What do you think?
Rate this book
Wait Till You See Me Dance
“Deb Olin Unferth is one of the most daring and entertaining writers in America today.” —Sam Lipsyte
For more than ten years, Deb Olin Unferth has been publishing startlingly askew, wickedly comic, cutting-edge fiction in magazines such as Granta, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, NOON, and The Paris Review. Her stories are revered by some of the best American writers of our day, but until now there has been no stand-alone collection of her short fiction.
Wait Till You See Me Dance consists of several extraordinary longer stories as well as a selection of intoxicating very short stories. In the chilling “The First Full Thought of Her Life,” a shooter gets in position while a young girl climbs a sand dune. In “Voltaire Night,” students compete to tell a story about the worst thing that ever happened to them. In “Stay Where You Are,” two oblivious travelers in Central America are kidnapped by a gunman they assume to be an insurgent—but the gunman has his own problems.
An Unferth story lures you in with a voice that seems amiable and lighthearted, but it swerves in sudden and surprising ways that reveal, in terrifying clarity, the rage, despair, and profound mournfulness that have taken up residence at the heart of the American dream. These stories often take place in an exaggerated or heightened reality, a quality that is reminiscent of the work of Donald Barthelme, Lorrie Moore, and George Saunders, but in Unferth’s unforgettable collection she carves out territory that is entirely her own.
For more than ten years, Deb Olin Unferth has been publishing startlingly askew, wickedly comic, cutting-edge fiction in magazines such as Granta, Harper’s Magazine, McSweeney’s, NOON, and The Paris Review. Her stories are revered by some of the best American writers of our day, but until now there has been no stand-alone collection of her short fiction.
Wait Till You See Me Dance consists of several extraordinary longer stories as well as a selection of intoxicating very short stories. In the chilling “The First Full Thought of Her Life,” a shooter gets in position while a young girl climbs a sand dune. In “Voltaire Night,” students compete to tell a story about the worst thing that ever happened to them. In “Stay Where You Are,” two oblivious travelers in Central America are kidnapped by a gunman they assume to be an insurgent—but the gunman has his own problems.
An Unferth story lures you in with a voice that seems amiable and lighthearted, but it swerves in sudden and surprising ways that reveal, in terrifying clarity, the rage, despair, and profound mournfulness that have taken up residence at the heart of the American dream. These stories often take place in an exaggerated or heightened reality, a quality that is reminiscent of the work of Donald Barthelme, Lorrie Moore, and George Saunders, but in Unferth’s unforgettable collection she carves out territory that is entirely her own.
200 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 21, 2017
45 people are currently reading
2152 people want to read
About the author
Deb Olin Unferth
25 books229 followersDeb Olin Unferth is the author of six books, including the novel Barn 8 and the story collection Wait Till You See Me Dance. Her work has appeared in Harper’s, The Paris Review, Granta, Vice, NOON, the New York Times, and McSweeney’s. She has received a Guggenheim fellowship, a Creative Capital grant, three Pushcart Prizes, and was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. An associate professor at the University of Texas in Austin, she also runs the Pen City Writers, a creative writing program at a penitentiary in southern Texas.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews
August 24, 2017
Update 8-24-17
WTYSMD landed on this 10 Best list at Vulture. com (it's the only one of the ten I've read, but I thought it worth noting here) http://www.vulture.com/article/best-b...
The title reeled me in, but the stories earned my respect.
This collection is divided into four sections. Parts 2 and 4 are comprised of one- to four-page flash and micro fiction, some of which I liked, although a few were a little too abbreviated, experimental and/or incomprehensible. Parts 1 and 3 contain short stories of conventional length and exceptional quality. Four of these are so good, I’m giving the whole book five stars just on the strength of those alone.
My favorites:
Pet
Wait Till You See Me Dance
Stay Where You Are
Voltaire Nights
I was reading a library copy, but I may have to buy myself one sooner or later so I can admire these again whenever I want to.
If you need further persuasion that Unferth knows what she's doing, there is a blurb on the back of the book praising her stories as "smart, fast, full of heart, and distinctive in voice" and Unferth herself as "an important and exciting talent" by none other than George Saunders. George Saunders!
WTYSMD landed on this 10 Best list at Vulture. com (it's the only one of the ten I've read, but I thought it worth noting here) http://www.vulture.com/article/best-b...
The title reeled me in, but the stories earned my respect.
