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Back Talk
From an award-winning debut writer, a beautiful and unapologetic collection of stories about women’s unexpressed desires and needs, and the unexpected ways they resurface
In “Floor Plans,” a woman at the end of her marriage tests her power when she inadvertently befriends the neighbor trying to buy her apartment. In “Appetite,” a sixteen-year old grieving her mother’s death experiences first love and questions how much more heartbreak she and her family can endure. In “Dinosaurs,” a recent widower and a young babysitter help each other navigate how much they have to give—and how much they can take—from the people around them.
Through stories that are at once empathetic and unexpected, these women and girls defiantly push the boundaries between selfishness and self-possession. Fantastically written with a fresh voice and bold honesty, Back Talk examines the cultural narrowness of what it means to want as a woman.
In “Floor Plans,” a woman at the end of her marriage tests her power when she inadvertently befriends the neighbor trying to buy her apartment. In “Appetite,” a sixteen-year old grieving her mother’s death experiences first love and questions how much more heartbreak she and her family can endure. In “Dinosaurs,” a recent widower and a young babysitter help each other navigate how much they have to give—and how much they can take—from the people around them.
Through stories that are at once empathetic and unexpected, these women and girls defiantly push the boundaries between selfishness and self-possession. Fantastically written with a fresh voice and bold honesty, Back Talk examines the cultural narrowness of what it means to want as a woman.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 6, 2018
114 people are currently reading
3952 people want to read
About the author
Danielle Lazarin
4 books90 followersDanielle Lazarin's debut collection of short stories, BACK TALK, is out now from Penguin Books.
Danielle's short stories have won grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Glimmer Train Family Matters Award, and Hopwood Awards. She is graduate of the writing programs of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. She lives in her native New York City with her family.
Danielle's short stories have won grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Glimmer Train Family Matters Award, and Hopwood Awards. She is graduate of the writing programs of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. She lives in her native New York City with her family.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 154 reviews
October 18, 2016
Danielle Lazarin’s Back Talk is deceptively quiet but packs a powerful punch—much like the girls and women in its pages. The stories in this collection batter at the boundaries of female desire—not just for sex, but for intimacy, for visibility, for agency. They talk back to the idea that stories about women are “domestic,” burrowing deep to find wildness and a smoldering fury beneath. The best collection I've read in years, from a phenomenal new talent.
June 6, 2017
I'm lucky, I'm married to the author so have actually read this book already. But you can pre-order it today and have it in your hands in February!
March 3, 2018
In general, I’ve never really been a fan of the short story genre. When reading fiction, I prefer either novellas or full-length novels because an important part of the reading experience for me is being able to connect with the characters I’m reading about in some way, which I personally find very difficult (sometimes even nearly impossible) to do with short stories due to the little amount of time I get to spend with each character. Because of this, I usually go into short story collections with a slightly lowered set of expectations and rely more on the plot to drive each of the stories forward – a compensation of sorts for the already anticipated lack of character development. In this regard, short story collections that have multiple linked stories and/or the same characters appearing in more than one story usually work better for me and this is often what I look for when I approach short stories, though of course I know that this type of format is more of an exception than the norm.
This particular short story collection was one that I had high hopes for due to all the hype surrounding it and also all the highly-rated reviews (not just on Goodreads but elsewhere as well). Unfortunately though, turns out this collection was not for me, as I struggled through most of it and had a really hard time connecting with the stories as well as the book as a whole. The biggest issue for me was the lack of a coherent plot and/or purpose to each of the stories, which made them seem all over the place to me and also hard to follow. Perhaps I am too used to all narratives (whether short stories or full length novels) having a discernible beginning, middle, and ending (or at least some type of closure to the story) and being driven either by characters or plot or both, so that the narrative is accessible to the average reader. The stories in this particular collection were written in a way that didn’t follow any of these patterns -- some didn’t have a beginning or ending and some – a few particularly short ones that were only 1 to 2 pages long – didn’t have all 3 (beginning, middle, ending), which honestly made no sense to me. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this correctly but the closest analogy I could think of is one related to movies (which I guess is appropriate given it’s Oscars weekend as I write this) – basically it felt like one of those segments we sometimes see in the awards shows where they mash together a hodgepodge of scenes from a dozen or so different movies into one extended video clip, with the goal of relaying a particular message / theme / idea. It seemed to me that the main goal of each story was to relay particular aspects of womanhood – of what it meant to be a female in modern times – by capturing specific, isolated moments in various women’s lives and exploring their emotions, feelings, thoughts through it. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this approach and judging from the reviews, many of the readers out there were able to properly appreciate this method of storytelling so this is likely one of those “it’s not the book, it’s me” instances. I’m also the type of reader who doesn’t like to be left hanging when I read books (which is one reason why I rarely DNF a book once I’ve started it) – so with every story in this collection having an “ending” that just drops off abruptly (and several times unexpectedly), it was a bit unsatisfying and I found myself wishing there was more to each story than the snippet that was given.
