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Fish Tales
This lost classic takes a mesmerizing spin through the high-rolling high times of 1970s New York and Detroit.
Zooming between the bohemian demimonde of New York and the affluent Black community of Detroit in the 1970s, Lewis Jones is a party girl for the ages—a woman in her thirties who has reached a point of freedom, confidence, and mayhem. She is supported in her adventures, in every way, by her husband, Woody. She is accompanied by her friend Kitty Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style and a knack for finding all the best spots. She soaks in baths of champagne, powders her nose with cocaine, wakes up on silk sheets with a variety of lovers. And then she is finally, truly upended by the handsome, erudite, often cruel Brook—a man who won’t tolerate her attempts to take control.
A wild swirl of desire, pleasure, power, drugs, and sex, Nettie Jones's Fish Tales is a bold exploration of the blurred spaces we inhabit—sexuality and race, agency and exploitation, selfhood and intimacy, sanity and self-destruction, art and the profane. As action-packed as it is brief, Fish Tales is a collage, a time capsule, a snapshot, a message. And it is strikingly, unnervingly current in its deluge of desire on top of anxiety, on top of ego and identity, on top of freedom, on top of love.
Zooming between the bohemian demimonde of New York and the affluent Black community of Detroit in the 1970s, Lewis Jones is a party girl for the ages—a woman in her thirties who has reached a point of freedom, confidence, and mayhem. She is supported in her adventures, in every way, by her husband, Woody. She is accompanied by her friend Kitty Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style and a knack for finding all the best spots. She soaks in baths of champagne, powders her nose with cocaine, wakes up on silk sheets with a variety of lovers. And then she is finally, truly upended by the handsome, erudite, often cruel Brook—a man who won’t tolerate her attempts to take control.
A wild swirl of desire, pleasure, power, drugs, and sex, Nettie Jones's Fish Tales is a bold exploration of the blurred spaces we inhabit—sexuality and race, agency and exploitation, selfhood and intimacy, sanity and self-destruction, art and the profane. As action-packed as it is brief, Fish Tales is a collage, a time capsule, a snapshot, a message. And it is strikingly, unnervingly current in its deluge of desire on top of anxiety, on top of ego and identity, on top of freedom, on top of love.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 1983
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 113 reviews
May 15, 2025
Nettie Jones clearly had talent but Fish Tales needed a strong, sure-handed editor to become what it should have been. What we got felt like a first draft which is a shame since the world of books (especially these days) needs all of the unafraid authors it can find. There isn't an agenda to be found in this book, nor is there a moment of caution in the face of potential scrutiny - Ms. Jones simply tells and that is in dangerously short supply
July 17, 2025
don’t agree with a lot of the negative reviews here saying this was terribly edited, I think the choppy/vignette style was fully intentional. the first half was a mess in the way that being young is a mess, you flit between different people who make temporary impressions on you until at some point you might meet someone that cuts a little deeper. I really wasn’t expecting this to go where it did in the second half, a quite nuanced and interesting exploration of caretaking, intimacy, abuse and how all of these things can be knotted together. the ending was wild and I also love loved the afterward
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July 18, 2025I didn’t like reading this but I liked it. Hedonistic, bodily, delusional. Had a real physicality to it. I picked this as a book club pick and wish I didn’t only because there’s not much to discuss I think, felt like a series of snapshots in the first have. Maybe even of a crime scene… hmmmmmmmmm
November 23, 2025
A genuine tour-de-force of voice, of sensibility & style too. Another wonderful reprint to appear in 2025, rescuing a worthy text from unjust obscurity.
The gloriously mercurial & messy Lewis Jones, rather nakedly an avatar for the author herself, is truly one of the best examples I can think of of a character who I wouldn't want to interact with in any sustained way in real life, but I was thrilled to tag along from a safe textual distance. The speaker of Edna St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"—burning the candle at both ends, likely not lasting through a single night—perfectly encapsulates Lewis' fiery, devil-may-care approach to life & loving (or at least her version of it).
Admittedly there's not much of a "story" here to speak of: it's a chaotic chain of incidents in a deliberately zig-zagging life, fueled by alcohol, substances, sexual experimentation, and, risk-taking of every kind. Also, quite clearly to everyone other than Lewis, her whole range of unaddressed traumas.
