Nice Girls and Other Stories

by Cezarija Abartis

"I admire the range and depth of her characterization and the often surprising twists with which these stories unfold. An exhilarating debut."—Margot Livesy

"Covering the territory between memoir and fiction, these deft and accurate stories have a rare honesty."—Ursula K. Le Guin

Here are stories about girls and women–children, students, teachers, wives, mothers, and daughters—navigating cultural and romantic minefields. Told with humor and insight, many stories take place in the 1950s and 1960s and are filled with rich details from those eras.

Cezarija Abartis was born in Bollstadt, Germany in 1945 and came to the U.S. in 1950. She is a professor of English at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota.

144 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Born in Bollstadt, Germany of Lithuanian parents in 1945, then came to the U.S. in 1950 and grew up in Pittsburgh. She is a professor of English at St. Cloud State University in Minnesota and has received dozens of honors and awards for her teaching & writing. Sbe has published in The Quarterly, City Pages, Manoa, Whetstone, Twilight Zone Magazine, Beloit Fiction Journal, and fifty other magazines. One of her stories was read on NPR's The Sound of Writing, 1995.

Reviews

[Cristian · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story collection offers vignettes of several women (some of whom appear in more than one story, others not) as teenagers during the 1950s to middle age at the end of the century. In them, Abartis writes about school crushes, sibling rivalries, college aspirations, pregnancies, marriages, divorces... in a deceivingly simple and engaging prose with great character studies that got me hooked from page 1. One only wishes more was included on the lives of the characters instead of fleeting moments of their lives, next time I re-read this I'll try to read it by grouping the stories from each character instead of in a linear way.

[Martha Hood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book of somewhat interconnected stories of girls and women hit the spot for me. The characters' tales are told with deftness and spirit. It's about choices taken, choices not, and choices denied. Quiet, spare, and haunting.

Oh, and the cover is astonishing. I love it.