Throw Like a Girl: Stories

by Jean Thompson

A master of short fiction whose "best pieces are as good as it gets in contemporary cction" (Newsday) returns, as Jean Thompson follows her National Book Award finalist collection Who Do You Love with Throw Like a Girl.

Here are twelve new stories that take dead aim at the secrets of womanhood, arcing from youth to experience. Each one of Thompson's indelible characters -- lovers, wives, friends, and mothers -- speaks her piece -- wry, angry, hopeful -- about the world and women's places in it.

The brat --
The five senses --
It would not make me tremble to see ten thousand fall --
The family Barcus --
Lost --
The inside passage --
Holy Week --
A normal life --
Hunger --
The woman taken in adultery --
Pie of the month --
Throw like a girl

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Drama, Contemporary, Short Story Collection

291 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Jean Thompson is a New York Times bestselling author and her new novel, The Humanity Project will be published by Blue Rider Press on April 23, 2013.

Thompson is also the author of the novel The Year We Left Home, the acclaimed short fiction collections Do Not Deny Me, and Throw Like a Girl as well as the novel City Boy; the short story collection Who Do You Love, and she is a 1999 National Book Award finalist for fiction as well as and the novel Wide Blue Yonder, a New York Times Notable Book and Chicago Tribune Best Fiction selection for 2002.

Her short fiction has been published in many magazines and journals, including The New Yorker, and been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize. Jean's work has been praised by Elle Magazine as "bracing and wildly intelligent writing that explores the nature of love in all its hidden and manifest dimensions."

Jean's other books include the short story collections The Gasoline Wars and Little Face, and the novels My Wisdom and The Woman Driver.

Jean has been the recipient of Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, among other accolades, and taught creative writing at the University of Illinois--Champaign/ Urbana, Reed College, Northwestern University, and many other colleges and universities.

Reviews

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for short stories, but as a huge David Sedaris fan, I've found that most collections pale in comparison. With Thompson's Throw Like a Girl, I found a solid collection of short stories that I enjoyed reading almost as much as I enjoy reading David Sedaris.

That being said, however, the fact that both Thompson and Sedaris are strong writers is where the comparison ends. You won't find very much humor or wit in Throw Like a Girl, rather, with each story, Thompson introduces us to a new set of characters, all of whom are fleshed out so incredibly well that you find yourself so invested within the span of five pages that you wish the stories weren't "short" at all.

There's an intense human feeling throughout the entire book, which runs the gamit of characters, from the young army bride to old ladies baking pies. Thompson's stories are relatable and heart-wrenching, but never cliche or predictable.

[Cait · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love happy endings as much as the next girl. Sunshine, rainbows, fluffy white kittens... what's not to like? There is something satisfying in closing a book with a contented sigh, assured that everything has turned out just as it should. The good guys win, justice is served, love is requited, and they all live happily ever after.

I have a secret though. I love unhappy endings more. Well, maybe love isn't the right word. It's not like I enjoy reading about people suffering or dying miserable and alone. It's just that, for me, those stories pack more of an emotional punch. They affect me in a way that no fairy tale ever can. Tragedy, despair, unrealized dreams, missed opportunities, bad things happening to good people - these are the stories that get under my skin and inside my head, the stories I find myself thinking about hours and even days later.

Throw Like A Girl: Stories isn't as extreme in it's bleakness as anything by Flannery O'Connor (whom I love), but rest assured that there are no rainbows or kitties to be found anywhere. Instead you get glimpses into the lives of everyday people, warts and all, behaving as they do when they don't think anyone is watching. We all know that's not always pretty. But it's real, and I loved it.

Favorite stories: The Brat, The Five Senses, It Would Not Make Me Tremble to See Ten Thousand Fall, The Family Barcus, Throw Like a Girl

[Cortney · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Thompson reminds me of an earnest version of me. Like she's not afraid to say the things I think sometimes, even if those things might sound a little cheesy or sentimental or too-true to be said out loud. But she's always right, and always good. I like to read Jean Thompson with a pen, so I can underline the sentences that are especially true.

So.

This collection of short stories didn't seem as magical as Who Do You Love (which I love). Less love, I think. Instead, soul-sucking affairs. I get the idea from these that marriage is a contract that can be as easily violated as a sexual harassment policy or a Republican budget. So, sad. So, cold. So...true, but a different kind of true than I was used to from her. I kinda want to call her and ask her about it, but that would make me a creepy stalker stranger person, so.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is superb and as one review puts it, these stories are "gritty and grueling." While I found myself relating to a couple of the women characters, my overall feeling while reading this was, "gosh what a miserable, bitter, sad group of women." I kept hoping for just one happy story in this collection. On the other hand, any artist that can keep you coming back to the images they've created must be worth something, and that is exactly what I find myself doing with this particular collection of Thompson's. I'm debating the 3 and 4 star rating, but for now will stick with the 3. Maybe I'll pick it up again, when it's not the middle of a cold, gray winter and re-consider my rating.

