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Backwardness
Longer and even odder than the fiction omnibus The Complete Gary Lutz, Backwardness is a selection of heartbreakingly hilarious excerpts from an epistolary and notebook chronicle, spanning half a century, of working-stiff miserabilia and the dark enchantments of life as a misfit.
- GenresFiction
944 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2024
About the author
Garielle Lutz
16 books204 followersGarielle Lutz is an American writer of both poetry and fiction. Her work has appeared in Sleepingfish, NOON, The Quarterly, Conjunctions, Unsaid, Fence, StoryQuarterly, The Believer, Cimarron Review, 3rd Bed, Slate Magazine, New York Tyrant, The Anchor Book of New American Short Stories, The Apocalypse Reader (Thunder's Mouth Press), PP/FF: An Anthology (Starcherone Books), The Random House Treasury of Light Verse and in the film 60 Writers/60 Places.
A collection of her short fiction, Stories in the Worst Way, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in November 1996 and re-published by 3rd Bed in 2002 and Calamari Press in 2009. Lutz's second collection of short stories, I Looked Alive, was published by the now-defunct Four Walls Eight Windows in 2003 and republished by Black Square Editions/Brooklyn Rail in 2010. Partial List of People to Bleach, a chapbook of both new and rare early stories (published pseudonymously as Lee Stone in Gordon Lish's The Quarterly) was released by Future Tense Books in 2007. Divorcer, a collection of seven stories, was released by Calamari Press in 2011.
In 1996, Lutz was recipient of a literature grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999, she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
In 2020, Lutz came out as a transgender woman.
A collection of her short fiction, Stories in the Worst Way, was published by Alfred A. Knopf in November 1996 and re-published by 3rd Bed in 2002 and Calamari Press in 2009. Lutz's second collection of short stories, I Looked Alive, was published by the now-defunct Four Walls Eight Windows in 2003 and republished by Black Square Editions/Brooklyn Rail in 2010. Partial List of People to Bleach, a chapbook of both new and rare early stories (published pseudonymously as Lee Stone in Gordon Lish's The Quarterly) was released by Future Tense Books in 2007. Divorcer, a collection of seven stories, was released by Calamari Press in 2011.
In 1996, Lutz was recipient of a literature grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and in 1999, she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
In 2020, Lutz came out as a transgender woman.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 4, 2025
A depressive and beautiful accomplishment in the face of the empty American experience. And yes, the prose is perfection, visceral and revelatory. The ending guts.
I'm planning on having Garielle Lutz on the next episode of The Collidescope Podcast sometime this month. And here is the episode (it was such a pleasure chatting with Garielle): https://www.buzzsprout.com/1849671/ep...
I'm planning on having Garielle Lutz on the next episode of The Collidescope Podcast sometime this month. And here is the episode (it was such a pleasure chatting with Garielle): https://www.buzzsprout.com/1849671/ep...
Read
October 7, 2026Been so long you start to get insane dreams. Different levels. Going to a place where they’ll take care of you, no judgment, girl leading you to the chamber as flat as a nurse, surface smile to help ease your nervousness. What you’re wearing is so short you wonder about contamination when you sit down on the plastic, and are lifted, alone at this point, holding the device you’re given the opportunity to clean, a stream of gelatinous hand sanitizer giving you enough. Oh to be understood. Not knowing what will happen. When the knock on the door will happen. Just waiting. And when he arrives, it’s all out of your hands, whisked away to a stage where a play is taking place, other men fighting, and yours fending them off, punching them into the orchestra, he starts to lay you down, your hands surprisingly gentle on his arms, what will happen next? But this is level one. The challenge is to make it through the next levels. Easy enough to swallow the pills, but in the boardroom, an older deposed director rises up and takes the stage, many in the room already remembering the power he once had, some of the newer employees not knowing and being disrespectful, he quickly puts them in their place. Points out their drunken rudeness without even having to, and they are banished. This is the director you have to somehow defeat, get around, because any floor that you go off to alone, he's there waiting, and the last pill is something of a challenge, some kind of tool given in which you have to insert the pill differently, using your own spit, going into a bathroom where you see your reflection, it’s quite nice, buckling down the stairs the director is behind you and berating you, so much discrimination that raises up memories from the past, except all of this was by your choice, no choice but to hold your head up and ignore, stay in your own dream, others either participate and allow you to dream, or they pull you down. More thoughts here: https://tinyurl.com/4yt2k27j
November 29, 2024
I’ve been a long time fan of Lutz’s fiction. She is mostly known for her unique and interesting sentences. This book, however, reported in many letters and diary entries across many years of her life complements her fiction in compelling ways. Lutz is a sharp observer and a great story teller; she pulls details from minutiae of her life—her walks at nights, small interactions at fast food restaurants, and lost relationships to great effect. The result is hilariously funny; not a single boring page exists within 932 pages of this book.