Despite the obvious issues I had with the format of this collection, I couldn’t bring myself to rate this lower than 3 stars because there were definitely other things that I liked and overall, I do feel that this collection was above average in terms of the writing. There was a bold honesty to the writing that was refreshing and a few of the stories I truly did enjoy reading. I think if this author were to write a novella or full length novel, I would most definitely read it, as I liked the prose itself and the style, it’s just that the short story format in this instance didn’t work for me. Again, as I always say in these instances where I’m clearly the outlier with certain books, I suggest also checking out other reviews for a more well-rounded perspective before deciding whether to give this one a try.
Received ARC from Penguin Books via Edelweiss
This particular short story collection was one that I had high hopes for due to all the hype surrounding it and also all the highly-rated reviews (not just on Goodreads but elsewhere as well). Unfortunately though, turns out this collection was not for me, as I struggled through most of it and had a really hard time connecting with the stories as well as the book as a whole. The biggest issue for me was the lack of a coherent plot and/or purpose to each of the stories, which made them seem all over the place to me and also hard to follow. Perhaps I am too used to all narratives (whether short stories or full length novels) having a discernible beginning, middle, and ending (or at least some type of closure to the story) and being driven either by characters or plot or both, so that the narrative is accessible to the average reader. The stories in this particular collection were written in a way that didn’t follow any of these patterns -- some didn’t have a beginning or ending and some – a few particularly short ones that were only 1 to 2 pages long – didn’t have all 3 (beginning, middle, ending), which honestly made no sense to me. I’m not sure if I’m explaining this correctly but the closest analogy I could think of is one related to movies (which I guess is appropriate given it’s Oscars weekend as I write this) – basically it felt like one of those segments we sometimes see in the awards shows where they mash together a hodgepodge of scenes from a dozen or so different movies into one extended video clip, with the goal of relaying a particular message / theme / idea. It seemed to me that the main goal of each story was to relay particular aspects of womanhood – of what it meant to be a female in modern times – by capturing specific, isolated moments in various women’s lives and exploring their emotions, feelings, thoughts through it. Of course, there is nothing wrong with this approach and judging from the reviews, many of the readers out there were able to properly appreciate this method of storytelling so this is likely one of those “it’s not the book, it’s me” instances. I’m also the type of reader who doesn’t like to be left hanging when I read books (which is one reason why I rarely DNF a book once I’ve started it) – so with every story in this collection having an “ending” that just drops off abruptly (and several times unexpectedly), it was a bit unsatisfying and I found myself wishing there was more to each story than the snippet that was given.
Despite the obvious issues I had with the format of this collection, I couldn’t bring myself to rate this lower than 3 stars because there were definitely other things that I liked and overall, I do feel that this collection was above average in terms of the writing. There was a bold honesty to the writing that was refreshing and a few of the stories I truly did enjoy reading. I think if this author were to write a novella or full length novel, I would most definitely read it, as I liked the prose itself and the style, it’s just that the short story format in this instance didn’t work for me. Again, as I always say in these instances where I’m clearly the outlier with certain books, I suggest also checking out other reviews for a more well-rounded perspective before deciding whether to give this one a try.
Received ARC from Penguin Books via Edelweiss
November 11, 2018
These are well-done stories about young woman - separately I liked each story well enough - but the more I read, the more they blended together and seemed the same. Now that I'm finished, I can't remember any of them.
November 24, 2017
The women in this collection of stories are not the same, but they do share a set of characteristics: white women, middle-class women, women who live in New York or thereabouts. When something is set in New York it often goes with the highs and the lows: the rich, the poor, the billionaire, the addict, the socialite, the prostitute. But Lazarin is more focused on the heightened emotions in the everyday lives of everyday women.
Falling in love, raising children, breaking up, fighting with parents, most women will be able to find each page filled with a familiar emotion. And while this all sounds like typical stuff, I found myself surprised at how rarely I actually see women like this depicted in "quote" literary fiction. These women are in commercial fiction, their love affairs and parenting dilemmas are regular fodder there, but we have this tendency to say that these women and their lives belong only in that kind of space. They can star in a Lifetime movie but not a dramatic indie film. Their stories can be melodrama but not literature. Lazarin's stories work because she treats her characters with a seriousness that is usually reserved for men, a respect for their emotions and their experiences that is sadly still unfamiliar to many readers.
After a few stories you develop a trust with this book the way you'd trust a friend. You know each story is going to give you something real, something solid, something you can feel deep within you. You know it will not pull punches. You know the prose will be clear. You know you will see something familiar and true.
