s deepest thoughts out loud. These thoughts that we would never want to admit to having. It is truly fascinating.
Thank you Heather for this review.
**As a response to a question from the publisher about my review of Shout Her Lovely Name, I decided I needed to clarify my post and why I rated it only One Star.
I should note that I read about a third of the book. The first story had language that bothered me a little bit. I thought that the stories themselves were very interesting and I honestly think I would have enjoyed them if it weren't for the language.
I rate the first story two stars. It was a fascinating look into a mother's perspective of her child's struggle with anorexia. It gave us a glimpse of her thoughts of this hardship and how she blamed herself for the hardships anorexia put the family in.
I give the second story three stars. I enjoyed the second story about Ruby and her struggle to accept an unwanted pregnancy. She smokes, drinks and basically tries to have a "natural miscarriage." We follow her intimate thoughts about whether she will keep the baby, stay with her absent boyfriend, or make her way on her own. It is a good story. I realize that this story is continued in the book, but I have not read the rest of it.
The third story I rate one star. Having suffered from post postpartum depression myself, I related to the woman in the third story about her thoughts as she boards an airplane with her newborn son. She thinks about dropping the baby over the banister and how she honestly doesn't care about what is going on around because all she can think about is her annoying sucking child and her hurting nipples. She thinks about these types of things, but doesn't voice them for fear of her husband overreacting. This is why I was so disappointed to have to put the book down. I felt connected to the women and wanted to get to know her more, but I could not ignore the vulgarity. I do not use or even think that kind of language, and I do not want to hear or read it.
As a general note about the book, while I appreciated the stories I read, I had a difficult time discerning when one story started and another ended. I would rather have had a more clear cut ending and start to the stories. I found myself flipping back to find out who the character was I was reading about only to realize I had started a different tale. It is possible that if I finished the book all the stories would come together nicely but with the difficulty I had from this as well as the vulgar language, I couldn't finish the book and I can only give the book (the 1/3 I read of it) one star.
-Heather
Thank you Heather for this review.
**As a response to a question from the publisher about my review of Shout Her Lovely Name, I decided I needed to clarify my post and why I rated it only One Star.
I should note that I read about a third of the book. The first story had language that bothered me a little bit. I thought that the stories themselves were very interesting and I honestly think I would have enjoyed them if it weren't for the language.
I rate the first story two stars. It was a fascinating look into a mother's perspective of her child's struggle with anorexia. It gave us a glimpse of her thoughts of this hardship and how she blamed herself for the hardships anorexia put the family in.
I give the second story three stars. I enjoyed the second story about Ruby and her struggle to accept an unwanted pregnancy. She smokes, drinks and basically tries to have a "natural miscarriage." We follow her intimate thoughts about whether she will keep the baby, stay with her absent boyfriend, or make her way on her own. It is a good story. I realize that this story is continued in the book, but I have not read the rest of it.
The third story I rate one star. Having suffered from post postpartum depression myself, I related to the woman in the third story about her thoughts as she boards an airplane with her newborn son. She thinks about dropping the baby over the banister and how she honestly doesn't care about what is going on around because all she can think about is her annoying sucking child and her hurting nipples. She thinks about these types of things, but doesn't voice them for fear of her husband overreacting. This is why I was so disappointed to have to put the book down. I felt connected to the women and wanted to get to know her more, but I could not ignore the vulgarity. I do not use or even think that kind of language, and I do not want to hear or read it.
As a general note about the book, while I appreciated the stories I read, I had a difficult time discerning when one story started and another ended. I would rather have had a more clear cut ending and start to the stories. I found myself flipping back to find out who the character was I was reading about only to realize I had started a different tale. It is possible that if I finished the book all the stories would come together nicely but with the difficulty I had from this as well as the vulgar language, I couldn't finish the book and I can only give the book (the 1/3 I read of it) one star.
-Heather
November 6, 2012
For years, I was convinced that I didn't like short stories. One too many forced marches through weighty anthologies had left me believing that the genre was limiting and vaguely unsatisfying. Thank goodness I persevered and found out just how powerful the medium can be in the right hands. A perfect example of this is Shout Her Lovely Name, the stunning debut collection by Natalie Serber.
