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Other People We Married
The beloved story collection from the New York Times-bestselling author of The Vacationers, All Adults Here and This Time TomorrowIn Other People We Married, Straub creates characters as recognizable as a best friend, and follows them through moments of triumph and transformation with wit, vulnerability, and dazzling insight. In “Some People Must Really Fall in Love,” an assistant professor takes halting steps into the awkward world of office politics while harboring feelings for a freshman student. Two sisters struggle with old assumptions about each other as they stumble to build a new relationship in “A Map of Modern Palm Springs.” In “Puttanesca,” two widows move tentatively forward, still surrounded by ghosts and disappointments from the past. These twelve stories, filled with sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language, announce the arrival of a major new talent.
222 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2011
385 people are currently reading
5662 people want to read
About the author
Emma Straub
35 books5,651 followersEmma Straub is the New York Times‒bestselling author of the novels All Adults Here, Modern Lovers, The Vacationers, Laura Lamont's Life in Pictures, and the short story collection Other People We Married. Straub's work has been published in twenty countries, and she and her husband own Books Are Magic, an independent bookstore in Brooklyn, New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 336 reviews
February 11, 2011
This book has generated a lot of buzz in literary circles, and I bought it on a whim, wanting to read some contemporary short fiction. Also, I read an essay on the Paris Review blog by Emma Straub about My So-Called Life and adolescent female friendships and I loved it.
The book was ultimately disappointing. There were a few stories in the collection that I did enjoy, but the writing wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, and ultimately, I felt like many of the stories focused on an unhappy female protagonist, made miserable by their marriage, their very place in middle-class domesticity. I think there's a place for this kind of story, but I'm tired of reading it in nearly every collection by a contemporary woman of a certain literary stripe. The only woman in the collection that had been happy with her husband lost him to cancer, and was subsequently stuck and miserable in a relationship with another man she didn't love. Even the stories that didn't deal directly with marital misery focused on a different kind of unhappiness--a woman on vacation with her sister feels the urge to leave her behind in the desert, a single college writing instructor becomes obsessed with one of her young students, two college women have a fleeting romantic moment on a vacation and try to bury it.
I don't look for sunshine and puppies in my fiction, but I do appreciate unexpected beauty, a sense of hope, at least one likable man or functional relationship.
The book was ultimately disappointing. There were a few stories in the collection that I did enjoy, but the writing wasn't as good as I wanted it to be, and ultimately, I felt like many of the stories focused on an unhappy female protagonist, made miserable by their marriage, their very place in middle-class domesticity. I think there's a place for this kind of story, but I'm tired of reading it in nearly every collection by a contemporary woman of a certain literary stripe. The only woman in the collection that had been happy with her husband lost him to cancer, and was subsequently stuck and miserable in a relationship with another man she didn't love. Even the stories that didn't deal directly with marital misery focused on a different kind of unhappiness--a woman on vacation with her sister feels the urge to leave her behind in the desert, a single college writing instructor becomes obsessed with one of her young students, two college women have a fleeting romantic moment on a vacation and try to bury it.
I don't look for sunshine and puppies in my fiction, but I do appreciate unexpected beauty, a sense of hope, at least one likable man or functional relationship.
January 1, 2017
Emma Straub is undeniably talented, but this reads as if a person whose main emotional experiences involved well-intentioned independent films and reading other people's books were sent to an MFA program in order to learn how to express those ready-made sentiments as expediently as possible. There is a definite Lorrie Moore influence here, but none of Moore's deep understanding of human nature. I felt as if I were reading about paper dolls or gingerbread people instead of real people. I'm on board for more of Emma Straub's books, though--I'm curious to see if her writing matures as she does.
February 29, 2012
I love Emma Straub. I love that she is a bookseller. I love her blog. I like when she takes to the pages of the Wall Street Journal to tell writers how to win the hearts of the bookstore staff at public readings (See also: Candy). I love that she had four novels rejected, had her collection of short stories published by a small house and then got picked up by a larger one and now one of those rejected novels will see the light of day. She’s my new favorite success story and I wish she would make me a mix tape and matching scarf.
And, damn, if she doesn’t know how to write a sentence.
Straub’s collection “Other People We Married” is 12 stories about a woman or women who are on vacation, intrigued by something beyond themselves, not-quite in love with their partner or in love with someone who doesn’t return the sentiment. Straub drops a reader into a life, then willy nilly spits the reader back out into the world. (Admittedly, sometimes prematurely).
She foreshadows the fact that she’s got her trigger finger on the eject button in the first story of the collection, “Some People Must Really Fall in Love,” a piece about a college writing teacher who has a Tiger Beat-era crush on one of her students. She’s started wearing eyeliner. She worries that the other teaches crammed into a small office space can sense this not-quite, but kind of inappropriate attraction.
“On Thursdays, I taught my beginning creative writing course. I had twenty-five freshmen, most of whom were disinclined to believe me when I said that poetry didn’t have to rhyme and that stories didn’t have to have morals at the end.”
Things that Straub says that should be graffiti scrawled in bathrooms for the amusement of those who settle into a stall:
“The room smelled like pheromones and soy sauce. I was suddenly famished.”
“This was the point of having a baby: a tiny, growing mirror.”
“Even her hair looked well-rested …”
“‘I need sunglasses,’ I said. ‘It feels like my eyeballs are turning into hard-boiled eggs.’”
“Kitch wasn’t kitch if you were alone.”
“Each time it came out of his mouth, Laura felt like she’d been caught shoplifting.”
“Most of all, Marjorie enjoyed birding, which didn’t seem like a hobby at all, but like agreeing to be more observant.”