(Note: I'm twitter friends with Danielle, which has more to do with me reading this book in the first place because I was excited to see what she's written, than with my review but is still worth noting.)
Falling in love, raising children, breaking up, fighting with parents, most women will be able to find each page filled with a familiar emotion. And while this all sounds like typical stuff, I found myself surprised at how rarely I actually see women like this depicted in "quote" literary fiction. These women are in commercial fiction, their love affairs and parenting dilemmas are regular fodder there, but we have this tendency to say that these women and their lives belong only in that kind of space. They can star in a Lifetime movie but not a dramatic indie film. Their stories can be melodrama but not literature. Lazarin's stories work because she treats her characters with a seriousness that is usually reserved for men, a respect for their emotions and their experiences that is sadly still unfamiliar to many readers.
After a few stories you develop a trust with this book the way you'd trust a friend. You know each story is going to give you something real, something solid, something you can feel deep within you. You know it will not pull punches. You know the prose will be clear. You know you will see something familiar and true.
(Note: I'm twitter friends with Danielle, which has more to do with me reading this book in the first place because I was excited to see what she's written, than with my review but is still worth noting.)
February 24, 2018
Hm.. this book was a 2-star for me, but I can see why it'd be a 4 or 5 star to other people. It's objectively well-written and every sentence feels like it has a purpose. I just couldn't connect with it at all and I didn't really feel anything as I read it. I should have known what I was getting into, because in general I don't enjoy short story collections, AND I knew these were stories about middle-class white woman at various stages of their lives, which didn't sound exciting to me. But both Julie Buntin and Celeste Ng blurbed this book, so I couldn't resist. Every story is pretty low-stakes and just describes a specific moment, or specific episodes in a woman's life and ties it in with her general perspective and sense of self. I like my introspection and plotless novels, but I couldn't get anything out of this. I think certain people would enjoy this, but it wasn't for me. You might like it if you enjoyed My Name is Lucy Barton, which I mostly certainly did not.
August 21, 2019
Τα διηγήματα είναι ό,τι καλύτερο για το καλοκαίρι και ειδικά για την παραλία. Διαβάζεις ένα, ρίχνεις μία βουτιά, διαβάζεις άλλο ένα, τρως ένα φρουτάκι και ούτω καθεξής. Εξού και το Back talk μετά τον Καλβίνο. Εδώ όμως τα πράγματα δεν ήταν και τόσο ρόδινα και θα εξηγήσω τον λόγο χωρίς πολύ μπλα μπλα-όπως και η συγγραφέας. Όλες οι ηρωίδες ήταν λευκές γυναίκες που ανήκαν στην μεσαία τάξη, μεταξύ 30 και 40 και παρότι η κάθε μία αντιμετώπιζε διαφορετικό πρόβλημα είχαν όλες την ίδια φωνή, προσωπικότητα και ψυχοσύνθεση ώστε έμοιαζε να διαβάζεις μονίμως για το ίδιο άτομο και όχι για 16 διαφορετικές γυναίκες. Φάουλ δεύτερο: η συγγραφέας άφηνε πολλά πράγματα να εννοηθούν ή και να μην εννοηθούν. Δέχθηκε σεξουαλική παρενόχληση η ηρωίδα ως παιδί ή δεν δέχθηκε; Ο άντρας της πέθανε σε τροχαίο ή δεν πέθανε, ή μήπως ζει ακόμα; Το ίδιο και με το τέλος κάθε διηγήματος. Όλα αναπάντητα, μετέωρα και καλυμμένα με ένα πέπλο ομίχλης. Πολύ... δήθεν. Ευτυχώς το πήρα από μεταχειρισμένα κοψοχρονιά.
Αστεράκι ενα.
Αστεράκι ενα.
Read
February 9, 2018Review coming soon at another outlet, so I won't write too much here, but this is a collection of 16 stories about young women (from young girls to mid thirties) who are navigating the unscripted aspects of their lives - the friendships and romances and family bonds that don't seem to work out the way they "should." Don't expect too much plot; these stories are quiet snapshots of emotional ambivalence, of women who don't quite trust their own feelings because they can't fit them neatly into pre-determined categories. Like with most collections, some stories are far more memorable than others (and I think the opening story is one of the weakest, so don't let that put you off the rest of the collection if you feel the same way), but this is very much My Kind of Book, and I can't wait to follow the rest of Lazarin's career.
June 29, 2018
It is a debut collection centred around private lives of young white middle-class women. Broadly all the stories are either related to the coming of the age /first love or break-ups of long-term relationships between 30-somethings. Many stories are set in New York; some - in San Francisco and Paris. The sense of place is tangible and adds a flavour to the narrative. I liked very much the coming of the age stories - they all convey this atmosphere of insecurity in your own thoughts and body and the rawness of the feelings. The story of the later life i found less successful. Overall the strength of the collection is how easy one can relate to the protagonists (that is in some cases assuming the similar background); but the weakness is its quite narrow focus; after a while the stories feel quite repetitive. Also I found all her heroines relatively passive - just looking how the events are unravelling around their lives without a particular desire to intervene and influence their course. It might be intentional, but i would prefer some variation in their attitudes. The writer's voice is quite promising and authentic. So I hope she would extend the variety of schemes and characters in her future work.