September 26, 2024
Garielle Lutz has crafted an impressive and expansive work—a tome of epic scope that delves into the fascinatingly mundane aspects of life from a beautiful neurodivergent perspective. This collection captures the drudgeries, joys, and quirks of human existence through the lens of a masterful observer who uncovers the oddities and hidden corners of everyday life. Spanning fifty years, these letters, short stories, emails, and journals come together to form one of the most iconic collected works I've ever encountered. Lutz’s writing is a true delight, and I thoroughly enjoyed immersing myself in this collection over the past few months.
February 5, 2026
People are strange, when you're a stranger
Faces look ugly, when you're alone
Women seem wicked, when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven, when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
Those lyrics, of course, come from iconoclast extraordinaire Jim Morrison who also had problems fitting in so-to-speak. Gary/Garielle Lutz, the non-binary person & author of this compendium is most certainly strange, and that's according to him/herself all throughout this door-stopper of a travelogue down memory lane of his six-plus decade existence. It began to get weird from early youth, grade school, home life and just kept getting weirder - so, and but the book. Always, we must separate at some reserve author from work for to evaluate what has left its creator and now becomes a piece of public art in and of itself. I am of similar age to ... Ok, I'll go there "Ms. Lutz" and thus do I enjoy "her" references to those growing up time period 60's where in spite of growing turmoil & change it was simpler without the overriding clamp of technological distortion warbling constant in everyone's head. Kids were simply kids. They were not assaulted by unfathomable outside forces telling them to question their basic identities or larger world's problems except the bomb threat and under your desk protect mode. So then, why/how did "Ms. Lutz" get so screwed up? Well, there are a SMALL percentage of kids in any era that have dysphoric notion I would surmise but when not hyped & encouraged by ADULTS generally work through it and move on. Right, right, who am I to ... whatever, not going to engage with screaming woke'sters' lunatic rants. THIS BOOK is damn good; it pierces one's heart strings in its stringent wringing out of its authors soul bled onto each page. It's also boringly prosaic with umpteen visits to Burger King one & Burger King two or the endless refills of Coke with minimal ice etc. Lutz is a slob and a neat freak at the same time. Lutz is depressed to the point of exhaustive nullity and then further depressed, yet a functioning person showing up, keeping track, fulfilling obligations. Why does Lutz never seem to advance, move the bar forward? Don't know. The meticulous detailing of OTHER PEOPLE, their physiologies, quirks, mannerisms, grotesque inanities mirror "her" own. "She" can write and write she does back and forth spanning the years to encompass a life as troubled soul upon the waves of subjective tyranny. I would not want to have lunch with this person, but I'd read another of "her" books.