She has one reoccurring character. Fran Gold is first seen as the object of a girl-on-girl crush in the story “Pearls.” Her roommate Jackie brings her along on a family trip to Florida and while Franny helps Jackie apply makeup for a gala, they share a kiss that rocks Jackie’s world but is more of a failed experiment for Franny. In a later story, Franny has lost the -ny and gained a baby. She’s on a weekend trip with her gay best friend and her husband, a secondary character in a life where she shares more with the other man. And then she comes back again, son now school-aged, when she and her husband drop him off at summer camp and consider what to do with each other during this alone-time. For as much as I like these stories, I wish Straub had doubled back to Jackie, too. I’d like to see what happened to her while Fran was sitting across the table from her husband, lunching on pancakes.
All in all, I like this collection. The stories feel really honest and the writer feels very likable. There are some strange choices on where to lop off the story, but I think it’s actually better for the showing of seams. I can’t wait to see what else comes out of her fingertips.
And, damn, if she doesn’t know how to write a sentence.
Straub’s collection “Other People We Married” is 12 stories about a woman or women who are on vacation, intrigued by something beyond themselves, not-quite in love with their partner or in love with someone who doesn’t return the sentiment. Straub drops a reader into a life, then willy nilly spits the reader back out into the world. (Admittedly, sometimes prematurely).
She foreshadows the fact that she’s got her trigger finger on the eject button in the first story of the collection, “Some People Must Really Fall in Love,” a piece about a college writing teacher who has a Tiger Beat-era crush on one of her students. She’s started wearing eyeliner. She worries that the other teaches crammed into a small office space can sense this not-quite, but kind of inappropriate attraction.
“On Thursdays, I taught my beginning creative writing course. I had twenty-five freshmen, most of whom were disinclined to believe me when I said that poetry didn’t have to rhyme and that stories didn’t have to have morals at the end.”
Things that Straub says that should be graffiti scrawled in bathrooms for the amusement of those who settle into a stall:
“The room smelled like pheromones and soy sauce. I was suddenly famished.”
“This was the point of having a baby: a tiny, growing mirror.”
“Even her hair looked well-rested …”
“‘I need sunglasses,’ I said. ‘It feels like my eyeballs are turning into hard-boiled eggs.’”
“Kitch wasn’t kitch if you were alone.”
“Each time it came out of his mouth, Laura felt like she’d been caught shoplifting.”
“Most of all, Marjorie enjoyed birding, which didn’t seem like a hobby at all, but like agreeing to be more observant.”
She has one reoccurring character. Fran Gold is first seen as the object of a girl-on-girl crush in the story “Pearls.” Her roommate Jackie brings her along on a family trip to Florida and while Franny helps Jackie apply makeup for a gala, they share a kiss that rocks Jackie’s world but is more of a failed experiment for Franny. In a later story, Franny has lost the -ny and gained a baby. She’s on a weekend trip with her gay best friend and her husband, a secondary character in a life where she shares more with the other man. And then she comes back again, son now school-aged, when she and her husband drop him off at summer camp and consider what to do with each other during this alone-time. For as much as I like these stories, I wish Straub had doubled back to Jackie, too. I’d like to see what happened to her while Fran was sitting across the table from her husband, lunching on pancakes.
All in all, I like this collection. The stories feel really honest and the writer feels very likable. There are some strange choices on where to lop off the story, but I think it’s actually better for the showing of seams. I can’t wait to see what else comes out of her fingertips.
September 14, 2014
Excuse me while I have a giggle that I read a book called Other People We Married and discovered the goofy piece of television that is "Sister Wives" at roughly the same time.
Alas, there are no polygamists in this book. Just people falling in and out of love, mostly, which is the subject of approximately 90% of short story collections these days. Modern romance. It's a good read when it's done well, but just as frequently it seems to be this Miranda July-like, affected hipster hell.
Emma Straub's collection falls somewhere in the middle (though more towards the good side). I wasn't sure what to make of stories like the title story, where, in Visit From the Goon Squad fashion we learn about the adult life of Franny Gold, a college student who briefly experimented with the idea of falling in love with her female college friend in an earlier story, "Pearls."
As an adult in "Other People We Married," Franny now has a gay male best friend who is also a little bit taken with her, enough so that he resents her husband (whom he also resents for being mean, which is legitimate). I mean, I understand the reason the story is called "Other People We Married," but the relationship between Franny and her gay friend is so vaguely defined as to be of little consequence, to confuse the direction of the story. Is he in love with her as a friend and just concerned about her marriage? Or is he in love with her in love with her, and is this story Straub's stab at further depicting sexual fluidity?
I also wondered why we had to come back to Franny when no other characters in the book are repeated. Instead of finishing the story thinking "wow, her life is really compelling," I just wanted to move on to the next story.
...and that's a feeling that was sort of off throughout this book! Usually when I am reading a collection of stories that each feel complete, I have to stop and put the book down in between. I like to pause before moving on to someone else's life, to think about what I just read. The short story form is usually, for me, a very intense experience. A whole life condensed! It's why I love it so much.
But. At least half of the stories in the collection are pretty decently good. My particular favorite is "Fly-Over State," where a woman married to a stand-up kinda guy, a professor, moves from New York City to a lifeless part of Wisconsin for his job and then goes a little bit cracked and becomes fascinated with the delinquent, porn-obsessed guy next door. It's a unique spin on an old trope. The main character's voice is dry, sly, and hysterical with every line or idea.
Straub has a good sense of humor all throughout the book, which lends it a lot of charm. Her narrator in the first story, "Some People Must Really Fall in Love", has a very similar voice to the one in "Fly-Over State". That voice elicits many awesome observations, like my personal favorite:
"Hey," he said, addressing me.
"Hey," I said, wishing I had thought to buy a lint roller, ever.
The "I" is a professor with a crush on her 18 year old student, which makes it all the more hilarious (to me), watching her subtle regression to insecurity to match his age. Straub's success at encapsulating an entire relationship in one random, surprising thought here and there makes it all the more disappointing that she would then, later in the collection, put a grieving young widow on a vacation with a guy she likes enough but not very much in a position to view the Bernini statue of Apollo chasing Daphne, who is turning into a tree to get away from him. Ahhh, being clubbed by a metaphor.