Serber's short stories are sometimes sad, sometimes sweet, but always truthful and achingly familiar. They're connected by the theme of mother-daughter relationships in all their fierce, messy, elemental forms. The rich details conjured up memory after memory for me, from both sides of that relationship.
Eight of the eleven stories center on a woman named Ruby, whom we meet as she is visiting her parents after being away at college for the first time. She's trying to break away from her parents' sad relationship and her mother's apparent resignation to it, at one point blurting proudly, "I have a boyfriend now. He buys me flowers." She's convinced that her mother's fate will not be her own.
As the connected stories progress, Ruby finds herself pregnant and raising a daughter, Nora, on her own. The stories follow Ruby and young Nora: first as a young girl idolizing her mother, then beginning to see Ruby's failings through the eyes of others, then as a teenager looking for validation, and finally as a college student looking to break away herself.
In the story Plum Tree, Ruby tries to share her hard-earned wisdom and experiences with her teenage daughter, but Nora isn't listening: "She wanted to make her own new and unique mistakes. She was nothing like Ruby."
While I loved the Ruby/Nora storyline, my two favorite stories in the collection were outside that narrative. In the title story, "Shout Her Lovely Name," a mother describes, in journal format, her daughter's heartbreaking descent into an eating disorder. Serber manages to convey the mother's fear, anger, guilt and helplessness with an astonishing compassion, and even humor, that moved me deeply. In "This is So Not Me," a young mother trying to meet the expectations of her older husband displays unexpected strength.
Serber is skilled at creating a palpable sense of place and time as the stories move across the country and across decades. The highest compliment I can give the author, though, is that I went to bed after reading each night worried about these characters, as if they were people I knew. There wasn't a single character that I wouldn't want to read more about. Whatever form her next work takes, I'll be first in line to read it.
This review was originally published at StoryCircleBookReviews: http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org...
Serber's short stories are sometimes sad, sometimes sweet, but always truthful and achingly familiar. They're connected by the theme of mother-daughter relationships in all their fierce, messy, elemental forms. The rich details conjured up memory after memory for me, from both sides of that relationship.
Eight of the eleven stories center on a woman named Ruby, whom we meet as she is visiting her parents after being away at college for the first time. She's trying to break away from her parents' sad relationship and her mother's apparent resignation to it, at one point blurting proudly, "I have a boyfriend now. He buys me flowers." She's convinced that her mother's fate will not be her own.
As the connected stories progress, Ruby finds herself pregnant and raising a daughter, Nora, on her own. The stories follow Ruby and young Nora: first as a young girl idolizing her mother, then beginning to see Ruby's failings through the eyes of others, then as a teenager looking for validation, and finally as a college student looking to break away herself.
In the story Plum Tree, Ruby tries to share her hard-earned wisdom and experiences with her teenage daughter, but Nora isn't listening: "She wanted to make her own new and unique mistakes. She was nothing like Ruby."
While I loved the Ruby/Nora storyline, my two favorite stories in the collection were outside that narrative. In the title story, "Shout Her Lovely Name," a mother describes, in journal format, her daughter's heartbreaking descent into an eating disorder. Serber manages to convey the mother's fear, anger, guilt and helplessness with an astonishing compassion, and even humor, that moved me deeply. In "This is So Not Me," a young mother trying to meet the expectations of her older husband displays unexpected strength.
Serber is skilled at creating a palpable sense of place and time as the stories move across the country and across decades. The highest compliment I can give the author, though, is that I went to bed after reading each night worried about these characters, as if they were people I knew. There wasn't a single character that I wouldn't want to read more about. Whatever form her next work takes, I'll be first in line to read it.
This review was originally published at StoryCircleBookReviews: http://www.storycirclebookreviews.org...
September 10, 2016
This is a book I had won on Goodreads back in June of 2013. Having finally read it, I was pleasantly surprised by most of the stories within. When I first started reading it, I was afraid that it wasn’t going to be one that was going to make the good list but after reading a story or two, it became quite amazing.