[Ashlee Ward · Rating 5 out of 5]

I randomly stumbled across this in the library. I had never heard of Jean Thompson before, but, boy, am I glad I decided to take the chance. What an amazing collection of short stories! She writes in a fabulously gritty way. Sort of a modern mix of Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor. I will definitely seek out more of her work, and I am planning on buying a copy of this to keep in my personal library. Highly recommend!

[Emi Yoshida · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, great short stories. While I like the wide range of different characters and plots in this collection, the repeated motifs of adultery, depression and women otherwise falling apart... make reading this not super fun.

[Anya · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this on the plane and it was perfect. Each story was long enough to keep me engrossed, but I had time to take naps and do the crossword in between reading. You really feel like you know every one of her characters, and the stories stand on their own. One of my biggest problems with short stories is that a lot of times I feel like they leave me hanging, or there's enough information left out that I didn't really "get" it. I'll have to read more of her stuff.

[Katherine Haas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a brilliant collection, imho. I don't know why, likely because I loved it so fervently, I decided to peruse the ratings. What a mistake, when you want to defend someting valiant. For those that found flaw, I couldn't help shake the feeling that I was languishing in some Community College class, entitled "Why Not to Like this Book", the decision reached before reason. Decide for yourselves, but I seldom feel the spark of having touched genius, and I got that feeling here.

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seems to me with each Jean Thompson book I read I fall more in love with her writing. I absolutely loved THROW LIKE A GIRL. Why? Because it is about real people...you and me...full of emotional punches, human compassion, angst, wit, humor. This book made me think, laugh, and cry. There are twelve stories and every single one of them is great, which is usually not true in a book of shorts.

The stories cover baking pies, murder, adultery, divorce, teenage angst, sex, love, death, mental health, friends, lovers, every type of relationship you can think of. The characters are so very real...they doubt themselves, make wrong decisions, mess up their loves, love the wrong people...just like the real world full of real people.

Even though I loved all twelve stories, THE BRAT was my favorite. Iris is such a great character -- a teenager full of anger, angst, and who hates everybody and everything in her life. She is constantly picked on and tormented by the other kids at her school. She has two friends -- Rico and Barry -- and sometimes she can hardly stand them. Iris, Rico, and Barry get sick and tired of being the objects of ridicule and finally take things into their own hands....with a surprising result.

Thompson hits the nail on the head with each and every one of these stories...hard. I have only read two of her other books -- THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME and SHE POURED OUT HER HEART. I loved them too -- can't wait to dig into her others.

[Brian Palmer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This anthology of stories by Jean Thompson (to quote from book's description) "take dead aim at the secrets of woman-hood, arcing from youth to experience." Apparently the secret of womanhood is not filled with happiness -- these are kind of depressing stories, on the whole, but that really speaks to my feeling of the moment. Mostly it's not about tragedy -- just trudging on through bleakness. Also, these are not stories about coastal elites in dynamic cities, to be somewhat mocking; most of them are not particularly pinned in time, but are set in middle of the country, unexcited settings.

A few highlights:
"It would not make me tremble to see ten thousand fall": probably my favorite story in the collection, featuring a young army wife who decides she needs to form her own identity (more important than waiting on her husband to return, more important than taking care of the baby when the grandparents are more than happy to ...), triggered in part by remembering a teacher from high school

"The Family Barcus": the character who is the focus, although not the viewpoint character, is a father who was raised as an only child, is intent on building and supporting a large family, until .... The ending surprised me.

"The Inside Passage": an affair gone badly leads a woman to briefly exile herself to Alaska.

[Desi A · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Some of the stories were really first-rate.

Something that Thompson does well -- and something I enjoy in short stories -- is dropping in an unexpected detail and letting it just sit there. She closes a few of the stories in that way, but it didn't feel over-engineered, and it is also something that I don't think you can get away with as much in a novel. You don't have time for exposition of everything in a short story and if you've done it well, it works.

[Ruth Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jean Thompson has been called the American Alice Munroe. I picked up this book at a used book store because the author is acclaimed and from Urbana, IL (my home state). I was not disappointed - fun to take a break from novels and enjoy some well written short stories about women of all ages. Beware - if you are looking for a cheerful book, this is not the read for you. Although there is some humor, the overall tone of the book is melancholy.

[Mary Lins · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Throw Like a Girl”, Jean Thompson’s 2007 collection of twelve short stories, made me laugh, cry, and WORRY for some of her female characters. I’ve read several collections of her short stories (and I have a few yet to savor) and if there is a better short story writer out there I have failed to find them. With insight, wisdom, wit, and heart, Thompson gives us twelve short masterpieces about what it means to be a female at all stages of life.