The synopsis makes it sound like the Kitty-Kat, Lewis' fabulous bisexual bestie, was going to play a larger role but alas he remains mostly offstage, but always welcome whenever he occasionally pops up. I much preferred the inebriated first part to the second, detailing Lewis' somewhat inexplicable obsession with an imperious & rather cruel quadriplegic lover, but it still remains from the first page to the last one wild raucous wild ride.
"'I never masturbate,' I lied, looking off at the refrigerator.
'Never? That's why you're sick! No one should be able to love you better than you love yourself, doll. That is real independence.'"
The gloriously mercurial & messy Lewis Jones, rather nakedly an avatar for the author herself, is truly one of the best examples I can think of of a character who I wouldn't want to interact with in any sustained way in real life, but I was thrilled to tag along from a safe textual distance. The speaker of Edna St. Vincent Millay's "First Fig"—burning the candle at both ends, likely not lasting through a single night—perfectly encapsulates Lewis' fiery, devil-may-care approach to life & loving (or at least her version of it).
Admittedly there's not much of a "story" here to speak of: it's a chaotic chain of incidents in a deliberately zig-zagging life, fueled by alcohol, substances, sexual experimentation, and, risk-taking of every kind. Also, quite clearly to everyone other than Lewis, her whole range of unaddressed traumas.
The synopsis makes it sound like the Kitty-Kat, Lewis' fabulous bisexual bestie, was going to play a larger role but alas he remains mostly offstage, but always welcome whenever he occasionally pops up. I much preferred the inebriated first part to the second, detailing Lewis' somewhat inexplicable obsession with an imperious & rather cruel quadriplegic lover, but it still remains from the first page to the last one wild raucous wild ride.
"'I never masturbate,' I lied, looking off at the refrigerator.
'Never? That's why you're sick! No one should be able to love you better than you love yourself, doll. That is real independence.'"
June 11, 2025
Hmmm. I cannot believe this book was edited by thee Ms. Toni Morrison, in fact it’s hard to believe anyone actually edited this book. Unfortunately, it is not at all a cohesive novel, it reads more like a series of vignettes mainly involving some sort of sex, or thoughts of sex, or conversations about sex. Bizarre is the word that comes to mind. It is however bold and raw, and I can see how the powers-that-be taking an interest because of that rawness and courage to pen the words contained within. Peculiar.
May 26, 2022
2.5*
Happened upon this book at the bookstore a couple weeks back without having heard of it or its author. The first page (as well as the inside flap summary) got me. I was kinda hoping for something more than what it offered: perhaps some flashier prose or some more substantial ideas. Then again, the characters in this novel (who, I'm led to believe, are based quite rigidly on people in Jones' life) don't exactly strike me as the types of people who'd have the means to distract themselves from their lives with decadent thinking. After all, merely being a real person is a full time job for some people.
Happened upon this book at the bookstore a couple weeks back without having heard of it or its author. The first page (as well as the inside flap summary) got me. I was kinda hoping for something more than what it offered: perhaps some flashier prose or some more substantial ideas. Then again, the characters in this novel (who, I'm led to believe, are based quite rigidly on people in Jones' life) don't exactly strike me as the types of people who'd have the means to distract themselves from their lives with decadent thinking. After all, merely being a real person is a full time job for some people.
May 16, 2025
I am not exactly sure of what I read. We open the book with sexual abuse and then spend the rest of the novels with graphic stories of sexual liberation. The characters get a bit confusing for me but I really wanted to make it to the end. I was really trying to understand Lewis’s ability to have any man she wanted (especially sexually) to her obsession with a quadriplegic man who she could not have sex with. Talk about opposite ends of the spectrum. The afterword may have been my favorite part and now I need an autobiography on Nettie Jones.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 16, 2025
I don’t understand the negative reviews — I found this to be cohesive, hilarious, and devastating
June 1, 2025
I walked into Fish Tales thinking the soundtrack for this book would be Street Life by The Crusaders. Little did I know, this is actually set to Multi-Love by Unknown Mortal Orchestra!!!!
Reading about a 1970s polycule split between Detroit and New York was NOT on my 2025 vision board lmaoooo. Nettie Jones takes readers for a wild ride, albeit a less glamorous ride than I expected. While I prefer a plot-driven novel, I like to think that I am flexible enough to appreciate strong character work that propels our story. The problem here is that Lewis never becomes the shining star she was meant to be!!