February 18, 2018
Rating 3.5
If I have to describe this book with one word would be WOMANHOOD.
In this stories collection you will find a women's growth, a women's desire, a women dealing with divorce or an affair or the death of her mother or falling apart from her best friend.
Probably the idea was that the stories wouldn't have a begging nor an end, is more the sequence of life's events and how this woman deal with it, so you won't find 'happy endings' is more the acceptance of who the person is and how to live with it.
I wouldn't say they're bad stories, I found them interesting and refreshing, however I didn't find the connection within the stories that you expect find to enjoy a book.
One of the things that enjoy was the perspective of New York, that is not the glamourous city you see in the movies but a place with flaws and discomfort too, I found that interesting.
Overall I think is a good collection of stories, it will make you consider womanhood from a different perspective.
Setting: Mostly New York
If I have to describe this book with one word would be WOMANHOOD.
In this stories collection you will find a women's growth, a women's desire, a women dealing with divorce or an affair or the death of her mother or falling apart from her best friend.
Probably the idea was that the stories wouldn't have a begging nor an end, is more the sequence of life's events and how this woman deal with it, so you won't find 'happy endings' is more the acceptance of who the person is and how to live with it.
I wouldn't say they're bad stories, I found them interesting and refreshing, however I didn't find the connection within the stories that you expect find to enjoy a book.
One of the things that enjoy was the perspective of New York, that is not the glamourous city you see in the movies but a place with flaws and discomfort too, I found that interesting.
Overall I think is a good collection of stories, it will make you consider womanhood from a different perspective.
Setting: Mostly New York
January 3, 2019
I liked this, but that is truly the extent of it, if not even pushing it a little bit. I finished it because I was intrigued and entertained enough, but I just kept waiting for some hidden theme or thing that just really made the stories come together or really make much of any sense lol. Every single time a story ended, I was like "ok?" lol. I understand they are short stories, so they aren't supposed to get some huge plot or story line across, but to me, there would be some point to it being written or something at the end that made me go "hmm". I still enjoyed it though somehow. I appreciated the stories for what they were, even if they did kind of seem like pointless tidbits into these women's lives. They were EXTREMELY well written, and I really felt immersed in the stories. I just still felt "ok?" afterward. This makes me excited to read more short stories though just because what an interesting concept. I'm pretty sure this is the first short stories book that I have actually finished.
February 12, 2018
Review originally posted on my blog : https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blo...
I often find myself watching people--in the doctor's office waiting room, at the grocery store, as I drive around town. Now and then, I can't help wondering about their lives and what brought them to that particular moment. In that kindly voyeuristic way, Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin is a collection of short stories that feature women and girls. Marriage, friendship, motherhood and other family relationships are explored in thoughtful and compelling prose.
I enjoyed reading Back Talk but as I go through the stories again to write my review, I find that I'm struggling to find the right words to explain how I feel about it. I mentioned it to a friend who suggested that the book might just be that--an enjoyable read and nothing more. But I don't think so. It's desperately trying to be more.
Most of the women in the stories feel like they are just barely hanging on. They date. They care for their children. They visit their parents. No one is angry or vindictive or mean. They're all just quietly resigned to lost friendships and marriages breaking up and not finding the right partner. And it's very sad and lonely. A quiet resignation. And while I didn't exactly find myself within any of the stories, I recognized the emotion.
Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that I did and do like Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin. It's a meaningful collection of stories that remind us that we're all struggling. We're all trying to find love and understanding and a place to fit in this world. Perhaps if we remember that, we can all be a little more kind and thoughtful to those around us.
I often find myself watching people--in the doctor's office waiting room, at the grocery store, as I drive around town. Now and then, I can't help wondering about their lives and what brought them to that particular moment. In that kindly voyeuristic way, Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin is a collection of short stories that feature women and girls. Marriage, friendship, motherhood and other family relationships are explored in thoughtful and compelling prose.
I enjoyed reading Back Talk but as I go through the stories again to write my review, I find that I'm struggling to find the right words to explain how I feel about it. I mentioned it to a friend who suggested that the book might just be that--an enjoyable read and nothing more. But I don't think so. It's desperately trying to be more.
Most of the women in the stories feel like they are just barely hanging on. They date. They care for their children. They visit their parents. No one is angry or vindictive or mean. They're all just quietly resigned to lost friendships and marriages breaking up and not finding the right partner. And it's very sad and lonely. A quiet resignation. And while I didn't exactly find myself within any of the stories, I recognized the emotion.