Faces look ugly, when you're alone
Women seem wicked, when you're unwanted
Streets are uneven, when you're down
When you're strange
Faces come out of the rain
When you're strange
No one remembers your name
When you're strange
When you're strange
When you're strange
Those lyrics, of course, come from iconoclast extraordinaire Jim Morrison who also had problems fitting in so-to-speak. Gary/Garielle Lutz, the non-binary person & author of this compendium is most certainly strange, and that's according to him/herself all throughout this door-stopper of a travelogue down memory lane of his six-plus decade existence. It began to get weird from early youth, grade school, home life and just kept getting weirder - so, and but the book. Always, we must separate at some reserve author from work for to evaluate what has left its creator and now becomes a piece of public art in and of itself. I am of similar age to ... Ok, I'll go there "Ms. Lutz" and thus do I enjoy "her" references to those growing up time period 60's where in spite of growing turmoil & change it was simpler without the overriding clamp of technological distortion warbling constant in everyone's head. Kids were simply kids. They were not assaulted by unfathomable outside forces telling them to question their basic identities or larger world's problems except the bomb threat and under your desk protect mode. So then, why/how did "Ms. Lutz" get so screwed up? Well, there are a SMALL percentage of kids in any era that have dysphoric notion I would surmise but when not hyped & encouraged by ADULTS generally work through it and move on. Right, right, who am I to ... whatever, not going to engage with screaming woke'sters' lunatic rants. THIS BOOK is damn good; it pierces one's heart strings in its stringent wringing out of its authors soul bled onto each page. It's also boringly prosaic with umpteen visits to Burger King one & Burger King two or the endless refills of Coke with minimal ice etc. Lutz is a slob and a neat freak at the same time. Lutz is depressed to the point of exhaustive nullity and then further depressed, yet a functioning person showing up, keeping track, fulfilling obligations. Why does Lutz never seem to advance, move the bar forward? Don't know. The meticulous detailing of OTHER PEOPLE, their physiologies, quirks, mannerisms, grotesque inanities mirror "her" own. "She" can write and write she does back and forth spanning the years to encompass a life as troubled soul upon the waves of subjective tyranny. I would not want to have lunch with this person, but I'd read another of "her" books.
September 5, 2026
I have the feeling of having finished "one of the alltime greats" - I really hope this book gets celebrated in a way it deserves. Glad to read it before PhD students get ahold of it and quote Derrida or whatever with it. This is certainly a rich node for theorizing, but I'm happy to have experienced before that happens to it (and tbh I'm excited to see what the eggheads say).
I think one of my biggest peeves about humanities education in the U.S. is that we give 8th graders finished products from Hemingway and Shakespeare to give the impression that "literature is something a great genius produces effortlessly." This book is 900 pages of a great writer trying, and often failing, to express her through sentence-craft. The second section, where she is an undergrad, is a REAL slog - there's no way around it, but eventually she finds her voice and the endless trips to Burger King and Burger Chef blossom into something undeniable. What distinguishes this from other author diaries (Kafka, for instance), is that Lutz is just neuroatypical enough that her life really never changes much, so she's writing about the same scenes over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. This book makes anything feel possible - maybe even you as a reader could write the next Ulysses.
It helps that she is so. fucking. funny.
"Another school year, another semester as a faculty crabapple, but what use is there in trying to learn everyone's name when most of the girls are named Ashleigh and every other boy is a Sean?
Someone took a key and scratched the word FUCK in very large letters on the roof of my car. It must have happened in a parking lot at school. I took a key of my own and revised the word into the nonsensical BUOK. A day later, I changed the U to another O"
and
"My first annual physical now that I'm on Medicare is coming up on Tuesday. The doctor is usually skeptical and even dismissive of any worrying symptoms I bring up. I've got a couple of doozies for him this time.
I'd read somewhere that mot doctors will give you no more than thirty or forty-five seconds to talk about whatever's ailing you, and then they'll cut you off and pronounce their diagnosis. So one year I'd gone in and talked really, really fast to make sure I got everything out. I was talking a a mile a minute. What the doctor wrote down was 'manic episode.' That diagnosis is still on the printout I'm handed on my way out of the office every time I go there. Another time when I was having some weird symptoms and went in for an appointment, the doctor said, 'All your problems are psychiatric.'"
There are endless riffs that had they been posted in Sandcrab-era twitter, would get 84 likes, 4 rts (the perfect tweet).
She's like a Knausgaard if Knausgaard let go of his trademark worrying what people think. I think a lot of this book reads like "what I imagine internet addicts are doing between Tik Toks," but she's not on Tik Tok at all!!
I would have a hard time recommending this book to most people because of the sheer volume of it - Lutz' short stories are much more direct avenues to her charm, but man in the right hands this book feels TREMENDOUS.