But on the whole, I do think Emma Straub has a ton of potential as a writer and would certainly read anything else she writes.
Alas, there are no polygamists in this book. Just people falling in and out of love, mostly, which is the subject of approximately 90% of short story collections these days. Modern romance. It's a good read when it's done well, but just as frequently it seems to be this Miranda July-like, affected hipster hell.
Emma Straub's collection falls somewhere in the middle (though more towards the good side). I wasn't sure what to make of stories like the title story, where, in Visit From the Goon Squad fashion we learn about the adult life of Franny Gold, a college student who briefly experimented with the idea of falling in love with her female college friend in an earlier story, "Pearls."
As an adult in "Other People We Married," Franny now has a gay male best friend who is also a little bit taken with her, enough so that he resents her husband (whom he also resents for being mean, which is legitimate). I mean, I understand the reason the story is called "Other People We Married," but the relationship between Franny and her gay friend is so vaguely defined as to be of little consequence, to confuse the direction of the story. Is he in love with her as a friend and just concerned about her marriage? Or is he in love with her in love with her, and is this story Straub's stab at further depicting sexual fluidity?
I also wondered why we had to come back to Franny when no other characters in the book are repeated. Instead of finishing the story thinking "wow, her life is really compelling," I just wanted to move on to the next story.
...and that's a feeling that was sort of off throughout this book! Usually when I am reading a collection of stories that each feel complete, I have to stop and put the book down in between. I like to pause before moving on to someone else's life, to think about what I just read. The short story form is usually, for me, a very intense experience. A whole life condensed! It's why I love it so much.
But. At least half of the stories in the collection are pretty decently good. My particular favorite is "Fly-Over State," where a woman married to a stand-up kinda guy, a professor, moves from New York City to a lifeless part of Wisconsin for his job and then goes a little bit cracked and becomes fascinated with the delinquent, porn-obsessed guy next door. It's a unique spin on an old trope. The main character's voice is dry, sly, and hysterical with every line or idea.
Straub has a good sense of humor all throughout the book, which lends it a lot of charm. Her narrator in the first story, "Some People Must Really Fall in Love", has a very similar voice to the one in "Fly-Over State". That voice elicits many awesome observations, like my personal favorite:
"Hey," he said, addressing me.
"Hey," I said, wishing I had thought to buy a lint roller, ever.
The "I" is a professor with a crush on her 18 year old student, which makes it all the more hilarious (to me), watching her subtle regression to insecurity to match his age. Straub's success at encapsulating an entire relationship in one random, surprising thought here and there makes it all the more disappointing that she would then, later in the collection, put a grieving young widow on a vacation with a guy she likes enough but not very much in a position to view the Bernini statue of Apollo chasing Daphne, who is turning into a tree to get away from him. Ahhh, being clubbed by a metaphor.
But on the whole, I do think Emma Straub has a ton of potential as a writer and would certainly read anything else she writes.
June 27, 2016
Yknow, I had high hopes for this book. I liked a novel of hers. Didn't love it, but liked it enough to want to seek out another book by her. I love short stories. They're my very favorite form of fiction. I live for discovering new amazing short story collections. So I was excited for this.
It was so disappointing. I can't even explain why. The stories just didn't hold my attention. They weren't very well-written, the characters weren't very interesting, and the stories themselves were pretty.... lame. I had to force myself to finish this book. The last story, "Hot Springs Eternal", is better than all the others in the book. It's still not, like, Lorrie Moore-level, but it's enjoyable enough to make you wonder why Emma Straub chose the rest of the stories for this book. They all are just... very bleh.
It was so disappointing. I can't even explain why. The stories just didn't hold my attention. They weren't very well-written, the characters weren't very interesting, and the stories themselves were pretty.... lame. I had to force myself to finish this book. The last story, "Hot Springs Eternal", is better than all the others in the book. It's still not, like, Lorrie Moore-level, but it's enjoyable enough to make you wonder why Emma Straub chose the rest of the stories for this book. They all are just... very bleh.
March 16, 2011
Wonderful language. No word is wasted and every story is a gem.
October 9, 2016
I just finished Emma Straub's debut book, a collection of short stories called Other People We Married. Overall, I was impressed. Below are my thoughts on each story (copied and pasted from updates posted while reading the book):
"Some People Must Really Fall In Love" -- my favorite in the collection so far. A 27-years-old college professor falls in love with one of her teenage students, and she tries dealing with this by going on a blind date with a man of appropriate age. I have no fault with this story, aside from wishing it was a little longer. (But that could be said of all these tales, and really, it's a good sign when the reader is left wanting more.) 5/5
"Rosemary" -- A lonely housewife consults a pet psychic in hopes of finding her lost cat. As a cat lover, I enjoyed this story but it feels more like a sketch for a short story than a fully formed tale. It's not bad, but Straub could have done a bit more with it. 3/5
"A Modern Map of Palm Springs" -- Two sisters who aren't very close try vacationing in Palm Springs together. One sister is successful with a husband and children, and the other is a less-wealthy stand-up comedian. Straub really shows off her dialogue skills in this one, and the sisters are perhaps the most fleshed-out characters seen in this collection so far. 5/5
"Pearls" -- This story is interesting if only because it explores romantic experimentation between two best friends while on a trip to the beach. Franny Gold, one of the girls in this story, appears later on in the title story and is much more developed there. Here, the girls are interesting, but Straub doesn't really flesh them or their situation out enough to make the reader really care. Still, the description and dialogue in this story is top-notch, so I'll give it a 2.5/5.
"Abraham's Enchanted Forest" - I loved this story. Essentially, this one is about the daughter of a man, Abraham, who dresses as Walt Whitman and does readings at book fairs and libraries when he isn't running the small amusement park (i.e., Abraham's Enchanted Forest) behind the family's home. This one is a little wacky and crazy imaginative, and it wouldn't be out of place in a Joe Hill story collection. 5/5
"Fly-Over State" - A couple moves from NYC to Wisconsin and has to get used to small town life. Straub's commentary on the way small communities of people work is what really makes this story extraordinary, as well as the way she sets the reader up to think things about certain characters -- only to turn those judgements on their heads by the story's end. One of the longer stories in OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED, it's an intriguing tale and one that is definitely worth a re-read. 5/5
"Other People We Married" - This one is an examination of a failing marriage. Franny from "Pearls" makes another appearance here, and this time she's grown up with a husband, a baby boy, and a gay best friend. These four take a trip to the beach where she and her husband get into a vicious fight, and things are made awkward when he calls her gay best friend a faggot. To be honest, I liked this story but a lot of the characters' actions were a bit wonky. I get what Straub is trying to say -- sometimes, we are closer to our friends than our spouse, and without friends life isn't much fun -- but she could have said it so much better. Still, it's a good story -- just not the best here. 3.5/5
"Puttanesca" - An interesting, but flawed, look at a widow and widower attempting to move on past their deceased spouses by dating. The Rome setting is fun and interesting, but these characters feel a bit shallow and vapid to me. 3.5/5
"Marjorie and the Birds" - This is a much better look at widowship. Marjorie, an older woman trying to get over the death of her husband, takes up bird-watching and even joins a bird-watching group. Marjorie is one of my favorite characters in this entire collection, and I was rooting for her by the story's end. 5/5
"Orient Point" - The shortest story in this collection, "Orient Point" is largely ineffectual simply because it says nothing Straub hasn't said better elsewhere. Like a few of the other stories, it's about two people who don't really love each other anymore going on a trip somewhere, and while that works in the other tales, here it just feels tired and played out. 1/5
"Mowhawk" - This story closes the book on Franny from "Pearls" and the title story, and in this one she and her husband, Jim, are taking their young son to camp and musing on what it will be like with no distractions at home -- just spending time with each other. They have doubts because their relationship has always been shaky. Straub's cutting insight into what makes relationships tick is what sets this story off. 5/5
"Hot Springs Eternal" - Like a few of the previous story, this collection's closer features a couple going on a road-trip and trying to solve their problems. This one is different, however, because the couple is gay, and I must say the guys -- Teddy and Richard -- are both so well-drawn and interesting that I can immediately conjur up images of what they look and act like in my head. It's perhaps the most successful meditation on human relationships and interactions with one another in this book. 5/5
Wow. What a collection. In these twelve stories, Straub manages to successfully do what most authors try and fail to do over entire careers -- take a long and meaningful look at human relationships while retaining total readability. Not all of these stories are winners, but a good majority are. All authors aren't perfect coming out of the gate, but Straub has proven herself to be up to the challenge of telling an interesting story with intelligence, quirkiness, and humor -- which is no small feat. Her only shortcomings are occasional lack of characterization (which is made all the more obvious when lacking characters are compared to some of the extraordinary people that populate these pages) and the habit of writing premature endings -- i.e., finishing stories seemingly at random and just when the reader becomes emotionally invested in the characters and their circumstances. I understand the writing of short stories is a constricted art form, but short stories also require at least some sort of resolution -- something almost all of these stories lack. Thus, I felt I had to dock a star. Despite those small problems, Other People We Married is a fine read and I have Straub's two full-length novels waiting for me on my TBR shelf.
"Some People Must Really Fall In Love" -- my favorite in the collection so far. A 27-years-old college professor falls in love with one of her teenage students, and she tries dealing with this by going on a blind date with a man of appropriate age. I have no fault with this story, aside from wishing it was a little longer. (But that could be said of all these tales, and really, it's a good sign when the reader is left wanting more.) 5/5
"Rosemary" -- A lonely housewife consults a pet psychic in hopes of finding her lost cat. As a cat lover, I enjoyed this story but it feels more like a sketch for a short story than a fully formed tale. It's not bad, but Straub could have done a bit more with it. 3/5
"A Modern Map of Palm Springs" -- Two sisters who aren't very close try vacationing in Palm Springs together. One sister is successful with a husband and children, and the other is a less-wealthy stand-up comedian. Straub really shows off her dialogue skills in this one, and the sisters are perhaps the most fleshed-out characters seen in this collection so far. 5/5
"Pearls" -- This story is interesting if only because it explores romantic experimentation between two best friends while on a trip to the beach. Franny Gold, one of the girls in this story, appears later on in the title story and is much more developed there. Here, the girls are interesting, but Straub doesn't really flesh them or their situation out enough to make the reader really care. Still, the description and dialogue in this story is top-notch, so I'll give it a 2.5/5.