This collection is divided into four sections. Parts 2 and 4 are comprised of one- to four-page flash and micro fiction, some of which I liked, although a few were a little too abbreviated, experimental and/or incomprehensible. Parts 1 and 3 contain short stories of conventional length and exceptional quality. Four of these are so good, I’m giving the whole book five stars just on the strength of those alone.
My favorites:
Pet
Wait Till You See Me Dance
Stay Where You Are
Voltaire Nights
I was reading a library copy, but I may have to buy myself one sooner or later so I can admire these again whenever I want to.
If you need further persuasion that Unferth knows what she's doing, there is a blurb on the back of the book praising her stories as "smart, fast, full of heart, and distinctive in voice" and Unferth herself as "an important and exciting talent" by none other than George Saunders. George Saunders!
May 17, 2017
Soooo many good stories. My favorites:
Wait Till You See Me Dance
Stay Where You Are
My Daughter Debbie
Voltaire Night
Mr. Simmons Takes a Prisoner
Welcome
The Magicians
I like the longer stories better but there were only a few that I thought might be cut altogether (out of three dozen or so). If anyone can illuminate me on "A Crossroads," for example, I'd be interested.
In short, AMAZING. SO GOOD. GOD I LOVE THIS WOMAN.
Wait Till You See Me Dance
Stay Where You Are
My Daughter Debbie
Voltaire Night
Mr. Simmons Takes a Prisoner
Welcome
The Magicians
I like the longer stories better but there were only a few that I thought might be cut altogether (out of three dozen or so). If anyone can illuminate me on "A Crossroads," for example, I'd be interested.
In short, AMAZING. SO GOOD. GOD I LOVE THIS WOMAN.
April 27, 2017
This woman's writing voice sounds more like me than I do.
January 27, 2018
This short story book was recommended to me from another avid reader on Instagram, I am so happy she pointed me in the direction of this author.
The shorter stories are as good as the longer of them within this publication. I've not heard of this author before but I have discovered I love how she relates her stories.
My favourite was My Daughter Debbie, a very good story well weaved.
These stories explore what its like to be a woman existing outside societal expectations, getting older, unlikable or just simply being a single Mother or a spinster.
I found some of these stories to be fascinating.
September 29, 2017
It's hard to describe Deb's unique style of story writing. It's kind of brittle and sad at times and weird and silly at other times. There's a wordly quality as well but it seems delivered with a shy shrug. This book combines some of her cool flash fictions with some more traditional-length tales. I was especially blown away by My Daughter Debbie (is she writing about herself in her mom's voice here? LOL), Voltaire Night (holy shit, this one's good!), and Mr. Simmons Takes a Prisoner.
December 4, 2017
The long stories in this collection are its strength, and the micro stories each reveal some small emotion or observation. All in all, Unferth shows imagination and craft. The title story is worth the price of the book alone.
December 6, 2021
I could read Deb Olin Unferth all day.
January 1, 2018
These stories were so original in voice, observation, and form. Unferth disassembles, magnifies, re-arranges, and lights up the small moments in life like a kaleidoscope. I never knew what would come next. Reading WAIT TILL YOU SEE ME DANCE was a physical experience, a wake up call to the world around us. It seemed entirely appropriate that I was reading it when the bus driver slammed on the brakes and I was tossed into the aisle. Weeks later, I still have the bruises and am still thinking about WAIT....
March 23, 2017
I absolutely love the fiction of Deb Olin Unferth. In smart, spare prose she says so much. Her neurotic, loser characters are all of us as they tread their unsteady lives full of loneliness, ennui, and desperation. Unferth elevates mundane, domestic drama to new heights, making powerful existential statements in each of the 39 stories collected here. This is a writer at the top of her game — don't miss out!
December 15, 2017
What a delightful surprise!
Some of the stories are longish and some short short.
All are just right!
Some of the stories are longish and some short short.
All are just right!
September 12, 2024
Deb is so brilliant. This book is so brilliant.
July 31, 2020
"You would have thought that going through that would keep them together, and it did for a while, but humans go through all sorts of episodes, and it doesn't always settle their hearts" (58).
"...and she can't remember what there is to do in the world other than study screens of various sizes with various intentions" (88).
"...and she casts desperate looks at people on the streets and in shops, and she thinks, How do people fill their days? Are they unhappy, having to face their own brains so often and with such constancy?" (89).
"...they found themselves confronting a deep, colorless meaninglessness each day" (96).
"Sand is unhygienic, full of prehistoric infection" (126).