The choppy format and sparse explanations made it hard for me to get enough information about what was happening, let alone WHO it was happening to. At certain points in Lewis’ fights with Brook, he is accusing her of behavior that readers had no way of knowing about prior to that very sentence! It just makes for a foggy experience as a reader. You barely know which of the two cities you’re in, which of the 9 relationships you’re in, and who any of the 18 people in this story are. So, if you enjoy unmoored chaos and blasts from the literary past, be my guest! Otherwise, IDK….
Final note: hugeeeeeee TW for all kinds of sexual violence and also victim blaming/emotional abuse to survivors of SA. At the very end, there is potentially other intimate partner violence too? Again, couldn’t fully tell. Lastly, while I can’t say how the portrayal of certain characters would’ve come across in 1984, some of Jones’ descriptions would certainly be classified as ableist, sanist, and/or fatphobic in 2025. So, proceed with caution!
Reading about a 1970s polycule split between Detroit and New York was NOT on my 2025 vision board lmaoooo. Nettie Jones takes readers for a wild ride, albeit a less glamorous ride than I expected. While I prefer a plot-driven novel, I like to think that I am flexible enough to appreciate strong character work that propels our story. The problem here is that Lewis never becomes the shining star she was meant to be!!
The choppy format and sparse explanations made it hard for me to get enough information about what was happening, let alone WHO it was happening to. At certain points in Lewis’ fights with Brook, he is accusing her of behavior that readers had no way of knowing about prior to that very sentence! It just makes for a foggy experience as a reader. You barely know which of the two cities you’re in, which of the 9 relationships you’re in, and who any of the 18 people in this story are. So, if you enjoy unmoored chaos and blasts from the literary past, be my guest! Otherwise, IDK….
Final note: hugeeeeeee TW for all kinds of sexual violence and also victim blaming/emotional abuse to survivors of SA. At the very end, there is potentially other intimate partner violence too? Again, couldn’t fully tell. Lastly, while I can’t say how the portrayal of certain characters would’ve come across in 1984, some of Jones’ descriptions would certainly be classified as ableist, sanist, and/or fatphobic in 2025. So, proceed with caution!
May 25, 2025
not sure how to feel about this.. I read this based on a recommendation but was so disappointed.
In theory, this book has everything I love - an honest female voice, openness in terms of sexuality, a very complex female character, but somehow it still fell flat? I think it read very similarly to Capote’s “A summer crossing”, but slightly better. It still feels very unfinished and seems like it needed a lot more editing to reach its full potential.
In theory, this book has everything I love - an honest female voice, openness in terms of sexuality, a very complex female character, but somehow it still fell flat? I think it read very similarly to Capote’s “A summer crossing”, but slightly better. It still feels very unfinished and seems like it needed a lot more editing to reach its full potential.
January 2, 2025
Read it for work, but it felt like I was watching a good non-mainstream arthouse movie about the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts Movement era. Looking forward to having this published in Polish.
April 14, 2025
Fish Tales caught my eye out of nowhere, just like that and not unlike luscious and loud Lewis, the novel's protagonist: bold but uncomplicated cover, an alluring wordplay of a title and the promise of an author unknown to me yet acclaimed by the great Toni Morrison. My curiosity was piqued and Fish Tales was added to my reading queue. What I didn't know then was that the trap had been set and I'd walked into it, voluntarily, thinking I was in control. I was wrong and my experience of Fish Tales would prove it: this is not a novel for the faint of heart or those looking for an easy story. What started as the retelling of sexual encounters ended up being one of my most obsessive reads of these past few years. This should come with a warning because, Buttercup, you better buckle up.
Nettie Jones is a name the masses - and most readers - are unfamiliar with. Yet this is the author who the great Toni Morrison pushed to have published at Random House in one of her final acts of editing in 1983 before focusing on her own writing instead. This is the author who was anticipated to become the next big thing. Yet here we are, 30-or-so years after Fish Tales was first published, with a name unknown to most and only now, in 2025, a reprint of this flamboyant, hedonistic story of a liberated and libertine Black woman in 1970s NYC and Detroit.