"Abraham's Enchanted Forest" - I loved this story. Essentially, this one is about the daughter of a man, Abraham, who dresses as Walt Whitman and does readings at book fairs and libraries when he isn't running the small amusement park (i.e., Abraham's Enchanted Forest) behind the family's home. This one is a little wacky and crazy imaginative, and it wouldn't be out of place in a Joe Hill story collection. 5/5
"Fly-Over State" - A couple moves from NYC to Wisconsin and has to get used to small town life. Straub's commentary on the way small communities of people work is what really makes this story extraordinary, as well as the way she sets the reader up to think things about certain characters -- only to turn those judgements on their heads by the story's end. One of the longer stories in OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED, it's an intriguing tale and one that is definitely worth a re-read. 5/5
"Other People We Married" - This one is an examination of a failing marriage. Franny from "Pearls" makes another appearance here, and this time she's grown up with a husband, a baby boy, and a gay best friend. These four take a trip to the beach where she and her husband get into a vicious fight, and things are made awkward when he calls her gay best friend a faggot. To be honest, I liked this story but a lot of the characters' actions were a bit wonky. I get what Straub is trying to say -- sometimes, we are closer to our friends than our spouse, and without friends life isn't much fun -- but she could have said it so much better. Still, it's a good story -- just not the best here. 3.5/5
"Puttanesca" - An interesting, but flawed, look at a widow and widower attempting to move on past their deceased spouses by dating. The Rome setting is fun and interesting, but these characters feel a bit shallow and vapid to me. 3.5/5
"Marjorie and the Birds" - This is a much better look at widowship. Marjorie, an older woman trying to get over the death of her husband, takes up bird-watching and even joins a bird-watching group. Marjorie is one of my favorite characters in this entire collection, and I was rooting for her by the story's end. 5/5
"Orient Point" - The shortest story in this collection, "Orient Point" is largely ineffectual simply because it says nothing Straub hasn't said better elsewhere. Like a few of the other stories, it's about two people who don't really love each other anymore going on a trip somewhere, and while that works in the other tales, here it just feels tired and played out. 1/5
"Mowhawk" - This story closes the book on Franny from "Pearls" and the title story, and in this one she and her husband, Jim, are taking their young son to camp and musing on what it will be like with no distractions at home -- just spending time with each other. They have doubts because their relationship has always been shaky. Straub's cutting insight into what makes relationships tick is what sets this story off. 5/5
"Hot Springs Eternal" - Like a few of the previous story, this collection's closer features a couple going on a road-trip and trying to solve their problems. This one is different, however, because the couple is gay, and I must say the guys -- Teddy and Richard -- are both so well-drawn and interesting that I can immediately conjur up images of what they look and act like in my head. It's perhaps the most successful meditation on human relationships and interactions with one another in this book. 5/5
Wow. What a collection. In these twelve stories, Straub manages to successfully do what most authors try and fail to do over entire careers -- take a long and meaningful look at human relationships while retaining total readability. Not all of these stories are winners, but a good majority are. All authors aren't perfect coming out of the gate, but Straub has proven herself to be up to the challenge of telling an interesting story with intelligence, quirkiness, and humor -- which is no small feat. Her only shortcomings are occasional lack of characterization (which is made all the more obvious when lacking characters are compared to some of the extraordinary people that populate these pages) and the habit of writing premature endings -- i.e., finishing stories seemingly at random and just when the reader becomes emotionally invested in the characters and their circumstances. I understand the writing of short stories is a constricted art form, but short stories also require at least some sort of resolution -- something almost all of these stories lack. Thus, I felt I had to dock a star. Despite those small problems, Other People We Married is a fine read and I have Straub's two full-length novels waiting for me on my TBR shelf.
June 27, 2011
There is one really excellent story in this collection: "Abraham's Enchanted Forest". The protagonist Greta is so well-drawn in so few words, and so much fun to follow around. Probably it would be fun to follow around any teenager working at her parents' makeshift roadside amusement park, but this is especially true in Greta's case.
The rest of the stories suffer from stale writing, stale characters, typos, lack of narrative drive, or all of the above. It's obvious that Straub is talented, but it's equally obvious that most of these stories needed some revision. There were many kernels of good stories here, but either the writing failed to bring them alive, or they needed more of a push to get their momentum going. All that said, I'll probably read Straub's novel when it comes out.
The rest of the stories suffer from stale writing, stale characters, typos, lack of narrative drive, or all of the above. It's obvious that Straub is talented, but it's equally obvious that most of these stories needed some revision. There were many kernels of good stories here, but either the writing failed to bring them alive, or they needed more of a push to get their momentum going. All that said, I'll probably read Straub's novel when it comes out.
May 23, 2016
I found myself always having to re-read each page and then each paragraph, as if I was drifting off every time I tried to get further in the stories. It seemed to be happening with almost every story. And I was really into the idea of reading this book, before actually finally cracking it. I found most of the characters and the stories were blurring into each other. Maybe this should have been her first novel, rather than a collection of short stories, since the characters and stories were similar. Certainly, there is a dearth of variety in this collection and I was really expecting much more. I was prepared for magic. But I got boredom.
I think the source of much of the interest in Emma's work is the endorsement of Lorrie Moore and the pedigree she carries with her father Peter Straub's writing career, all due respect to both Peter and Emma. This can all be vanquished with a really great quality story, an amazing explosion by Emma. But I've yet to see that. Mostly, there is a cult of personality going on in Brooklyn, with the kind of Brooklyn writer "mafia" sort of circulating the exposure that certain writers get and who gets the attention and so on. Word of mouth among close friends, Twittersphere, and so on - it all yielded a hoopla that was not really merited. I can say, with all due respect, that without Emma's pedigree, she would be another anonymous struggling writer in writing groups and working at a health food store or some other place writers can tolerate. This is simply where many writers are these days. Connections make the career, even with Emma's hard work and due diligence. I just don't see the magic of a natural storyteller there, as with her father and many other writers where one can almost tangibly enter their imagination's worlds. But no one wants to say this because Emma is liked and has some muscle behind her with Lorrie Moore, Dad, and Jennifer Egan.
The problem is that Brooklyn has become sort of tight-knit and no writer wants to criticize another, especially not with the kind of background Emma has. I think the stats speak for themselves. Emma's three books are declining precipitously in ratings on Goodreads, each novel succeeding in achieving a lower overall rating than the one before it - and that is with many more new readers for each book. If Emma is to resuscitate the momentum her career once possessed, she needs to write a truly sincere book about someone or something she really knows well, because the stories and the characters ring hollow. And I was prepared to love the book, went in with an open heart - and came out resenting the adulation fawned on Emma. Especially when I know some amazing writers who are - yes - still languishing in writing groups, unpublished.