*The story "The First Full Thought of Her Life" is truly heart wrenching, though worth it despite the pain of doing so.
"...and she can't remember what there is to do in the world other than study screens of various sizes with various intentions" (88).
"...and she casts desperate looks at people on the streets and in shops, and she thinks, How do people fill their days? Are they unhappy, having to face their own brains so often and with such constancy?" (89).
"...they found themselves confronting a deep, colorless meaninglessness each day" (96).
"Sand is unhygienic, full of prehistoric infection" (126).
*The story "The First Full Thought of Her Life" is truly heart wrenching, though worth it despite the pain of doing so.
June 30, 2017
Loved Voltaire Night, Bride, Wait Till You See Me Dance. In fact I liked the two sections with the longer stories. There was more room there. But one of my favorite stories was only a short paragraph. It was called Fear of Trees, and it was about a man who was imprisoned for decades without seeing a single tree during the time, who is released and is freaked out by all the trees he sees around his house. It's my personal preference that makes me like the longer ones better. But, Unferth can write, and she can make a point in the shortest of stories. Love this collection.
December 19, 2022
Well written short stories full of desire and yearning. The endings for a lot of these fell flat to me. Not so much as because of where they arrive (which felt right) but because the language and sentences never seem to escape the former grasp of the sardonic, which undercuts I think a lot of the emotional resonance I was looking for (but which is also one of her strengths).
But I should say this may be more of what I want as a reader, that emotional punch, and that other readers may or will probably feel differently!
But I should say this may be more of what I want as a reader, that emotional punch, and that other readers may or will probably feel differently!
May 21, 2019
This story collection is a dreamy, bizarre romp through one of the dreamiest and most bizarre minds of our literary generation. Unferth leans unflinchingly into the strangeness of human existence, merrily tearing down fourth walls and shattering conventions as she goes. Personal favorite stories: "Wait Till You See Me Dance," "Mr. Simmons Takes a Prisoner," and "The First Full Thought of Her Life."
December 19, 2020
I read one of these stories in an earlier journal and was intrigued by the swerve. I have respect for this writing and think that earlier story and a few others are quite good. The rest I can do without. I always expect a range of reaction from myself for short story collections, so I don't mind weak pieces. I rate based on my favorites and how I react to the tone and throughline. In this case I found it depressing in a way that didn't resonate with me.
DNF/skipped around
DNF/skipped around
February 5, 2021
I think I would have loved this less if not for listening to the audiobook, because I would have missed out on Unferth's voice almost children's storybook style of reading. It made a lot of the stories much more uneasy, which I really enjoyed. This is a hard one to rec to people, but if you want to try something different, this is a great read.
April 3, 2017
(Won in a Goodreads Giveaway!) 3.5ish
August 21, 2019
3.5* witty, well written and quirky. this author is talented! BUT some stories felt pointless and noticeably less effective than the really good ones (Voltaire Night, The First Full Thought of Her Life). idk this took a turn for me!
October 1, 2024
Not so much "stories" as depressingly negative rambling; in places almost a stream-of-consciousness style of writing. Not for me. Yuck.
DNF @ 25%
DNF @ 25%
February 19, 2023
A few gems in this collection.
December 18, 2021
Not great!
December 26, 2018
I could see her becoming one of my favorite authors. Beautiful writing, lovely sense of humor. Short stories are hard, but I see a lot of potential and I can tell she has a definite voice and a lot to say. I would love to read other things written by her.
October 11, 2023
To read a collection such as this from a lesser known author is to mine for gold.
Amid the silt - and there will be silt - one hopes for gold in whatever size it appears.
There are very short stories here, so the gold may come in small flakes. Joining them are slightly longer pieces, where one hopes for a good size nugget to add some much-valued weight.
And a truly successful dive will yield something truly substantial. A fist-sized chunk of bouillon, a prize, a genuine treasure.
Readers will find all types in this wonderfully eclectic collection.
Let’s start with the genuine mother lode. For me, that was a longer piece titled “Voltaire Night.” Here, a professor of an adult education class hosts her students in a social event inspired by the title author’s CANDIDE, in which teacher and students share stories of the worst thing ever to happen to them.
We’ll reveal nothing else but to say, this modest and fairly undramatic story still feels huge at its conclusion. Some of the students’ reminiscences are silly, others more profound, and by evening’s end all leave with a shared understanding of each other. The reader, too, feels privileged to be among them.
Some of the other pieces are far less significant, some trifling, some baffling. But amidst these one might find a genuine treasure.
