Make Me Do Things

by Victoria Redel

In eleven original, surprising and deliciously dark stories, Victoria Redel moves effortlessly between men's and women's perspectives in stories that explore marriage, divorce and parenthood. A newly divorced mother stumbles her way back into single life. A young man and his girlfriend clean out his dead mother's overstuffed home. A woman struggles to hide her affair from a doting husband and inquisitive daughter. A man descends into a drug-fueled dream as he imagines losing his pregnant wife to a historical, nineteenth century figure. Redel indelibly captures the ways we love, the ways we yearn and the ways we sabotage each. Throughout the collection, children struggle to make sense of the adult world's uncertainties as husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, find themselves pressed up against their own limits, "the exaltations and treasons of one's own mothy heart." Redel has again done what Grace Paley said of Redel's first collection, "Only a poet could have written this prose. Only a storyteller could keep a reader turning these pages so greedily."

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Victoria Redel's newest novel is I Am You (September 30, 2025, SJP Lit/Zando), which Melissa Febos calls "A lush, sexy, absorbing novel that brings to life two artists who are inextricably linked in passion and competition."

Redel's work includes four books of poetry, most recently Paradise, and the novel Before Everything. Her short stories, poetry and essays have appeared in Granta, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Bomb, One Story, Salmagundi, O, and NOON, among many others. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment for the Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center. She is a professor in the graduate and undergraduate creative writing programs at Sarah Lawrence College and splits her time between Utah and New York City.
Redel is on the graduate and undergraduate faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. She has taught in the Graduate Writing Programs of Columbia University and Vermont College. Redel was the McGee Professor at Davidson College. She has received fellowships from The Guggenheim Foundation, The National Endowment For The Arts and the Fine Arts Work Center.

Victoria Redel was born in New York. She is a first generation American of Belgian, Rumanian, Egyptian and Russian and Polish descent. She attended Dartmouth College (BA) and Columbia University (MFA).

Reviews

[AJourneyWithoutMap · Rating 4 out of 5]

Novelist and poet, Victoria Redel, is no stranger to stories that are dark and disquieting. Her debut novel, Loverboy, was in a way an exploration of the vulnerability and susceptibility that resides in a person when one’s life is disturbed. Make Me Do Things, which is a collection of eleven short stories, is more or less a journey which takes over from where Loverboy left off.

Redel’s characters are dark, deep and desperate. The stories are about loneliness, life and love. The characters are carefully crafted so that the reader will be able to relate with them. There is the story of a divorced woman whose world turned upside-down when her friend’s husband confessed they (husband and wife) are in love with her. Then there are characters who long for children, and others where a son tries to explain his mother’s secrets after her death. The stories are poignant and distressing, yet there is so much life in it. Readers will find great delight in many of them.

[Kira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Make Me Do Things is a fast read, both because of the easy, direct language, and because each story seems almost like a chapter in a larger novel (I found myself sometimes disappointed to not know what becomes of these people). But what stands out more than the writing are the themes—Redel’s subtle commentary on how regular people think malevolent thoughts, make poor decisions and do immoral things. Certain stories in the book, generally the longer ones, stand out: “Trust Me” and “Ahoy,” as well as “Red Rooster” (whose main character, a father introducing his son to his girlfriend/her son, seems to be the same father/boyfriend in “Make Me Do Things,” the only apparent connection between the stories). Most are more like vignettes, and only one story—”The Horn,” also the book’s shortest—seems underdeveloped.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms Redel's light and airy style hypnotized me. This became my thoroughly enjoyable bedtime read for a week. As I reported in my updates, there were one or two stories I did not understand. But this was not a deal killer, I gladly went on the the next story.

This is not the kind of book I ordinarily read (I think I say that a lot). And I don't even recall how I heard of it (I also say that a lot). I'm a book opportunist, constantly looking at what others are reading or recommending. Thanks to whoever steered me in this direction.

[Jason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each story took you places you didn't expect to be taken.
my favorites:

Stuff
The North Train
On Earth
Ahoy!

[Lorri Steinbacher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Drk, well-written stories. I just don't enjoy reading short stories. I wouod gladly have read any of these stories expanded into a novel, but short stories always leave me *blah*.

[Claire · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've read these domestic despair stories before, but executed more....expertly? Kind of a tired trope!

[Patricia Geller · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are really varied from ones I really enjoyed to ones that feel more like fantasy and less compelling. Mixed.

[Rachel Lake · Rating 5 out of 5]

So much versatility in Redel's ability to inhabit vastly different narrators. Beautiful language-- these stories are infused with poetry. It's a wonderful read!

[EmmaB · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may be partial to some of the stories here because I met the author, and heard her read her work one August evening. I like her sense of place and space, and the people who are there with her.