I love it!!! But now I want to read a book where events happen to relatable characters lol.
I think one of my biggest peeves about humanities education in the U.S. is that we give 8th graders finished products from Hemingway and Shakespeare to give the impression that "literature is something a great genius produces effortlessly." This book is 900 pages of a great writer trying, and often failing, to express her through sentence-craft. The second section, where she is an undergrad, is a REAL slog - there's no way around it, but eventually she finds her voice and the endless trips to Burger King and Burger Chef blossom into something undeniable. What distinguishes this from other author diaries (Kafka, for instance), is that Lutz is just neuroatypical enough that her life really never changes much, so she's writing about the same scenes over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over again. This book makes anything feel possible - maybe even you as a reader could write the next Ulysses.
It helps that she is so. fucking. funny.
"Another school year, another semester as a faculty crabapple, but what use is there in trying to learn everyone's name when most of the girls are named Ashleigh and every other boy is a Sean?
Someone took a key and scratched the word FUCK in very large letters on the roof of my car. It must have happened in a parking lot at school. I took a key of my own and revised the word into the nonsensical BUOK. A day later, I changed the U to another O"
and
"My first annual physical now that I'm on Medicare is coming up on Tuesday. The doctor is usually skeptical and even dismissive of any worrying symptoms I bring up. I've got a couple of doozies for him this time.
I'd read somewhere that mot doctors will give you no more than thirty or forty-five seconds to talk about whatever's ailing you, and then they'll cut you off and pronounce their diagnosis. So one year I'd gone in and talked really, really fast to make sure I got everything out. I was talking a a mile a minute. What the doctor wrote down was 'manic episode.' That diagnosis is still on the printout I'm handed on my way out of the office every time I go there. Another time when I was having some weird symptoms and went in for an appointment, the doctor said, 'All your problems are psychiatric.'"
There are endless riffs that had they been posted in Sandcrab-era twitter, would get 84 likes, 4 rts (the perfect tweet).
She's like a Knausgaard if Knausgaard let go of his trademark worrying what people think. I think a lot of this book reads like "what I imagine internet addicts are doing between Tik Toks," but she's not on Tik Tok at all!!
I would have a hard time recommending this book to most people because of the sheer volume of it - Lutz' short stories are much more direct avenues to her charm, but man in the right hands this book feels TREMENDOUS.
I love it!!! But now I want to read a book where events happen to relatable characters lol.
June 3, 2024
Closer to a 4.5 out of 5. Lutz has done it again and made the impossible seem possible. The writing packs quite a punch and takes the reader inside the mind of one of the most innovative and talented writers of the past half century. Definitely rekindled my interest in their later works, which I plan on revisiting soon.
December 25, 2024
Was planning to proceed to Kafka’s diaries after this, but now thinking, “Nah.”
I am instead turning to a biography of Edward Gorey, found happenstancedly at the local branch of my public library, with the promising title “Born To Be Posthumous.”
Had been considering a move to Pittsburgh but rethinking that, too. Apparently, Dollar Trees have become Dollar-Twenty-Five Trees everywhere.
Still, I muster up the inflationary quarter (there’s usually one lurking somewhere under the couch cushions) for my preferred Hot Chocolate mix. I like to add water and watch the five or six luxury “marshmallows” dissolve into a comforting nothingness.
Merry Christmas everyone!
I am instead turning to a biography of Edward Gorey, found happenstancedly at the local branch of my public library, with the promising title “Born To Be Posthumous.”
Had been considering a move to Pittsburgh but rethinking that, too. Apparently, Dollar Trees have become Dollar-Twenty-Five Trees everywhere.
Still, I muster up the inflationary quarter (there’s usually one lurking somewhere under the couch cushions) for my preferred Hot Chocolate mix. I like to add water and watch the five or six luxury “marshmallows” dissolve into a comforting nothingness.
Merry Christmas everyone!
October 18, 2025
Perfect.
September 11, 2024
in light of redesigning cover for reiussue: https://5cense.com/25/1215.htm
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews