Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6

by Susan Jackson Rodgers

"Don't be fooled by the lovely, lady-like voices that lure you into the nineteen short stories in Susan Jackson Rodgers' Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6. It's hard not to be pulled into the deceptively charming female heads and start laughing along, relating to the frazzled divorced woman unhappy to bump into her ex-boyfriend, or the little girl innocently feeding birds outside by the pool. Then a devastating twist towards the end lurches your heart out and shocks you so much you have to go back to reread the beginning to see what the author had slyly slipped past that you'd barely noticed. Think: Flannery O'Connor meets Desperate Housewives. A poetic, hilarious and haunting collection." - Susan Shapiro, author of Overexposed and Five Men Who Broke My Heart

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

180 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2012

Reviews

[Jenni · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this collection. It definitely built and became darker as the collection went on. The writing style may not be fore everyone. It is very stream of consciousness and like the whole thing is happening inside of the various heads of the narrators. It felt very much like a collection of different people's thoughts on relationships in their different forms.

My favorites stories:
This Other Alan
Thirty
Where Are They Now?

[Lainie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of short stories is masterfully written and simply captivating. For the mature reader, Susan Jackson Rodgers has a way of touching on the very points that make each character come to life. And if some of them seem like very different people than you, you can’t help but see the undeniable commonalities, feel empathy and understanding, and laugh out loud at the wry truths we older women must accept and adapt to.

Highly recommended.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like happy endings, are under 35, or think you have the perfect life, don't read this book. If you are like the rest of us, and realize life is messy, cruel and painful, this is the book for you. The women (and men)in these stories are in circunstances we can recognize from our own lives. They have, or could, happen to our neighbor, sister, best friend, even ourself. The woman watching her brother dying; the mother comteplating walking away, but knowing she can't because she's the mom; the woman running into her ex in the middle of the night in the grocery store; the women w/ the 3 little ones whose husband just left her, wondering if she's a good enough mother. All and more resonate deeply w/ any woman and mother. No fairy tale endings, no Prince Charmings, just flawed women making mistakes,or making the right choices, but they are not working out the way they planned. Just like real life.

[Susi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been avoiding reading short stories because I've been working at writing a novel which is such a different animal...but I'm so glad I made an exception for this collection of stories. It reminded of everything that is wonderful about the short story form: how every story is about two things--one on the surface and one below--and how miraculous it can be when just a few short pages of fiction capture the disappointments and contradictions of the human condition. The author's writing is strong throughout but she is especially talented with nailing perfect endings (as with "How About You Shut Up," "Anniversary" and "You Again"). The story, "Mine," has been haunting me for days...

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastic, fantastic! Will I ever be as sassy and classy as Susan Jackson Rogers? As sneaky and divine a writer, who allows me to read sophisticated stories effortlessly, because her style seems to come from a place of effortless grace? Will I ever be like this? Maybe one day, but I'll have to get my heart broken a few more times to get those little broken pieces all tucked away in my back pocket.

<3

[Vanessa Torres · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sad to say, I was expecting more from this book. It's a collection of poetic like short stories and I found myself confused after reading most of them. For me, it was difficult to grasp. There were some funny and good ones included but overall, wasn't much of a fan.


I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. (Thanks so much!)

[Nazifa Islam · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these stories. They're surprising, heartbreaking, and somehow haunting. I keep thinking about "Fiona in the Vortex", "This Other Alan" and "Mine" - just to name a few stories that really wrapped themselves into me. The language is exquisite and the characters are complicated and flawed and so well rendered in only a few pages. I highly recommend giving this a read.

[Shawana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a Goodreads contest. I did like a few of the stories, but i feel as though many of these stories lacked a complete ending or there were missing a key element within the story for me to comprehend the ending.

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice to read short stories written by someone over 30. Some real standouts in this collection.

[Drew McCutchen]

“I had the terrible feeling that I would return to the living room, and the
baby would be gone. I often had these irrational fears about children. After
all, they had had not even existed until recently. We felt powerful, my
husband and I. We had made people where people had not been before! Rabbits
from hats!” (Fiona in the Vortex)

“If only you had, for instance, showered. If only you had changed out of
the workout capris that you once thought were cute but that (you now know)
actually make your butt look baggy, fallen, a fallen butt. If you had washed
your face even, or better yet your hair. If you’d put on some goddamn
make-up…” (Ex-Boyfriend on Aisle 6)

“’It’s so good to see you again,’ Leah said. She didn’t mean
‘good.’ She meant ‘distruptive.’” (This Other Alan)

“I wanted Derick to be brilliant. I also wanted to have sex with him. You
could say I was a friendly reader.” (Thirty)

“I realize that this is my home after all. I forget that I’m married to
someone else and have children. Gradually my real life begins to seep into
the edges of the dream, and then I have to decide all over again whether to
leave Gabe and my house, or whether to stay.” (Thirty)

“We pick up her duffel bag and on the way to the car she hooks her arm in
mine and kisses my cheek. ‘I’m so happy to see you.’ And I bask in her
light, knowing it is only a matter of time before she takes it away again.”
(Camille’s Country)

“Sometimes I do the carrots that way too, just so I can avoid this whole
chain of thoughts, though of course I can’t really avoid it because
thinking about avoiding it is really the same as thinking about it, and
everything is like this, things within things, one leading to the next. The
carrots are just the beginning.” (That Reminds Me)

“Not just sad; she fell into a severe depression, rescued only by
hospitalization and medication. The memory of that dark time—how quickly
she had descended, how treacherous the climb out—still lurked, black and
threatening.” (Mine)

“I talked to him and held his hands and his feet and tried to get him to
say that one last thing that you always want the person to say even though I
knew the last time I had seen him had been the real last time…” (This
Day)