Fish Tales is divided into two distinct parts: the first is written in the short chapter format, each adopting the name of one of the protagonist's lovers, and concentrating on how the character entered and impacted Lewis's life. These individual stories intersect and flow together, creating a dense and thick fabric of lust, longing, intertwined bodies and blurred boundaries. Orgies - and orgyettes, as noted in the book and other sexual acts are written in an oddly detailed yet detached fashion. The many side characters are bold, bright and brash. There's Woody, the allergist doctor husband - and then ex-husband. There's Kitty, the gay best friend and frequent partaker in Lewis's orgies. Sex is dealt with matter-of-factly and Jones never pushes on the pathos button even when sexual assault, statury rape and gang rape are brought up. In Fish Tales, there is no space for pity, whether it's in the writing or the emotions of our main character.
The second part changes course distinctly and is devoted to Lewis's unusual new lover, a quadriplegic man. This fracture in the narration is characterised by a change in scenery, taking us from New York City to Detroit, Michigan. The latter half of Fish Talese takes Lewis's meandering ways from unsatisfied lust to love. Here's a man who can't physically satisfy her and who, despite his infirmity, claims multiple lady "friends". Here's a man she simply can't have and whom she devotes herself to, growing increasingly jealous as she shackles herself to him be becoming his caretaker. Jones gives this increasingly toxic entanglement the same factual treatment as she did for the first, sex-heavy part of the novel. Yet here, the reader becomes increasingly aware of the protagonist's mental suffering: the hallucinatory voice (a character one could, at first and earlier in the novel, have declared a separate entity, a real person), the unrequited obsessional love, the change in behaviour and consideration of her partner on the main character's behalf, all told in the first person to accentuate Lewis's spiralling thoughts. Something is amiss and the reader grows worried - with good reason.
Ultimately, Fish Tales is not quite what one would expect. From the title, a wordplay darker than imagined at first (referring to the scent of the vulva as explained through the anecdote of the drag queen who rubs sardine oil on their private parts to smell like an "authentic girl") to the outcome. This is the story of oppression and trying to break through all of it: the injustice of patriarchy and womanhood, particularly Black womanhood in America. This is the story of trauma and its lingering effects without focusing on the underlying pain. This is the story of perceived freedom being mistaken for the prison in our own head, one in which Eros and Thanatos battle daily for survival of the fittest. No, Fish Tales is not for the faint of heart or those looking for an easy story but those who'll tackle this short yet dense novel will come away from it altered in some way, never quite the same they were before delving into it. Nettie Jones, where have been hiding all these years?
* Many thanks to NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion. *
Nettie Jones is a name the masses - and most readers - are unfamiliar with. Yet this is the author who the great Toni Morrison pushed to have published at Random House in one of her final acts of editing in 1983 before focusing on her own writing instead. This is the author who was anticipated to become the next big thing. Yet here we are, 30-or-so years after Fish Tales was first published, with a name unknown to most and only now, in 2025, a reprint of this flamboyant, hedonistic story of a liberated and libertine Black woman in 1970s NYC and Detroit.
Fish Tales is divided into two distinct parts: the first is written in the short chapter format, each adopting the name of one of the protagonist's lovers, and concentrating on how the character entered and impacted Lewis's life. These individual stories intersect and flow together, creating a dense and thick fabric of lust, longing, intertwined bodies and blurred boundaries. Orgies - and orgyettes, as noted in the book and other sexual acts are written in an oddly detailed yet detached fashion. The many side characters are bold, bright and brash. There's Woody, the allergist doctor husband - and then ex-husband. There's Kitty, the gay best friend and frequent partaker in Lewis's orgies. Sex is dealt with matter-of-factly and Jones never pushes on the pathos button even when sexual assault, statury rape and gang rape are brought up. In Fish Tales, there is no space for pity, whether it's in the writing or the emotions of our main character.
The second part changes course distinctly and is devoted to Lewis's unusual new lover, a quadriplegic man. This fracture in the narration is characterised by a change in scenery, taking us from New York City to Detroit, Michigan. The latter half of Fish Talese takes Lewis's meandering ways from unsatisfied lust to love. Here's a man who can't physically satisfy her and who, despite his infirmity, claims multiple lady "friends". Here's a man she simply can't have and whom she devotes herself to, growing increasingly jealous as she shackles herself to him be becoming his caretaker. Jones gives this increasingly toxic entanglement the same factual treatment as she did for the first, sex-heavy part of the novel. Yet here, the reader becomes increasingly aware of the protagonist's mental suffering: the hallucinatory voice (a character one could, at first and earlier in the novel, have declared a separate entity, a real person), the unrequited obsessional love, the change in behaviour and consideration of her partner on the main character's behalf, all told in the first person to accentuate Lewis's spiralling thoughts. Something is amiss and the reader grows worried - with good reason.
Ultimately, Fish Tales is not quite what one would expect. From the title, a wordplay darker than imagined at first (referring to the scent of the vulva as explained through the anecdote of the drag queen who rubs sardine oil on their private parts to smell like an "authentic girl") to the outcome. This is the story of oppression and trying to break through all of it: the injustice of patriarchy and womanhood, particularly Black womanhood in America. This is the story of trauma and its lingering effects without focusing on the underlying pain. This is the story of perceived freedom being mistaken for the prison in our own head, one in which Eros and Thanatos battle daily for survival of the fittest. No, Fish Tales is not for the faint of heart or those looking for an easy story but those who'll tackle this short yet dense novel will come away from it altered in some way, never quite the same they were before delving into it. Nettie Jones, where have been hiding all these years?
"I can look tired, I'm a man," he whispered. "Weariness makes a man seem hard-working, serious about life. It gives character to him and his face. It makes a woman look like a stale loaf of unpreserved bread instead of a fresh cookie."
* Many thanks to NetGalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the advance reader copy in exchange for an honest opinion. *
July 5, 2025
what the fuck (derogatory)
July 5, 2025
Some readers have criticized the lack of cohesiveness, but I thought its short, violent, breathless bursts mimicked what could be the narrator’s lucidity when she was not drunk or high. I admire Jones’s fearless forays into the depths of the narrator’s descent—I found myself also clutching for support as she stumbled deeper.
July 17, 2025
while i was reading this, i had many thoughts about power dynamics, control, identity, isolation and toxic physical and mental co-dependency, female (sexual) liberation... but in the end there are just three things i wanna say:
– kitty is the best character, loved him
– can't say the same about our main character, at one moment i even caught myself relating to brook WHOM I DESPISE
– the ending was so la-la whatever that i couldn't care less, but i kinda liked the epilogue's message: you cannot always blame and make every-fucking-one responsible for how you chose to use your freedom and lead your life.
– kitty is the best character, loved him
– can't say the same about our main character, at one moment i even caught myself relating to brook WHOM I DESPISE
– the ending was so la-la whatever that i couldn't care less, but i kinda liked the epilogue's message: you cannot always blame and make every-fucking-one responsible for how you chose to use your freedom and lead your life.
February 6, 2025
Fish Tales by Nettie Jones is an often shocking, sexually charged novel that has retained the sharpness of its cutting edge in the 36 years since its release. Jones came to editor Toni Morrison’s attention via another writer of her prose posse, Corregidora author Gayl Jones (no relation), whom Nettie cited as a friend and mentor during the three years it took to finish her book. Fish Tales was published in 1983, the same year Morrison, who had already written four novels including The Bluest Eye and Sula, quit her job to devote herself full-time to writing. Although Random House balked at buying Jones’s book, Morrison, already an empress in the literary world, persuaded the publisher that the work was worthy. “Toni was acquiring strong writers,” said literary agent Marie Dutton Brown, who, in the 1970s held a similar editorial position at Doubleday. “There was no formulaic fiction on her roster. Toni saw something in Nettie that she thought was worthy of publication.” https://longreads.com/2019/10/29/beau...
February 2, 2025
Thank you to Little, Brown Book Group UK and NetGalley for the ARC!
3.5! Rounded up
Despite my rating, this was a fascinating and for me a quick read for how I sped through it just taking in all of the people we get to meet and see through Lewis. I felt that even if I thought the short chapters were good for a sense of moving on from one to the next, having more with certain characters and even some chapters of just Lewis would have really made me love this more. I just wanted a more filler for some characters and situations that happen here.
However, I am beyond happy to have read this as it has been forgotten but has now been put to be published.