Also, it seemed to many that Emma was using Bookcourt and the niceness of the Zooks to establish herself in the Brooklyn writing community by disarming people with her charm and smiles while working as a bookseller and was putting on airs as one of us to "earn her wings" and some credibility in a community that might think she was otherwise simply coasting on a name-brand alone. It would have been easier to not believe what could be perceived as cynicism and envy if she hadn't simply retired from Bookcourt as soon as she had enough connections and exposure and readings in Brooklyn to safely feel that she could not have to continue on in the trenches. As soon as Emma had enough momentum in her career, she departed and gave no indication that she would not be returning but claimed she was taking a sabbatical to complete her book tour for Laura Lamont, a book that has not fared too well critically and of which I found a signed copy on the street recently, not long after its seemingly-auspicious beginnings. It appears in retrospect as if Emma had no intention of returning to Bookcourt after having done her time establishing her cuteness and seductive wooing of the right people in Brooklyn. Of course, this is a very common formula for success, especially for scions of literary ilk. And Bookcourt is often exploited a little too much by some writers who become quite cozy there and who overuse the resources of the community's goodwill to, essentially, advertise themselves a little excessively, as Emma has, to act very chummy for self-promotion in order to propel themselves forward at one of the epicenters of the current Brooklyn literary order.
Sometimes I feel, as someone who has seen the Brooklyn writing community develop like wildfire over the past bunch of years, that Emma should apologize for having used people so brazenly for such blatant self-promotion, to have used the ease and somewhat innocent generosity of the Cobble Hill & Brooklyn communities mostly just for careering. But then, perhaps, Emma may just be as naive and as yet undeveloped as her early literary efforts have shown in their very mixed critical reception. One thing is using what is there for what it is obviously there for, selling books - but it is quite another thing to manipulate the levers with smiles and seduction in certain other ways that I've tried to fairly depict here, as it has seemed to have occurred. Emma's writing is not ready for prime time - and she is not ready to inherit the crown anytime soon.
Of course, one could be crucified or ostracized for being brutally honest in the circles of literary influence and the territorial protectiveness of many who have left clearly falsely glowing 5-star reviews of Emma's books - clearly padding Emma's ratings. And maybe many friends of Emma also do not know how to leave a less-than-stellar review of their friend. I embrace frankness, even at the expense of everything. That's why we write, ultimately.
I think the source of much of the interest in Emma's work is the endorsement of Lorrie Moore and the pedigree she carries with her father Peter Straub's writing career, all due respect to both Peter and Emma. This can all be vanquished with a really great quality story, an amazing explosion by Emma. But I've yet to see that. Mostly, there is a cult of personality going on in Brooklyn, with the kind of Brooklyn writer "mafia" sort of circulating the exposure that certain writers get and who gets the attention and so on. Word of mouth among close friends, Twittersphere, and so on - it all yielded a hoopla that was not really merited. I can say, with all due respect, that without Emma's pedigree, she would be another anonymous struggling writer in writing groups and working at a health food store or some other place writers can tolerate. This is simply where many writers are these days. Connections make the career, even with Emma's hard work and due diligence. I just don't see the magic of a natural storyteller there, as with her father and many other writers where one can almost tangibly enter their imagination's worlds. But no one wants to say this because Emma is liked and has some muscle behind her with Lorrie Moore, Dad, and Jennifer Egan.
The problem is that Brooklyn has become sort of tight-knit and no writer wants to criticize another, especially not with the kind of background Emma has. I think the stats speak for themselves. Emma's three books are declining precipitously in ratings on Goodreads, each novel succeeding in achieving a lower overall rating than the one before it - and that is with many more new readers for each book. If Emma is to resuscitate the momentum her career once possessed, she needs to write a truly sincere book about someone or something she really knows well, because the stories and the characters ring hollow. And I was prepared to love the book, went in with an open heart - and came out resenting the adulation fawned on Emma. Especially when I know some amazing writers who are - yes - still languishing in writing groups, unpublished.
Also, it seemed to many that Emma was using Bookcourt and the niceness of the Zooks to establish herself in the Brooklyn writing community by disarming people with her charm and smiles while working as a bookseller and was putting on airs as one of us to "earn her wings" and some credibility in a community that might think she was otherwise simply coasting on a name-brand alone. It would have been easier to not believe what could be perceived as cynicism and envy if she hadn't simply retired from Bookcourt as soon as she had enough connections and exposure and readings in Brooklyn to safely feel that she could not have to continue on in the trenches. As soon as Emma had enough momentum in her career, she departed and gave no indication that she would not be returning but claimed she was taking a sabbatical to complete her book tour for Laura Lamont, a book that has not fared too well critically and of which I found a signed copy on the street recently, not long after its seemingly-auspicious beginnings. It appears in retrospect as if Emma had no intention of returning to Bookcourt after having done her time establishing her cuteness and seductive wooing of the right people in Brooklyn. Of course, this is a very common formula for success, especially for scions of literary ilk. And Bookcourt is often exploited a little too much by some writers who become quite cozy there and who overuse the resources of the community's goodwill to, essentially, advertise themselves a little excessively, as Emma has, to act very chummy for self-promotion in order to propel themselves forward at one of the epicenters of the current Brooklyn literary order.
Sometimes I feel, as someone who has seen the Brooklyn writing community develop like wildfire over the past bunch of years, that Emma should apologize for having used people so brazenly for such blatant self-promotion, to have used the ease and somewhat innocent generosity of the Cobble Hill & Brooklyn communities mostly just for careering. But then, perhaps, Emma may just be as naive and as yet undeveloped as her early literary efforts have shown in their very mixed critical reception. One thing is using what is there for what it is obviously there for, selling books - but it is quite another thing to manipulate the levers with smiles and seduction in certain other ways that I've tried to fairly depict here, as it has seemed to have occurred. Emma's writing is not ready for prime time - and she is not ready to inherit the crown anytime soon.