Anyway, I think what I'm trying to say is that I did and do like Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin. It's a meaningful collection of stories that remind us that we're all struggling. We're all trying to find love and understanding and a place to fit in this world. Perhaps if we remember that, we can all be a little more kind and thoughtful to those around us.
March 10, 2018
Original Review: Mad Book Love
It wasn't long ago that I would have said I don't enjoy short stories. They try to say too much in too little space. They don't allow for in-depth character development. It's too difficult to get emotionally invested. That had been my experience with short stories anyhow, the few that I'd given any time to. But recently, I've been lucky enough to get my hands on short stories that have proved me wrong, that have shown how deep you can go within only a handful of pages, convincing me that a small collection of "just right" words can carry a profound voice, and this collection by Danielle Lazarin, is one of those.
Back Talk is about women. Girls and women. An exploration of so many different circumstances we find ourselves in throughout a lifetime and some of the ways we feel and deal with them. Some stories I felt more connected to than others. "Spider Legs" made me cry. "Weighed and Measured" made me feel known. And "Second-Chance Family" broke me a little bit, the way it reflected back bits of my self that I choose not to examine too frequently. With the exception of the few extremely itty bitty short stories in this collection, every story spoke to me, in honest, intimate, beautiful words.
A true pleasure to read, this is one of those books I'm going to buy so I can read it over and over again. Whether or not you like short stories, this is a book I'd recommend. In fact, if you find you don't like short stories, this book just might change your perspective on them.
Note: I received this book from the publisher via Edelweiss. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.
It wasn't long ago that I would have said I don't enjoy short stories. They try to say too much in too little space. They don't allow for in-depth character development. It's too difficult to get emotionally invested. That had been my experience with short stories anyhow, the few that I'd given any time to. But recently, I've been lucky enough to get my hands on short stories that have proved me wrong, that have shown how deep you can go within only a handful of pages, convincing me that a small collection of "just right" words can carry a profound voice, and this collection by Danielle Lazarin, is one of those.
Back Talk is about women. Girls and women. An exploration of so many different circumstances we find ourselves in throughout a lifetime and some of the ways we feel and deal with them. Some stories I felt more connected to than others. "Spider Legs" made me cry. "Weighed and Measured" made me feel known. And "Second-Chance Family" broke me a little bit, the way it reflected back bits of my self that I choose not to examine too frequently. With the exception of the few extremely itty bitty short stories in this collection, every story spoke to me, in honest, intimate, beautiful words.
A true pleasure to read, this is one of those books I'm going to buy so I can read it over and over again. Whether or not you like short stories, this is a book I'd recommend. In fact, if you find you don't like short stories, this book just might change your perspective on them.
Note: I received this book from the publisher via Edelweiss. I pride myself on writing fair and honest reviews.
February 28, 2018
This book of stories took my breath away. It was just what I needed after suffering from a long reading rut. The stories are short, but the gut punching impact they leave isn't. All of the stories feature strong women at different points in their lives and relationships with men and women. I always love it when a book of short stories has several stories that share characters, so pay close attention and you'll see there are connective threads between some.
March 24, 2018
As with many short story collections, this was another mixed bag for me. I felt pretty ambivalent about most of the stories in the first half of the book, but then found that I liked almost all of the stories towards the end of the book. I particularly liked that the protagonists in all the stories were women, and common themes included New York, Paris and relationships. A number of the stories are kind of vague and don't have all that satisfying conclusions, but the writing showed promise.
March 18, 2018
A stunning debut from a remarkable new author. All told from the perspective of women at various points in their lives, Danielle Lazarin's short stories encapsulate the essence of what it means to be human: grief-stricken, in love, heartbroken, struggling with motherhood, enduring the pain of divorce, and lost in the crippling uncertainty of the future.
In the book's opening story, "Appetite," we meet two sisters in the aftermath of their mother's death. "I was twelve when my mother died. It took three years. Before she left, we let her have as much anger and fear as she wanted, even as it suffocated the rest of us," Lazarin writes. "What is love in my family if not inked in suffering?"
In "Spider Legs," we are introduced to Caitlin, who struggles to adapt to the shifting dynamics created by her father's divorce. Lazarin's observations about the complexity of family dysfunction can resonate with almost anyone: "The things I want I can't will into existence: a version of my family that never was, a place we can all agree on as home. And maybe I am like my father, not built for this, not built for siblings, or family, or Jack and Jill. Perhaps it's a gene, a predisposition. When I think of it this way, as a malfunction, it doesn't hurt so much, though it seems like a waste of time, all these years of me trying to fit into them what I cannot, not by my nature, not by theirs." So beautiful!