You are thrown into situations that are raw, awkward, uncomfortable, wild, worrying, shocking, disturbing, it is not a happy read and can even be bleak. But what one hell of a read it is.
3.5! Rounded up
Despite my rating, this was a fascinating and for me a quick read for how I sped through it just taking in all of the people we get to meet and see through Lewis. I felt that even if I thought the short chapters were good for a sense of moving on from one to the next, having more with certain characters and even some chapters of just Lewis would have really made me love this more. I just wanted a more filler for some characters and situations that happen here.
However, I am beyond happy to have read this as it has been forgotten but has now been put to be published.
You are thrown into situations that are raw, awkward, uncomfortable, wild, worrying, shocking, disturbing, it is not a happy read and can even be bleak. But what one hell of a read it is.
April 21, 2025
Published originally in 1984, one of the last books to be edited by Toni Morrison before focusing on her own work, Fish Tails is a sexually-charged character study set between 1970s Detroit and New York. Unshamably hedonistic and chaotic, this book is delightfully messy. We're thrown into orgies, drugs, street life, and endless parties as Lewis Jones, our unhinged female protagonist, is often exploited and abused as she explores her own boundaries and desires. And while it is raunchy and boundary-pushing, it's incredibly tender whilst we bear witness to the undoing of Lewis.
After slipping into obscurity, hopefully, this reissue gets Fish Tails the attention it deserves. It's an excellent piece of work capturing something of a particular lifestyle during the 1970s that isn't really explored elsewhere.
*Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
After slipping into obscurity, hopefully, this reissue gets Fish Tails the attention it deserves. It's an excellent piece of work capturing something of a particular lifestyle during the 1970s that isn't really explored elsewhere.
*Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
May 27, 2025
Bizarre but mesmerizing the way a car accident is
May 9, 2025
3.5 stars rounded up for me. This is unlike anything I’ve ever read, and for that I’m grateful! Check it out if you love chaos, champagne, and a true hot girl!
July 17, 2025
More surprising and challenging than what I expected. The fragmentary style felt appropriate and really worked for me. Even 40 years later, still feels entirely unique.
June 22, 2025
sex sex sex! überraschender fall unzuverlässigen erzählens? außerdem musste ich ab und zu lachen bei den outfits ⌂
August 5, 2025
After discussing at book club, I realized I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I did, and I appreciated it more after learning about the author. Vignette-y, funny, and a whole lot of crazy.
October 2, 2025
Really not for me. I think it pulls most of its punches in favor of gratuitous shock factor.
May 6, 2025
Fish Tales by Nettie Jones
Pages 250 ~ 4 hours
Rating : 2/5 ⭐
Fish Tales promised prostitutes , pimps, drugs and 1970s NY. It delivered, but I was expecting plot also, which I only received a minimal amount of. Essentially this is a story of power and control. How we as people use sex, love and care to get what we need in this world. Plenty of sex and depravity in this one but not a whole lot of substance in my opinion.
My favorite part of this book was the afterward, learning how Nettie Jones came to write this book. How she based the characters off those she knew in real life I found fascinating, but I am a sucker for the writing process.
This is a 2/5 for me. Not a horrible way to pass the time, not a great way either.
Pages 250 ~ 4 hours
Rating : 2/5 ⭐
Fish Tales promised prostitutes , pimps, drugs and 1970s NY. It delivered, but I was expecting plot also, which I only received a minimal amount of. Essentially this is a story of power and control. How we as people use sex, love and care to get what we need in this world. Plenty of sex and depravity in this one but not a whole lot of substance in my opinion.
My favorite part of this book was the afterward, learning how Nettie Jones came to write this book. How she based the characters off those she knew in real life I found fascinating, but I am a sucker for the writing process.
This is a 2/5 for me. Not a horrible way to pass the time, not a great way either.
August 4, 2025
the first half fooled me into thinking the novel would be about a woman’s journey towards sexual liberation, told through various “orgyettes”… compared to the high of these opening chapters, the second half is like a throbbing hangover, revealing the somber void that is lewis’s life. so heartbreaking and disturbing, but also quite… humanizing, in the sense that i felt deeply for her and brook, their inability to escape the codependent chokehold that inevitably ruins their lives..