Of course, one could be crucified or ostracized for being brutally honest in the circles of literary influence and the territorial protectiveness of many who have left clearly falsely glowing 5-star reviews of Emma's books - clearly padding Emma's ratings. And maybe many friends of Emma also do not know how to leave a less-than-stellar review of their friend. I embrace frankness, even at the expense of everything. That's why we write, ultimately.
December 3, 2020
I really like Emma Straub as a writer, and the short stories in this collection do not disappoint. Her characters and their relationships display all of the trademark humanity and wryness that I grew to appreciate in her novels. The downside is that her style is so deep, that the stories do not last long enough. I'm looking for 300+ pages in which I can lose myself, but this is entirely due to my preferences and failings as a picky reader, rather than any shortcomings on Ms. Straub's part. The tales she's crafted in this collection demand analysis, so I'll just have to discuss with the voices in my head for now.
Read
February 2, 2023I didn’t actually finish this book, I just wanted to write a review because it sucks so bad.
July 14, 2025
my fault for reading this book as a someone who (1) needs like characters to enjoy a book, (2) is a hopelsss romantic, and (3) doesn’t gravitate towards story collections. many passages were quite uncomfy to read too
Read
July 8, 2011How could I not read Emma Straub's book? I love Emma Straub's blog, I love that Emma Straub is a bookseller, and I love that Emma Straub has blurbs from Lorrie Moore and Dan Chaon. Oh, and I love the cover.
Beyond the exterior, however, Emma Straub's is a lovely collection of not-exactly-related short stories. Each takes place in a different location, but all of the protagonists are New Yorkers. I pondered the title of the collection for the first few stories, but later its significance began to reveal itself. Each of the stories in the collection is about relationships, and about the effects that outsiders have on relationships. They are also about our different selves, and the different people we can be and become throughout our relationships. In the end, we all marry other people- in other words, we marry many selves. The title story concerns a couple, on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, who have brought along the wife's gay best friend. In some ways it is the most literal interpretation of the title: the woman's husband has married her past and her friends. However, all the stories touch on the hidden selves, the imagined/fantasy selves, the pasts not shared or not forgotten, and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) changes in all relationships-romantic, familial, or friendly.
My four favorite stories in the collection were: "Some People Must Really Fall in Love," "Rosemary," "Fly-Over State," and "Puttanesca." "Some People" is the story of a young instructor at a university, on the cusp of adulthood, and in lust with the fantasy of one of her students. "Rosemary" is about a woman who hires a pet psychic to find her lost cat, much to her husband's chagrin. In "Fly-Over State," a young wife follows her husband to an academic job and finds herself telling lies and playing roles she never expected, including, but not limited to, "totally weird lady next door." Finally, in "Puttanesca," two people, grieving the loss of their lovers, are introduced by their grief counselor. They take a to a trip to Italy where the past appears around more corners than they would like and where the main character is forced to confront the differences between her new relationship and the old one that never had the chance to run its course.
Straub is a really fresh, promising writer and the whole collection is a delight. She has a wonderful knack for unexpected description and I felt like her characters could easily be people I knew. If you are a fan of short fiction, or want to become one, definitely pick up a copy of this book.
Beyond the exterior, however, Emma Straub's is a lovely collection of not-exactly-related short stories. Each takes place in a different location, but all of the protagonists are New Yorkers. I pondered the title of the collection for the first few stories, but later its significance began to reveal itself. Each of the stories in the collection is about relationships, and about the effects that outsiders have on relationships. They are also about our different selves, and the different people we can be and become throughout our relationships. In the end, we all marry other people- in other words, we marry many selves. The title story concerns a couple, on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, who have brought along the wife's gay best friend. In some ways it is the most literal interpretation of the title: the woman's husband has married her past and her friends. However, all the stories touch on the hidden selves, the imagined/fantasy selves, the pasts not shared or not forgotten, and the subtle (or not-so-subtle) changes in all relationships-romantic, familial, or friendly.
My four favorite stories in the collection were: "Some People Must Really Fall in Love," "Rosemary," "Fly-Over State," and "Puttanesca." "Some People" is the story of a young instructor at a university, on the cusp of adulthood, and in lust with the fantasy of one of her students. "Rosemary" is about a woman who hires a pet psychic to find her lost cat, much to her husband's chagrin. In "Fly-Over State," a young wife follows her husband to an academic job and finds herself telling lies and playing roles she never expected, including, but not limited to, "totally weird lady next door." Finally, in "Puttanesca," two people, grieving the loss of their lovers, are introduced by their grief counselor. They take a to a trip to Italy where the past appears around more corners than they would like and where the main character is forced to confront the differences between her new relationship and the old one that never had the chance to run its course.
Straub is a really fresh, promising writer and the whole collection is a delight. She has a wonderful knack for unexpected description and I felt like her characters could easily be people I knew. If you are a fan of short fiction, or want to become one, definitely pick up a copy of this book.
June 30, 2020
Seems like this is another case of an author that doesn’t really know how to write out the profound things they think about in their head.
A lot of contemporary fiction writers are doing this method – writing about everyday things in a new perspective, with a deeper insight in the inner psychology of the characters and discussing social norms and their effect on an individual.
What I found that makes an author great, in this field of topics, is that their sentences and internal monologue of characters leave an impact on the reader.
It does come down to individual style but also a determining factor is a way the writer will approach the topic and discuss it.
People who are great at this: Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel Cusk.
People who are bad at this: Emma Straub.
The main feeling this book evokes in me: boredom.
While reading the book, all that I could think was that this writing style wasn’t hitting me at all. The type of people that these characters were representing are everyday people and their inner thoughts and in which situation they turned up unhappy. It’s the thing I love reading about but after finishing every story none of it stayed with me.
Like the author was dancing around the main point and missing it. Like one flat tune played over again.
I wish I could say more to describe this book but all my thoughts return to the abovementioned point. I don’t know if I will ever reach for something else from this author, kudos to everyone enjoying this.
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This was the most forgettable short story collection that I have read in a while. Review to come.