In "Window Guards," one of the shortest but most powerful in the collection, we meet Lexie, whose boyfriend's brother disappears, and in which we are given some insight into the severity of his mental illness, to which Lazarin refers as "a growing wild inside him." In "The Holographic Soul," two sisters are forever bound by their psychic abilities; their clairvoyance allows them to see that their mother is cheating on their father. In "Hide and Seek," we meet a single mother who has just learned of her ex-husband's death. One of the most beautiful lines of the book is written in this story: "In the morgue, Nick focused there, instead of on Michael's busted face, or his lacerated waist, where a knife had gouged over and over. The tattoo was a sunburst above his heart, as if goodness were pouring out from it, or trying to get in." (Ah!)
The stories that comprise this collection shed light on a grieving widower who lost his wife suddenly; on a woman whose boyfriend returns home one day and tells her he's leaving; on two best friends who record the tragedies that happen around them in New York City ("the distance from danger was further for us, but that year we pretended it wasn't"); of a woman, Hope, who falls in love with an older man, but is heartbroken when he tells her he's in love with someone else. Danielle Lazarin reminds us all of what it means to be alive -- fully and deeply -- and to engage in this world with an open heart. Four stars for this debut collection!
In the book's opening story, "Appetite," we meet two sisters in the aftermath of their mother's death. "I was twelve when my mother died. It took three years. Before she left, we let her have as much anger and fear as she wanted, even as it suffocated the rest of us," Lazarin writes. "What is love in my family if not inked in suffering?"
In "Spider Legs," we are introduced to Caitlin, who struggles to adapt to the shifting dynamics created by her father's divorce. Lazarin's observations about the complexity of family dysfunction can resonate with almost anyone: "The things I want I can't will into existence: a version of my family that never was, a place we can all agree on as home. And maybe I am like my father, not built for this, not built for siblings, or family, or Jack and Jill. Perhaps it's a gene, a predisposition. When I think of it this way, as a malfunction, it doesn't hurt so much, though it seems like a waste of time, all these years of me trying to fit into them what I cannot, not by my nature, not by theirs." So beautiful!
In "Window Guards," one of the shortest but most powerful in the collection, we meet Lexie, whose boyfriend's brother disappears, and in which we are given some insight into the severity of his mental illness, to which Lazarin refers as "a growing wild inside him." In "The Holographic Soul," two sisters are forever bound by their psychic abilities; their clairvoyance allows them to see that their mother is cheating on their father. In "Hide and Seek," we meet a single mother who has just learned of her ex-husband's death. One of the most beautiful lines of the book is written in this story: "In the morgue, Nick focused there, instead of on Michael's busted face, or his lacerated waist, where a knife had gouged over and over. The tattoo was a sunburst above his heart, as if goodness were pouring out from it, or trying to get in." (Ah!)
The stories that comprise this collection shed light on a grieving widower who lost his wife suddenly; on a woman whose boyfriend returns home one day and tells her he's leaving; on two best friends who record the tragedies that happen around them in New York City ("the distance from danger was further for us, but that year we pretended it wasn't"); of a woman, Hope, who falls in love with an older man, but is heartbroken when he tells her he's in love with someone else. Danielle Lazarin reminds us all of what it means to be alive -- fully and deeply -- and to engage in this world with an open heart. Four stars for this debut collection!
March 24, 2018
A lovely collection of stories of women's desires and hopes, and living within constrained relationships in one way or another. Back talk is to respond with sass to a situation or a person - and in this case, in these stories, the response, or the sassiness of it is only known to the protagonists, and of course, the readers.
March 23, 2018
Even the best of short story collections are uneven. I used to find this odd—how could a writer who wrote such a fabulous story follow it with such a crap story? I realize now that it makes sense. I mean, after all, if you look at any author's complete body of works, you'll find great works and ho-hum works. No writer is one-hundred percent consistent. The difference is in presentation. We think of a collection of short stories as a complete work. A novelist's whole career is not held under the same scrutiny.
Danielle Lazarin's Back Talk is no different. There are stories I really enjoyed. And stories I could've done without. The difference was the grouping of these stories. Normally, a collection starts with one or two good stories and follows it with a dud, then another good story and several duds. Depending on the total number of stories in the collection and the ratio of good stories, all this may vary, of course, but often the middle contains several lackluster stories that lead into a final one or two good stories.
So when I started reading Back Talk and found that the first several stories barely held my attention, I assumed the whole collection was not for me. Midway, the stories really started to improve however. In fact, story after story was quite wonderful. At this point, I questioned whether it was me: perhaps some preconceived notion I had about the collection, or some blockage in my personal life. I decided that, when finished, I'd go back and read one of the first few stories that I found to be far from special.