[Natalie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd rate this a 0 if I could. Not my taste of literature at all. There's nothing positive in any of the stories and I did not find there to be any compelling character development and/or plotline, arc, tension or resolution in any of them.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great short story writer. Really enjoyed these.

[Qinghua Lin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Small stories, different life.

[Robin Blair · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressing. Meandering stories that lead nowhere. Just bad.

[Bamboozlepig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of the short stories in this were okay, others were rather blah.

[Katie Byrd · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the simplicity of this book, and how it showed different experiences of women as we age and go through life events

[LIME TIME · Rating 4 out of 5]

great short stories that perfectly encapsulate what it's like to be a woman during different stages of life. sad and depressing at points, but unrelenting in their truth and honesty about womanhood.

[Arielle Sellers · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book. Other than assigned short stories in high school, this was my first short story book I read on my own accord. Tells the tales of a diverse array of women. I loved!

[Marina · Rating 5 out of 5]

These short stories are fabulously written. My favorites were the first and last stories.

[Theblackrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love it, I recommend it for people who want to find new ideas.

[Yasmin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of this book was published in Windy City Times and a link can be found below.

Jean Thompson's Throw Like a Girl is an occasionally illuminating collection of short stories about women who inhabit what we call the 'middle class,' that fictitious category invented to reassure Americans that there is no economic inequality in the United States. If we all try just hard enough, we're told, we could land somewhere solidly in the 'middle' and live happily normal and humdrum lives.

Thompson's women live in the middle of middling lives: They are neither coming nor going; they live in the middle of the country; they live in the middle of life itself. They are caught in the process of daring themselves to leap one way or the other. Jessie in "The Five Senses" is between her comfortably middle-class parents and the wild boy who promises her freedom. In "It Would Not Make Me Tremble to See Ten Thousand Fall," Kelly Ann is between her high school graduation and life as a pregnant and married teen. In "The Woman Taken in Adultery," the married protagonist finds herself literally between her husband and her lover.

Thompson digs deep into quotidian details and the results are sometimes effective and surprising, but too often bound up in inevitability. She's best when she lets her characters function as if they had inner lives of their own, rather than forcing them to work inexorably towards the endings she has devised for them. The finest and wittiest story is "The Inside Passage," about an unnamed woman who has been unhappy in an involvement with a married man and is now in Alaska on a series of boat trips because "I had the luxury of going somewhere exotic to be miserable." At every stop, she calls her lover from pay phones under a different assumed name, hoping to talk to him one last time. The story's delightful unpredictability is matched by the woman's engaging cluelessness about everything, even the possibility of a bear attack: "It would eat me up while I was still thinking none of this was happening." Yet it's she who precisely and wryly summarizes the nature of longing: "It seemed you ought to be able to aim desire like a lens, and pass your longing straight through it. Maybe I was simply out of range."

But for the most part, the trouble with Thompson's characters is that it's difficult to imagine they could survive outside the stories. Reading Throw Like a Girl is like being led through a series of doll's houses with all the little people manipulated and arranged precisely, caught in mid-sip during a tea party or on the way to bed. They are all compelled to move towards an upper-case Fate, and it's difficult to empathize with many of them. In a collection of stories about women, it seems more than a pity to not allow them this much—the freedom to lead messy lives, the freedom to become utterly lost.

This kind of overdetermination is especially evident in the dialogue, which often snaps and crackles too much, like sitcom banter. In "Holy Week," Olivia confronts Bruno, who wants to take her daughter away to Europe, "For money, Mamma give permission?" Comes the response, "For free, Mamma break your face." It's too funny ha-ha, like something that should be accompanied by a laugh track.

Endings can be similarly overdone. The finely tuned "Hunger" is about a woman who melts and oozes into dementia as her family mops up the mess around her and it ends on a surprising note that matches the quietly understated narrative thrust of the story. The same cannot be said about "The Five Senses," which works too hard to shock and jolt at the end. The best fiction takes one by surprise, not shock; the latter, unless rendered with skill, is a pale substitute for the former. Thompson would have done well to remember the distinction more often.

©Yasmin Nair

http://www.windycitymediagroup.com/ga...

[Sandydlarson · Rating 5 out of 5]

n the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent t...moreIn the opening pages of Jamie Ford's stunning debut novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, Henry Lee comes upon a crowd gathered outside the Panama Hotel, once the gateway to Seattle's Japantown. It has been boarded up for decades, but now the new owner has made an incredible discovery: the belongings of Japanese families, left when they were rounded up and sent to internment camps during World War II. As Henry looks on, the owner opens a Japanese parasol.