All the stories have some sort of mother and daughter link, even if only very remotely. The first story was well written but the end came on quickly and it was sort of a letdown. I won’t say why but if you read it you will see and perhaps you will disagree (hopefully) but for me it left me feeling down. This gave me a bit of concern about what would follow. The next story began and I found myself setting the book down a few times so I wasn’t feeling it yet. However, when the third story began, it continued with the girl from the second story, Ruby, and after a page or two, I was hooked right on in there. The book became my best friend. I couldn’t part with it.
The writing is really brilliant. The author has a writing style that is really all her own. It just flows on the pages as if she was born to get those words on that page. She switches to first person at one point in one of the stories (as Nora, Ruby’s daughter) and it’s a stroke of genius. Reading the lives of Ruby and her daughter was an incredible journey. It was seriously one of the most amazing ways of writing a book of this sort I’ve come across. I looked forward to what was coming next as it moved through their lives as they grew older. However, all good things have to come to an end and sometimes that end is abrupt, sad, and completely unexpected leaving you feeling empty and alone and that’s what happened here.
The last story in the book happened. This last story had nothing to do with Ruby and Nora. It was a whole new cast of characters. It was hard to read after the excitement and thrill of the previous trip. I know a lot of people will love the last story because it embraced motherhood again and a mother dealing with her teenagers and so on but for me I just couldn’t put my heart and soul into their story after the previous story.
Even though I did a mild drama queen moment there with the last story and will forever wonder about and spend many sleepless nights worrying about Ruby and Nora’s outcome, I still found that the authors writing style, storytelling ability, and the fact that she was able to bring about such strong emotional bonds with fictional characters makes this book well deserving of a full five star rating!
All the stories have some sort of mother and daughter link, even if only very remotely. The first story was well written but the end came on quickly and it was sort of a letdown. I won’t say why but if you read it you will see and perhaps you will disagree (hopefully) but for me it left me feeling down. This gave me a bit of concern about what would follow. The next story began and I found myself setting the book down a few times so I wasn’t feeling it yet. However, when the third story began, it continued with the girl from the second story, Ruby, and after a page or two, I was hooked right on in there. The book became my best friend. I couldn’t part with it.
The writing is really brilliant. The author has a writing style that is really all her own. It just flows on the pages as if she was born to get those words on that page. She switches to first person at one point in one of the stories (as Nora, Ruby’s daughter) and it’s a stroke of genius. Reading the lives of Ruby and her daughter was an incredible journey. It was seriously one of the most amazing ways of writing a book of this sort I’ve come across. I looked forward to what was coming next as it moved through their lives as they grew older. However, all good things have to come to an end and sometimes that end is abrupt, sad, and completely unexpected leaving you feeling empty and alone and that’s what happened here.
The last story in the book happened. This last story had nothing to do with Ruby and Nora. It was a whole new cast of characters. It was hard to read after the excitement and thrill of the previous trip. I know a lot of people will love the last story because it embraced motherhood again and a mother dealing with her teenagers and so on but for me I just couldn’t put my heart and soul into their story after the previous story.
Even though I did a mild drama queen moment there with the last story and will forever wonder about and spend many sleepless nights worrying about Ruby and Nora’s outcome, I still found that the authors writing style, storytelling ability, and the fact that she was able to bring about such strong emotional bonds with fictional characters makes this book well deserving of a full five star rating!
September 10, 2013
http://dakimel.blogspot.com/2013/09/m...
I mentioned about me and the short stories these days, right? Well, I'm still on that streak. And Serber's debut collection was immediate and open and real. Very "these people could be my neighbors." The title story in particular evoked the same "I'm not proud I thought it" feeling of gee, I'm so glad my kids are boys instead of girls I get sometimes when dining with my friends. Not that I'm unaffected by the complex and inextricably linked lines between mother and daughter - I am a daughter, after all, and one who has shared an office with her mother for the past 20 years. (Hi, mom!) (Thanks for not being like Ruby in this collection, mom!)
I particularly admire Serber's deft selection of telling details and shaping of key moments. She gave me a lot to dwell on and moments that stick clearly and vividly to my heart. I'm looking forward to reading more by her.