On a second reading, the story I selected was slightly more enjoyable, but I still didn't love it. So maybe this collection is oddly uneven, but it does contain several wonderful stories. The best of these stories really get into the minds of their protagonists. They're quiet stories about everyday events, but they're full of heart. In these character-driven stories, I think it ultimately comes down to connection. I was pulled into the mind of some of these characters, not into the minds of others. Readers of character-centric short fiction should give Back Talk a try.
Danielle Lazarin's Back Talk is no different. There are stories I really enjoyed. And stories I could've done without. The difference was the grouping of these stories. Normally, a collection starts with one or two good stories and follows it with a dud, then another good story and several duds. Depending on the total number of stories in the collection and the ratio of good stories, all this may vary, of course, but often the middle contains several lackluster stories that lead into a final one or two good stories.
So when I started reading Back Talk and found that the first several stories barely held my attention, I assumed the whole collection was not for me. Midway, the stories really started to improve however. In fact, story after story was quite wonderful. At this point, I questioned whether it was me: perhaps some preconceived notion I had about the collection, or some blockage in my personal life. I decided that, when finished, I'd go back and read one of the first few stories that I found to be far from special.
On a second reading, the story I selected was slightly more enjoyable, but I still didn't love it. So maybe this collection is oddly uneven, but it does contain several wonderful stories. The best of these stories really get into the minds of their protagonists. They're quiet stories about everyday events, but they're full of heart. In these character-driven stories, I think it ultimately comes down to connection. I was pulled into the mind of some of these characters, not into the minds of others. Readers of character-centric short fiction should give Back Talk a try.
May 13, 2018
I LOVE short stories
Just not these short stories.
No one can convince me that they have agency and purpose. I get the women. I get what it feels like to want things like attention, sex, love, and the feeling of belonging somewhere. I get the women. I also get the stories.
However, starting them and ending them left me with the same feeling of indifference. Nothing about the stories changed me or made me feel anything because, in creating the images of the women, that was average, but in telling a story, that was well below average in Back Talk.
I also love short stories that come full circle. I love when they have that one line at the end that ties everything in a nice bow that does not mean, wow, that was a thrill, or wow, I want more, but wow, that was a great story.
With all the stories in Back Talk, I didn't get any of that. Each of them needed like five more pages of explanation or back story or just something more that would make me feel like I wasn't reading an incomplete manuscript--because that's essentially what I felt like.
Even in the first story, which I think should be one of the best ones, the ones that are hard hitting, the ones that draw us in--there was no explanation on so many things that would have been wonderful had the author expanded on. How'd the mother die? Why were there undertones of abuse and why couldn't those undertones not be mere, easily missable undertones?
I understand the "charm" of these short stories is that they're value is one that's quiet, but I think there's been a mistake about what's quiet and what's generic.
For anyone dissatisfied with this book, read Roxanne Gay's Difficult Women
Gay does a much better job creating powerful women narratives, who want the same things as the women in Back Talk, and more, while also using all the real estate of a short story to create something as thrilling as a life's novel.
Just not these short stories.
No one can convince me that they have agency and purpose. I get the women. I get what it feels like to want things like attention, sex, love, and the feeling of belonging somewhere. I get the women. I also get the stories.
However, starting them and ending them left me with the same feeling of indifference. Nothing about the stories changed me or made me feel anything because, in creating the images of the women, that was average, but in telling a story, that was well below average in Back Talk.
I also love short stories that come full circle. I love when they have that one line at the end that ties everything in a nice bow that does not mean, wow, that was a thrill, or wow, I want more, but wow, that was a great story.
With all the stories in Back Talk, I didn't get any of that. Each of them needed like five more pages of explanation or back story or just something more that would make me feel like I wasn't reading an incomplete manuscript--because that's essentially what I felt like.
Even in the first story, which I think should be one of the best ones, the ones that are hard hitting, the ones that draw us in--there was no explanation on so many things that would have been wonderful had the author expanded on. How'd the mother die? Why were there undertones of abuse and why couldn't those undertones not be mere, easily missable undertones?
I understand the "charm" of these short stories is that they're value is one that's quiet, but I think there's been a mistake about what's quiet and what's generic.
For anyone dissatisfied with this book, read Roxanne Gay's Difficult Women
Gay does a much better job creating powerful women narratives, who want the same things as the women in Back Talk, and more, while also using all the real estate of a short story to create something as thrilling as a life's novel.
January 17, 2024
I found myself to be the women in these stories. The collection feels overwhelmingly intimate, yet relatable, even for the points of life which I have not yet reached. I will come back and read this collection again and again to find more of myself in them.
