Not Her Real Name by Emily Perkins

by Emily Perkins

Not Her Real Name is the stylish debut of a new and startlingly young international literary voice. A collection of twelve stories peopled by over-sensitive twenty-somethings, Not Her Real Name transcends the self-indulgence that generally plagues the slacker genre and brings modern life into harsh and comic focus.With a cinematic vision for character and dialogue and a cast of young and painfully vulnerable metropolitans, Perkins speaks to twenty-somethings like no one else. With unnerving wit and insight, these stories deal with diverse subjects, from a chance meeting with an old lover in a supermarket to a couple's ill-fated trip to discover the real Prague, to a drama student pissed off by Clown class Not Her Real Name presents an essential guide to post-modern romance, to the vagaries of city life and to a chronically self-absorbed generation whose love affairs are never as good as the last movies they've seen.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Emily Perkins is a writer of contemporary fiction, and the success of her first collection of stories, not her real name and other stories, established her early on as an important writer of her generation. Perkins has written novels, as well as short fiction, and her writing has won and been shortlisted for a number of significant awards and prizes. She was the 2006 Buddle Findlay Sargeson Fellow, and she used the fellowship to work on her book, Novel About My Wife, published in 2008. She is an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate Award winner (2011).

Reviews

[Holly Hudson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I swear the cover of this book is less freaky in real life than the cover on Good Reads. You can’t read a lot of the short stories at once but very good over a couple weeks. Can’t believe Emily wrote this in 1996 because it’s so ahead of it’s time.

[LibraryKath · Rating 1 out of 5]

Turfed this one after about 60 pages, couldn't deal with the repeated fat hate in it. Also I know it was supposed to be about twenty-something Xennials but yeesh, talk about unlikeable characters.

[Bryce Galloway · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perkins is not only good at evoking different personalities but at moving from dramatic narratives with much at stake to low key meditations. Either way, there's always sex, though not explicitly: 'The Shared Experience' feels like the secretarial version of the character in the book's title story - an affair with the boss which goes from total infatuation to nausea as soon as sex breaks the spell; 'Thinking About Sleep' – the first surreal 24-hours after the tragic suicide of a friend; 'Some Common Mistakes' vividly sketches out some odd and not so odd characters in a love triangle, including Cherry the unemployed anorexic. Her characters are always as young or younger than she would have been when she wrote these stories (published at 26), but they do say, write about what you know.

[Tarsh Turner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strong characters and writing that has you hooked within a page. Great!

[Izzy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Vry good vry good vry good

[Cardigan Rituals · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow, this tore me apart

[matthew w · Rating 4 out of 5]

perfectly depressing stories abt the most ugliest beautiful ppl and the most beautiful ugliest ppl. i though the stories that are dual narrated or have two ppl at their centre like two sides of coin were golden. captures that precarious state of early/mid 20s youth so well that when perkins prods those stereotypes you feel the burn. idk how much shine this gets in terms of classic nz lit but honestly i think it shld be up there w plumb and vinters luck. god horrendous cover on the picador edition tho.

[Lucia Campbell-Reeves · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

This a collection of short story's written during the 90's about the teens and 20 somethings of the time. It includes 12 stories, ranging topics, but mostly focusing on relationships between lovers or friends. My favourite stories were 'the shared experience', 'local girl goes missing' and probably my top favourite, 'lets go', which is about two friends from Aotearoa travelling in Prague, alongside another overseas traveller. 'The shared experience' was about a woman who has an affair with her boss on a work trip, which she originally longed for but ended up being horrified with, which was a funny story. 'Local girl goes missing' was about a woman reminiscing about her childhood; her mother and sisters, and the relationship they all had. Although I didn't enjoy the present day part of the story, I definitely liked reading about the childhood memories and their mother who was a favourite character of mine. 'Thinking about sleep' was another beautiful story, following a friend group go through their awful first 24 hours following the suicide of one of their friends.

On the other hand, 'some common mistakes' and 'barking' were my two least favourite stories. 'Some common mistakes' is about a woman who is struggling a lot with anorexia, and her continued affair with her ex. The characters were all unlikeable and uncomfortable to read about. And 'Barking', which was my least favourite, is about an extremely lost and mentally unstable young man who comes from a messed up childhood and is extremely misogynistic. He grows an obsession for a random girl in a cafe and ends up stalking her. This character along with everyone in the story were extremely unlikeable and unpleasant to read about and the story was disturbing.

Overall it was a very interesting collection of short stories. The majority of the characters were strange or unlikeable and often in unfortunate or depressing situations and some of the stories included distasteful fatphobia and/or misogyny, which wasn't nice to read. But the stories were interesting, unique and easy to read and I finished the book in only a couple of days, as I binge read it following the US election, and it distracted me from the state of the world for a few hours, lol.

[Cheyenne Blue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well written short stories. A mix of young people in urban settings, and childhood reflections. Her style is terse and rough cut, present tense, but it works well and these were very readable. Overwhelmingly though, the subject matter was bleak. Failure was a theme throughout, even if the characters didn't realize it.

My favorites were "After McDonald's" - two friends leave school and become a poet and an actor. It chronicles their journey and their lack of success, set against the backdrop of their friendship.

"A Shared Experience" - a woman sleeps with her boss. The agonizing in the lead up, the deed itself almost an afterthought.

[BAM who is Beth Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

i forgot that i read this book until beth gave me another book by this author...which is now on my "to read" list.

either way....i remember when i read this book, in college, i liked it a lot. it's a collection of slacker style stories....written in the 90's for my generation (X)...when we were living in the 90's.

written well. i'll be interested in reading a more adult novel by this author.

[Lawrence · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great stories, although the stories can be a bit bleak ...

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love this book. Been in my book shelf for more than 10 years.
Everytime I am missing to be the generation X of the 90's, I read this.