May 8, 2025
Awful! I'm so sorry, but this book is just a mess and all over the place. Ms. Nettie Jones is still alive and working on her 3rd novel. So, no disrespect. She's 84, but the book just wasn't good. Passs go!
April 2, 2025
Thank you so much to Virago and NetGalley for this advance ARC!
Between the bohemian demimonde of New York and the affluent Black community of Detroit in the 1970s, Lewis Jones is a party girl for the ages—a woman in her thirties who has reached a point of freedom, confidence, and mayhem. She is supported in her adventures, in every way, by her husband, Woody. She is accompanied by her friend Kitty Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style and a knack for finding all the best spots. She soaks in baths of champagne, powders her nose with cocaine, wakes up on silk sheets with a variety of lovers. And then she is finally, truly upended by the handsome, erudite, often cruel Brook—a man who won’t tolerate her attempts to take control.
Nettie Jones is a great writer. Fish Tales reminds me a lot of Corregidora by Gayl Jones in a good way, the writing about 70s Black America, both sharp and frank and brilliant. Fish Tales is a party story, a Gatsby style champagne fuelled tale of opulence, desire, touching on race and sexuality in the process. It’s a fun novel that is pretty fast paced and there is a lot to take in. We meet Lewis Jones in her early years and watch as she is quickly picked up by predatory older men. Further in we see a different side to Jones, a woman unafraid to call a phone number and ask for a couple of male hookers. I think in the present we often don’t imagine women of the 60s and 70s being so unashamed in their pleasures and desires, and Fish Tales makes this a refreshing take.
Formatting wise, I really enjoyed the short chapters. I think that was a perfect device for this novel, being so short with so many characters to meet, the briefness of the chapters allow you to see a snapshot of Jones’s relationships, just the perfect amount to understand the people in her life, how she feels about them and the impact they create.
I love that ‘forgotten’ classics like Fish Tales are being reprinted for the modern reader. This is a loud, look-at-me, understand-me story that should be read by millions of women. For a book written in the 70s it is strikingly current in its themes of sex, drugs, alcohol, and love.
I loved the author’s note at the end, confirming that Nettie Jones had met Gayl Jones – who inspired her to write! I won’t spoil it but I loved understanding Jones’ reasonings for writing Fish Tales and what it means to her.
Between the bohemian demimonde of New York and the affluent Black community of Detroit in the 1970s, Lewis Jones is a party girl for the ages—a woman in her thirties who has reached a point of freedom, confidence, and mayhem. She is supported in her adventures, in every way, by her husband, Woody. She is accompanied by her friend Kitty Kat, a gay hustler with impeccable style and a knack for finding all the best spots. She soaks in baths of champagne, powders her nose with cocaine, wakes up on silk sheets with a variety of lovers. And then she is finally, truly upended by the handsome, erudite, often cruel Brook—a man who won’t tolerate her attempts to take control.
Nettie Jones is a great writer. Fish Tales reminds me a lot of Corregidora by Gayl Jones in a good way, the writing about 70s Black America, both sharp and frank and brilliant. Fish Tales is a party story, a Gatsby style champagne fuelled tale of opulence, desire, touching on race and sexuality in the process. It’s a fun novel that is pretty fast paced and there is a lot to take in. We meet Lewis Jones in her early years and watch as she is quickly picked up by predatory older men. Further in we see a different side to Jones, a woman unafraid to call a phone number and ask for a couple of male hookers. I think in the present we often don’t imagine women of the 60s and 70s being so unashamed in their pleasures and desires, and Fish Tales makes this a refreshing take.
Formatting wise, I really enjoyed the short chapters. I think that was a perfect device for this novel, being so short with so many characters to meet, the briefness of the chapters allow you to see a snapshot of Jones’s relationships, just the perfect amount to understand the people in her life, how she feels about them and the impact they create.
I love that ‘forgotten’ classics like Fish Tales are being reprinted for the modern reader. This is a loud, look-at-me, understand-me story that should be read by millions of women. For a book written in the 70s it is strikingly current in its themes of sex, drugs, alcohol, and love.
I loved the author’s note at the end, confirming that Nettie Jones had met Gayl Jones – who inspired her to write! I won’t spoil it but I loved understanding Jones’ reasonings for writing Fish Tales and what it means to her.
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