In one shorter work, “A Crossroads,” commuters who drive through a crowded downtown neighborhood clogged with honking cars, laundromats, and general noise, assume the family living in the middle of all this must surely be unhappy. But they are not unhappy. It is a single mother who loves having a house to call home, a back yard with a kiddie pool for her children, and the thought of how proud her mother would be of her to see her have all this.
That’s the good stuff, in collections such as these. The bits you can take in, see your own reflection in the rippling waters as you sift, delight in the tiny little treasure you find there.
That’s what you’ve been looking for.
That’s the real gold.
Amid the silt - and there will be silt - one hopes for gold in whatever size it appears.
There are very short stories here, so the gold may come in small flakes. Joining them are slightly longer pieces, where one hopes for a good size nugget to add some much-valued weight.
And a truly successful dive will yield something truly substantial. A fist-sized chunk of bouillon, a prize, a genuine treasure.
Readers will find all types in this wonderfully eclectic collection.
Let’s start with the genuine mother lode. For me, that was a longer piece titled “Voltaire Night.” Here, a professor of an adult education class hosts her students in a social event inspired by the title author’s CANDIDE, in which teacher and students share stories of the worst thing ever to happen to them.
We’ll reveal nothing else but to say, this modest and fairly undramatic story still feels huge at its conclusion. Some of the students’ reminiscences are silly, others more profound, and by evening’s end all leave with a shared understanding of each other. The reader, too, feels privileged to be among them.
Some of the other pieces are far less significant, some trifling, some baffling. But amidst these one might find a genuine treasure.
In one shorter work, “A Crossroads,” commuters who drive through a crowded downtown neighborhood clogged with honking cars, laundromats, and general noise, assume the family living in the middle of all this must surely be unhappy. But they are not unhappy. It is a single mother who loves having a house to call home, a back yard with a kiddie pool for her children, and the thought of how proud her mother would be of her to see her have all this.
That’s the good stuff, in collections such as these. The bits you can take in, see your own reflection in the rippling waters as you sift, delight in the tiny little treasure you find there.
That’s what you’ve been looking for.
That’s the real gold.
Read
October 10, 2017AN INTRODUCTION BY REBECCA SCHIFF
It makes sense that I’m introducing Deb Olin Unferth for Recommended Reading because I spend a lot of time recommending Deb Olin Unferth. I recommend her to students. I recommend her to friends. I recommend her to other writers. I recommend her because she’s one of the few fiction writers working today whose work is both poetic and funny, because she’s a sentence-level dazzler who knows how to tell a story.
“Wait Till You See Me Dance,” the title story in Unferth’s second collection, has elements of her earlier fiction — thought riffs about existence, sentences that remake the language — but takes those elements and gives them new force and meaning through subtle, Unferthian storytelling. In this story, an adjunct professor keeps repeating to her English 99 class that their final “will be graded by outside sources,” a phrase that absolves her of responsibility. Yet, she confides in the reader: “These outside sources were supposed to be mysterious, were maybe not even people, were maybe just God, but I happened to know were simply whichever teacher or two the office assistant lined up to do it.”
The idea that God is an outside source would be funny on its own, but the question of who gets to grade the final exams, of whether we are responsible for each other’s fates, of whether human beings can affect each other at all, becomes central to the story. The professor, for her own reasons, decides to change one student’s fate. What happens next keeps surprising, turning and turning again on Unferth’s distinctive logic. She even weaves in references to It’s a Wonderful Life (without ever mentioning it by name), a movie that I now realize deserves a closer reading, an Unferth reading. I feel lucky to be alive at the same time as Deb, to be in the same field, because her writing reminds me of what’s possible in fiction. Suspense can grow out of sentences. Being playful on the page can be a matter of life and death.
It makes sense that I’m introducing Deb Olin Unferth for Recommended Reading because I spend a lot of time recommending Deb Olin Unferth. I recommend her to students. I recommend her to friends. I recommend her to other writers. I recommend her because she’s one of the few fiction writers working today whose work is both poetic and funny, because she’s a sentence-level dazzler who knows how to tell a story.
“Wait Till You See Me Dance,” the title story in Unferth’s second collection, has elements of her earlier fiction — thought riffs about existence, sentences that remake the language — but takes those elements and gives them new force and meaning through subtle, Unferthian storytelling. In this story, an adjunct professor keeps repeating to her English 99 class that their final “will be graded by outside sources,” a phrase that absolves her of responsibility. Yet, she confides in the reader: “These outside sources were supposed to be mysterious, were maybe not even people, were maybe just God, but I happened to know were simply whichever teacher or two the office assistant lined up to do it.”