I mentioned about me and the short stories these days, right? Well, I'm still on that streak. And Serber's debut collection was immediate and open and real. Very "these people could be my neighbors." The title story in particular evoked the same "I'm not proud I thought it" feeling of gee, I'm so glad my kids are boys instead of girls I get sometimes when dining with my friends. Not that I'm unaffected by the complex and inextricably linked lines between mother and daughter - I am a daughter, after all, and one who has shared an office with her mother for the past 20 years. (Hi, mom!) (Thanks for not being like Ruby in this collection, mom!)
I particularly admire Serber's deft selection of telling details and shaping of key moments. She gave me a lot to dwell on and moments that stick clearly and vividly to my heart. I'm looking forward to reading more by her.
January 2, 2013
I read this and participated in online discussions with the author via Goodreads' The Next Best Book Club (TNBBC).
I really liked the writing, the relatable characters, and the storylines in this book, but I think I wanted it to be a novel. This is a collection of short stories, most of them about the same mother-daughter pair. Interspersed are stories that have nothing to do with those characters, though, which just kind of interrupted the flow. I don't want to say I wish the book had just been about Ruby and Nora, though, because it was the "one off" stories that were the most powerful to me, and that stuck with me after I'd put the book down.
The author told us she's working on an actual novel now - I'll look forward to reading it.
I really liked the writing, the relatable characters, and the storylines in this book, but I think I wanted it to be a novel. This is a collection of short stories, most of them about the same mother-daughter pair. Interspersed are stories that have nothing to do with those characters, though, which just kind of interrupted the flow. I don't want to say I wish the book had just been about Ruby and Nora, though, because it was the "one off" stories that were the most powerful to me, and that stuck with me after I'd put the book down.
The author told us she's working on an actual novel now - I'll look forward to reading it.
June 23, 2013
This was a collection of short stories that unfolded somewhat like a novel. I did find it odd that all but the first, last, and one middle story were about the same family. I tried to keep an open mind about that, and I did find myself enjoying the book.
The struggles between mothers and children really spoke to me, although it also made me dread all the mischief that my own toddlers will inevitably fall into when they are older. The tone of the stories was neither uplifting, not dismal, but instead seemed to suggest that real life is messy. The message I took away from this is that everyone just has to try their best, even if that doesn't feel good enough.
I received this book as a first-read. Yay!
The struggles between mothers and children really spoke to me, although it also made me dread all the mischief that my own toddlers will inevitably fall into when they are older. The tone of the stories was neither uplifting, not dismal, but instead seemed to suggest that real life is messy. The message I took away from this is that everyone just has to try their best, even if that doesn't feel good enough.
I received this book as a first-read. Yay!
April 25, 2019
I really needed time to reflect on this novel before writing the review and the funny thing is, the long I sat with it the more I appreciated the storylines and the complexities of the characters. I started thinking about the complex relationship my mother & I had and then I started thinking about the relationship between my daughters & I... let’s not even go there..
But, I do know I do the best I can, and I bet my mother did too. It’s hard to love your daughter, and to do the best you can for her AND still try to love yourself.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ STARS
But, I do know I do the best I can, and I bet my mother did too. It’s hard to love your daughter, and to do the best you can for her AND still try to love yourself.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ STARS
April 28, 2015
Nicely written assortment of short stories ... most of them about a mother-daughter trio at different stages and phases of their lives. I wasn't sure how the rare story that was NOT about Ruby or Nora necessarily fit in, but still liked the collection, overall.
June 1, 2021
Eh.
The first story was really good, as was “This is So Not Me”, but almost all the rest of the book was about two specific characters, Ruby and her daughter Nora. Ruby was unlikable and emotionally abusive, and I found myself hating her. Nora seemed sweet but I ended up skimming the last couple of her stories. Simply put, I wasn’t interested in their story. It bordered on raw at times, but usually stayed bleak. “Manx” was a solid story in their saga, but I disliked Ruby so much. I can’t explain it, she was just a selfish person who had no business being a parent (she was also a pretty lame daughter to her own mother, too), and she was too bland to be intriguing. She just sucked in a very one-dimensional way, both as a daughter and as a mother. I expected this book to explore varying mother/ daughter relationships and was disappointed that it mostly focused on someone that I couldn’t stand.