A lot of contemporary fiction writers are doing this method – writing about everyday things in a new perspective, with a deeper insight in the inner psychology of the characters and discussing social norms and their effect on an individual.
What I found that makes an author great, in this field of topics, is that their sentences and internal monologue of characters leave an impact on the reader.
It does come down to individual style but also a determining factor is a way the writer will approach the topic and discuss it.
People who are great at this: Sally Rooney, Ottessa Moshfegh, Rachel Cusk.
People who are bad at this: Emma Straub.
The main feeling this book evokes in me: boredom.
While reading the book, all that I could think was that this writing style wasn’t hitting me at all. The type of people that these characters were representing are everyday people and their inner thoughts and in which situation they turned up unhappy. It’s the thing I love reading about but after finishing every story none of it stayed with me.
Like the author was dancing around the main point and missing it. Like one flat tune played over again.
I wish I could say more to describe this book but all my thoughts return to the abovementioned point. I don’t know if I will ever reach for something else from this author, kudos to everyone enjoying this.
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This was the most forgettable short story collection that I have read in a while. Review to come.
August 17, 2012
I heard great things about this book so I decided to pick it up. I started reading this while on my cruise and got about halfway through the book and was bored by it. I always like to finish whatever book I read whether I like it or not but was actually considering not completing this one. I did give another shot and finished it. Some of the stories were too short, the characters were underdevelopped and all of the stories were depressing. I don't have to have all roses and flowers and sunshine but come on, a happy ending for at least some of the stories would have been nice. Skip this one.
August 20, 2012
i've read lorrie moore. i've read binnie kirshenbaum. ann beattie, et al. there isn't much use for this, i'm afraid. pleasant enough writing but the emotional punch it supposedly packs feels rather manipulative and the book just never seems to come out from under the stories' more-of-the-same twee intellectualism.
April 6, 2015
So.... The good stories were...okay and the bad stories were pretty hard to get through. I kind of found most of her characters lack luster, two dimensional and some times down right unlike able. I kept drifting in and out of the book. Something that I read and will leave out on the stoop for someone else to read. I might not want to have it take up space on my bookshelf, you know?
Read
March 29, 2011Reading this while puttering around waiting for my sparkly loooooong-awaited new computer to fill up with all of my hugely giganormous files, with the windows open and music on. Today's the first day it really feels like spring around here, and these stories fit the mood perfectly.
April 14, 2025
This short story collection was Emma Straub’s first published book, all the way back in 2011, but was re-recorded on audio last year with three narrators - Marin Ireland, Kristen Seih, and Barrie Kreinek. It’s very clever to have multiple narrators for a short story collection, as it helps delineate when story ends and one begins.
As for the stories themselves, they’re mostly about relationships - romantic, friendship, families. And they’re all standalones though one character appears in three of the stories. The writing is good, though not as good as Straub’s later books in my opinion. My biggest issue is that many of the stories ended kind of abruptly. I don’t mean just that they left me wanting more of the story as that can happen with short stories - but sometimes they felt like they just kind of ended in the middle. Enjoyed it overall though.
3.75 stars
As for the stories themselves, they’re mostly about relationships - romantic, friendship, families. And they’re all standalones though one character appears in three of the stories. The writing is good, though not as good as Straub’s later books in my opinion. My biggest issue is that many of the stories ended kind of abruptly. I don’t mean just that they left me wanting more of the story as that can happen with short stories - but sometimes they felt like they just kind of ended in the middle. Enjoyed it overall though.
3.75 stars
July 17, 2018
I got this book from the library because I had just read another book by this author that I liked so I wanted to read her other books. I didn't know it was only short stories until I got home. I think short stories are useless - it's the equivalent of starting 10 different books and only reading the first chapter. The only short stories books I have liked are Stephen King's because at least there is somewhat of a start, middle & end to them. I probably would have skipped this book all together if I had known ahead of time it was only short stories.
December 27, 2017
This was okay. Some stories were brilliant. I loved "Marjorie and the Birds" and all the stories about Franny. "Some People Must Really Fall in Love" was excellent. Others really fell flat: "Abraham's Enchanted Forest" dragged on. "A Map of Modern Palm Springs" and "Rosemary" were meh. Most of the stories acted like heartache and marital dissatisfaction are the only parts of life. Not sorry I read it though.
May 28, 2020
There are a few of these stories I really enjoyed and a few that I didn't, I normally have a hard time with little stories like this. Do not get me wrong I enjoyed this just not a top rating book for me.
March 7, 2024
There was a lot of buzz around this book and it did not deliver for me.
It was short stories about unhappy women which didn’t resonate with me at all. Going to try another one of Emma’s books and see if it is the writing or just this one book.
It was short stories about unhappy women which didn’t resonate with me at all. Going to try another one of Emma’s books and see if it is the writing or just this one book.
June 18, 2023
I thought it was okay. Emma Straub's writing is beautiful, but the stories themselves often felt unfinished or at least not completely fleshed out. In at least half I was shocked that the story was ending, feeling that it could have been great with just a few more pages. There were a few that I really enjoyed, probably my favorites being "Abraham's Enchanted Forest," "Marjorie and the Birds," and "Hot Springs Eternal." The rest had great premises, but was disappointed with the execution primarily with the endings. Also, I know this is annoying, but there were typos and that bothered me.
December 4, 2023
I love you Emma but idk not my thing
August 22, 2024
First half was good (first chapter was kinda crazy why would we even romanticize something like that) but towards the end I kinda just wanna get the book over with
April 12, 2022
I listened to this book during a road trip, and it was quite enjoyable. I wish I had the actual book in my hands at times so that I could flip back to the beginning and read the title of each story.
Overall, a good read (ha) and kept me awake on the road.
Overall, a good read (ha) and kept me awake on the road.
April 24, 2023
These stories did not age well. I didn’t think Emma Straub was old enough for these. I like her later books a lot.
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