November 2, 2017
I'm giving this book five stars, but I have to say in some ways it's terrible: it's terrible if you pick it up at night because you have insomnia and you're looking for a little nugget to lull you to sleep, but instead of doing that it makes you feel buzzy like you took a dose of your little sister's ADD meds. It's terrible if you like to read short stories one-at-a-time like a palate cleanser between big meaty novels, because you will lie to yourself many times when you insist you're going to read JUST. ONE. MORE. STORY before picking up that 600-page saga that's been weighing down your nightstand. It's terrible if you want to try to unravel the writer's craft and deconstruct their methods so that you can steal it all for yourself, because the sentences are so organic and perfect that they seem born instead of written. And it's terrible if you think the real world is so effed right now that you can't possibly make room to care deeply about fictional characters who dare to perfectly imperfect, because sorry, you will end up giving a damn despite your hardened, calloused heart.
But if you want your head & heart to race on account of the written word, and if you want to devour a story collection like a bag of Pirate Booty, and if you want to read prose that seeps into your subconscious before you have a chance to diagram the sentences, and if you think empathy has utility and value in both fiction and in life, then fine, five stars.
But if you want your head & heart to race on account of the written word, and if you want to devour a story collection like a bag of Pirate Booty, and if you want to read prose that seeps into your subconscious before you have a chance to diagram the sentences, and if you think empathy has utility and value in both fiction and in life, then fine, five stars.
October 30, 2017
I loved this book! I don't consider myself to typically be a huge reader of short stories, but this collection lived up to the hype (I've seen Celeste Ng recommend it multiple times) - every story felt complete, and while I often wanted more (omg the babysitting story) it was a fulfilling collection of women making their own decisions and finding their power.
May 29, 2018
3.5 stars
This collection was a bit underwhelming, probably because I had heard so many positive things about it and I had high expectations.
Faves: American Men in Paris I Did Not Love, Floor Plans.
This collection was a bit underwhelming, probably because I had heard so many positive things about it and I had high expectations.
Faves: American Men in Paris I Did Not Love, Floor Plans.
February 8, 2018
Moody, weird and incomplete.
May 4, 2018
These are well-written stories that are rather depressing overall. What is valuable in them and thus makes them worth a reader's time is the questioning nature of the main character's voice, a young female.
Ordinary life situations surrounding parents, siblings, divorce, first love, dating, and more are presented as having something dysfunctional occurring. There is an aura of unhappiness permeating these stories. Finally the young woman questions why she puts up with poor treatment, with being discarded for another woman, and in general, for not speaking up and demanding more for herself. This is the "back talk" perhaps all people need to engage in when things are not going right.
Ordinary life situations surrounding parents, siblings, divorce, first love, dating, and more are presented as having something dysfunctional occurring. There is an aura of unhappiness permeating these stories. Finally the young woman questions why she puts up with poor treatment, with being discarded for another woman, and in general, for not speaking up and demanding more for herself. This is the "back talk" perhaps all people need to engage in when things are not going right.
May 4, 2018
I often don’t enjoy short story collections because I find them uneven and disjointed. This one was wonderful. There were so many times where I thought “Oh! Me too!”. It’s a lovely portrait of women of all different stages of life. I don’t know how diverse it was in terms of characters... but I’m white, so I may just be mapping my own identity on to the characters.
Lovely. I enjoyed marking this one up.
Lovely. I enjoyed marking this one up.
May 3, 2020
2.5 🌟
Not the collection of feminist stories I thought these would be. Sure, it's about women, but there aren't any big revelations or discoveries here. I hardly remember any of the stories unfortunately. I appreciated the thematic thread of disappointments, fractures, and losses in the lives of women but my enjoyment of the collection didn't stretch much beyond that. The writing was fine but nothing impressive.
Not the collection of feminist stories I thought these would be. Sure, it's about women, but there aren't any big revelations or discoveries here. I hardly remember any of the stories unfortunately. I appreciated the thematic thread of disappointments, fractures, and losses in the lives of women but my enjoyment of the collection didn't stretch much beyond that. The writing was fine but nothing impressive.
February 13, 2018
"But really, had she wanted to know those things? Did they seem, once she did know, like secrets? She knows so well the burden of being told, of knowing, and how impossible it is to unknow, to forget. . . But she understands, too, that someone in the family has to be the one who forgets just enough every now and then, so they can keep moving forward."
June 27, 2018
A collection of stories about girls and women that I not only loved but appreciated--not just the exquisite, direct writing but for the shamelessness of the stories themselves. Yes, we can want and need, try and fail, break and stand, expose ourselves. Sometimes it's enough to just go on. The one description I kept coming back to was "unfrosted." Nothing about this collection is sugar and spice. Things get tough, but nevertheless... (chick fist in the air)...
February 9, 2019
3.5 stars. These are solid stories, but many left me wanting more. I don't know if the protagonists' voices were too similar or what, but the stories seemed to blend together. I did appreciate their subtlety, though, and the writing is immensely readable. The dialogue is fantastic, and the writing itself is so good. Can't wait to see what this author puts out next.
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