The first story was really good, as was “This is So Not Me”, but almost all the rest of the book was about two specific characters, Ruby and her daughter Nora. Ruby was unlikable and emotionally abusive, and I found myself hating her. Nora seemed sweet but I ended up skimming the last couple of her stories. Simply put, I wasn’t interested in their story. It bordered on raw at times, but usually stayed bleak. “Manx” was a solid story in their saga, but I disliked Ruby so much. I can’t explain it, she was just a selfish person who had no business being a parent (she was also a pretty lame daughter to her own mother, too), and she was too bland to be intriguing. She just sucked in a very one-dimensional way, both as a daughter and as a mother. I expected this book to explore varying mother/ daughter relationships and was disappointed that it mostly focused on someone that I couldn’t stand.
August 30, 2021
This has been on my TBR for a good many years and I finally found a copy of this elusive book.
What a disappointment.
The writing in the first story is just so immensely good and so is the plot and it has that esoteric vague-ness that is so prevalent in early 2000s novels but it’s so well written and achey that you ignore that and keep reading.
My goodness, it’s all downhill from there.
The stories are all loosely related to the same three characters or so, but the short story format means you’re left not really caring about any of these people except that this young woman has a fairly traumatic life, by all accounts.
1/5.
What a disappointment.
The writing in the first story is just so immensely good and so is the plot and it has that esoteric vague-ness that is so prevalent in early 2000s novels but it’s so well written and achey that you ignore that and keep reading.
My goodness, it’s all downhill from there.
The stories are all loosely related to the same three characters or so, but the short story format means you’re left not really caring about any of these people except that this young woman has a fairly traumatic life, by all accounts.
1/5.
September 30, 2019
All the storys about Ruby and Nora are the ones I invested in. I wish the whole book could have been their story. I really wanted to know what happened with Nora and Ruby and thought maybe the first story connected them that maybe it was Nora's future daughter with the eating disorder. But I got to last story and it didn't connected not at all, I flipped the pages fast and furiously like what about Nora? Where is Ruby? It was an abrubt ending to their story and I was frustrated like I was left hanging. I hope they get their own book dedicated to just them one day.
January 5, 2020
These stories, mostly about mothers and daughters, all about women, are so real they made me sad. The misses between mother and daughter, the ways in which they do not understand or even like each other but are drawn from love? or obligation? into each other are depicted a clear-eyed truth that is not unsympathetic to either. The men in these stories are somewhat one-dimensional, which could be okay, as they are incidental, really to the women.
Serber is an excellent writer and the stories are good, although I can't say I *enjoyed* them. I think I need a lighter, "recovery" book now.
Serber is an excellent writer and the stories are good, although I can't say I *enjoyed* them. I think I need a lighter, "recovery" book now.
March 15, 2018
I’m a terrible short story reader. I fly through each one and move on whenI probably should spend more time digesting before consuming the next. Anyway, I really liked these short stories. I felt like the characters were vivid and came alive. It seemed as if you spent their whole life with them rather than a few pages.
May 11, 2017
I really liked the first story, but 90% of the book followed another narrative that I wasn't as interested in. I can't blame the mother for wanting to keep her daughter, but that little girl would've been much better off if she'd been given up for adoption.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2017
This is a hauntingly brave collection of stories, full of resilient, imperfect women who don't let their past traumas define them. Put simply, I felt stronger and more willing to tackle the difficulties of life after reading this book. Thank you, Natalie Serber.
February 7, 2021
Incredible collection of mostly linked stories about mothers and daughters. Beautifully written, filled with warmth and angst and all of the conflicting feelings mothers and daughters feel for each other even in the best relationships.
October 26, 2021
I stuck with this book, however definitely not anywhere near a favorite for me. The last chapter in the book felt very disconnected with the introduction of a new mother/daughter relationship. It was just okay in my book.
February 25, 2019
I liked this book. Wished she went on a little more with a couple of the stories, but enjoyed them.
August 25, 2019
The book was good from what I read. I just really couldn't get into it. The switching back and forth wasn't really for me.
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