The idea that God is an outside source would be funny on its own, but the question of who gets to grade the final exams, of whether we are responsible for each other’s fates, of whether human beings can affect each other at all, becomes central to the story. The professor, for her own reasons, decides to change one student’s fate. What happens next keeps surprising, turning and turning again on Unferth’s distinctive logic. She even weaves in references to It’s a Wonderful Life (without ever mentioning it by name), a movie that I now realize deserves a closer reading, an Unferth reading. I feel lucky to be alive at the same time as Deb, to be in the same field, because her writing reminds me of what’s possible in fiction. Suspense can grow out of sentences. Being playful on the page can be a matter of life and death.
August 21, 2017
2.9 stars. There are about 40 'stories' in the collection of which about a half dozen are greater than two pages. The rest are not, and can be as short as a paragraph.
For the stories that are over two pages, they are mostly really good; the adjective Lucia Berlin-esque springs to mind. The author has a gift for identifying and describing dysfunction, which is, after all, a universal experience. The weaving of time and point-of-view in The First Full Thought of Her Life is memorable. I expect you will see Voltaire Night anthologized in the future.
However the indulgence required to plow through the little vignettes trying to find something redeeming is more than I can muster most of the time. Also distinction between fiction and memoir is in some cases as gauzy or non-existent (I expect) as possible (although this was an issue for Berlin as well.)
I really sought this book out, and in the end it was a good deal less than I was hoping for.
For the stories that are over two pages, they are mostly really good; the adjective Lucia Berlin-esque springs to mind. The author has a gift for identifying and describing dysfunction, which is, after all, a universal experience. The weaving of time and point-of-view in The First Full Thought of Her Life is memorable. I expect you will see Voltaire Night anthologized in the future.
However the indulgence required to plow through the little vignettes trying to find something redeeming is more than I can muster most of the time. Also distinction between fiction and memoir is in some cases as gauzy or non-existent (I expect) as possible (although this was an issue for Berlin as well.)
I really sought this book out, and in the end it was a good deal less than I was hoping for.
November 21, 2017
I generally like flash fiction, so I was expecting to (or at least hoping I'd) disagree with the bulk of the reviews here. Instead I find myself agreeing - Unferth's longer stories are the stronger ones. That isn't to say that I can fault her, really; she's a very strong writer. It's just that some stories didn't hit the mark with me. Sometimes I didn't really get it, sometimes I thought it was a bit shallow (so I probably didn't get it), sometimes the characters I spent barely a paragraph with annoyed me to distraction. One time that was combined with being too concerned for the dog to have enjoyed it even if I'd liked the characters.
Based on the descriptions alone I'd expected to like "Voltaire Night" the least, but it ended up being one of my favourites. "Wait Till You See Me Dance" and "The First Full Thought of Her Life" were also highlights. I won't be tempted to re-read most of the flash stories here, but I'd definitely return to these three.
Based on the descriptions alone I'd expected to like "Voltaire Night" the least, but it ended up being one of my favourites. "Wait Till You See Me Dance" and "The First Full Thought of Her Life" were also highlights. I won't be tempted to re-read most of the flash stories here, but I'd definitely return to these three.
September 18, 2017
There are an infinite amount of reasons to love this collection. I could write thousands of words about its power. It is everything I aspire to be and to write. Unferth has an uncanny ability to make you laugh and cry and wallow in ennui in the most celebratory of manners. This collection is exquisite. I have already reread it multiple times, and it is still as potent on each read. She is a master.
September 30, 2017
Flash fiction, or microstories, seems deceptively easy to write. Stories of only one or two pages. But it takes an astute writer to pull it off because you need to achieve a certain sense of completion--some full vignette or emotional experience--within that short of space. Deb Olin Unferth writes excellent prose, even if not all of the stories resonated for me. However, at times, she can be so wonderfully sharp in her humor--"An Opera Season," for instance, is a treasure.
December 30, 2017
Tremendous. Just tremendous. It’s not often I’m reading a story and say aloud, “Wow,” and it’s even less often that I star over ¾ of the stories in the table of contents with the red pen to denote awesomeness and still less likely is having to use multiple red stars on multiple stories because somehow these are beyond awesome, beyond brilliant and have turned simple words into something that is truly stunning. But it just happened. Best book I’ve read in years. Easily.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 101 reviews