This simple act takes old Henry Lee back to the 1940s, at the height of the war, when young Henry's world is a jumble of confusion and excitement, and to his father, who is obsessed with the war in China and having Henry grow up American. While "scholarshipping" at the exclusive Rainier Elementary, where the white kids ignore him, Henry meets Keiko Okabe, a young Japanese American student. Amid the chaos of blackouts, curfews, and FBI raids, Henry and Keiko forge a bond of friendship - and innocent love - that transcends the long-standing prejudices of their Old World ancestors. And after Keiko and her family are swept up in the evacuations to the internment camps, she and Henry are left only with the hope that the war will end, and that their promise to each other will be kept.

Forty years later, Henry Lee is certain that the parasol belonged to Keiko. In the hotel's dark dusty basement he begins looking for signs of the Okabe family's belongings and for a long-lost object whose value he cannot begin to measure. Now a widower, Henry is still trying to find his voice - words that might explain the actions of his nationalistic father; words that might bridge the gap between him and his modern, Chinese American son; words that might help him confront the choices he made many years ago.

Set during one of the most conflicted and volatile times in American history, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet is an extraordinary story of commitment and enduring hope. In Henry and Keiko, Jamie Ford has created an unforgettable duo whose story teaches us of the power of forgiveness and the human heart.(less)
Hardcover, 290 pages

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

(N.B.: Jean is a friend of mine, so I'm likely biased.) I've always been a big fan of her short fiction, more than her novels, and this book is a fine addition. Her best stories are populated by strong lead characters (both in the sense that they are believable and that they have particularly strong personalities); these most often occur in her stories written in first person.

Not all of the stories in this book were home runs. Some were a bit tedious and fell short of my recommendation. However, I believe it's a difficult thing to impart originality without treading into the realm of seeming to try too hard. In truth, a minority of pieces written by any author--even the classic greats--are anthology-worthy. This book had at least one or two stories that really moved me; this, in my opinion, is enough of a feat.

This book has garnered excellent reviews from very reputable sources (NYT, Chicago Tribune, and Kirkus, to name a few), and features a glowing blurb on its cover from David Sedaris. For these, I am very proud.

[Tayla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was definitely a bit disappointed in this collection of short stories. I felt like the author, Jean Thompson, was trying much too hard. The first few seem like they take a long time to get to the point, which ends up being at least a bit disturbing. To me, this set an untenable tone of expectation, which was then not so abrupt in the other stories.

'It Would Not Make Me Tremble to See Ten Thousand Fall' was the best story overall to me. It involves a young couple, enlistment into the service, a small town and has well developed characters. And, in all, the characters in each of the stories are well executed. The characters make me want to give the book at least 2.5 starts, and make it so that I'm not sorry to have spent time reading the book. Maybe the stories will grow on me if I revisit them, but something in the language, or the plots, the tone, something seems contrived in most of them. An over zealous attempt at coming across as hip maybe?

[Battameez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short stories are my ultimate weakness and I’ve had this book for over six years now. Every time I revisit these stories, I’m struck by how much emotion each story is stuffed with.

Lost, Hunger, The Woman Caught in Adultery, the Family Barcus, Pie of the Month and Throw Like a Girl are must reads. The whole book is, but each of these women is a special treat–the prose is deceptively simple. Yes. There’s that one story about a white woman who goes to “save” a prostitute in Bangkok, but SERIOUSLY EVERYTHING ELSE IS OKAY.

She’s like Munro, in many ways, that if I squint really hard, maybe I can really relate to her protagonists and fancy myself in their lives. And as small a thing as it is, doesn’t happen often enough. I am always going to love this collection.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories I liked a lot, and when I say a lot I mean I could read them over and over and still love them, were: It Would Not Make Me Tremble To See Ten Thousand Fall, The Family Barcus, Lost, and Hunger.

I actually wasn't sure if I liked Lost or Hunger at first, but when I thought about them more, I realized how much I did. I liked all of the ones I did because of what they represented, and what I personally got out of the stories. If I had to pick the best one out of those, it would be It Would Not Make Me Tremble, hands down.

The one I liked the least was probably Holy Week. I didn't care for either of the characters, and to be honest I didn't get much out of the story.

They were good enough to make me want to read her other short stories!

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many of these stories had awesome openings. Then they sort of trailed along, giving you the gist of how things generally go for this particular character, seemingly leading up to some exciting point of action, and then - oh! - it's suddenly the ending, perhaps accompanied by the revelation of some withheld piece of major information. Too often I felt the author was pushing some larger point (like, war is bad) or that the stories were summed up by an uplifting lesson learned. The wittiest and most pleasurable story for me was "The Woman Taken in Adultery" - worth seeking out, along with a couple others.