Lucky Girls

by Nell Freudenberger

A collection of five stories, "Lucky Girls" is set in India and southern Asia. The characters - rootless, often enroute to someplace else - find themselves variously attracted to or repelled by unfamiliar landscapes where every object seems strange and every emotion is heightened. Living according to alien rules, these characters are also vulnerable in unexpected in the title story, a young woman who has been involved in an affair with an Indian man feels bound to both her memories and her adopted country after his death; the protagonist of 'Outside the Eastern Gate' returns to her childhood home in Delhi to find a house still inhabited by the impulsive, desperate spirit of her mother. 'Together, these stories form a whole of heartbreaking eloquence, yet each different strand has the resonance of a far longer work ...These surprising, generous stories signal the arrival of a born writer' - "Observer".

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Literary Fiction, India, Asia, Contemporary, Female Authors

256 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 2003

About the author

Nell Freudenberger is the author of the novel The Dissident and the story collection Lucky Girls, winner of the PEN/Malamud Award and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; both books were New York Times Book Review Notables. A recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting Award, and a Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Fellowship from the New York Public Library, she was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and one of The New Yorker’s “20 Under 40.” She lives in Brooklyn with her family.

Reviews

[Jeanette · Rating 2 out of 5]

Short stories are not my thing. But these I appreciated less than most. For one thing the people are amoral and often cretins, IMHO.

Immaturity is rife. And I would not name any as lucky girls at all. Not in any definition of my connotation for "lucky".

I gave her latest novel a 5 star. She's sure come a long way. These seem teenager-ish to me. Or poor little rich girl diatribes. Ugh!

[Michaela · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard to be objective when the reason you picked up this book in the first place was jealousy. You had just finished your M.F.A. Saved on your computer was a spreadsheet listing every single rejection letter you ever received -- and the list was long. You had pretty much given up on creative writing all together and had settled for a horrible job in community journalism.

And Nell came along, and she was your age and pretty and her first story was published in the New Yorker, of all places. And she was featured in Vogue, which you read religiously every month.

And you were curious, but at the same time you wanted to barf. (The only way you could justify buying the book was buying it used. Which you did. At a store in San Francisco one afternoon while looking for a sushi restaurant that ended up being closed.)

You possess a number of books from used bookstores, so it takes you a long time to get to them. Finally, nearly four years later, you read "Lucky Girls."

And you admit that it is decent. A little too emo, maybe, but decent. The stories strike you as constructed very carefully. There is nothing messy about them. And even though you get sucked in, you are sort of angry that there is nothing raw because it feels like you are looking through glass when you read these stories, instead of actually being there.

It doesn't make you feel any better about Nell. In a way, the subject matter makes you even more jealous because she must have traveled to India and exotic places, places you have never been and want to go.

[rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best story in this collection is its first, "Lucky Girls," about a young white American expatriate in India deciding if she wants to stay in her adopted country after the death of her married lover, for whom she moved in the first place. The idea of defining what makes a place feel like home is personally appealing, especially as I contemplate making a drastic change of my own.

But everything after "Lucky Girls" feels too similar - only one of the five stories in the collection is set at any length in America, yet all are written from the perspective of relatively prosperous white Americans who seem to be able to afford multiple international moves on a whim. There is rarely a feeling of real narrative tension that comes from conflicts that can't be resolved, and when the conflict of the story is of the unresolvable sort - as in "Outside the Eastern Gate," - it doesn't feel amplified enough.

[Yulia · Rating 1 out of 5]

"What's that game where the wooden blocks are stacked so precariously and wooble on their tippy toes till they crash?"

"You mean Jenga?"

"Perhaps, perhaps. But I prefer to think of it otherwise."

[lethe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Halfway through this collection I assigned its place on the shelf where it had resided for over 15 years to another book, and halfway through the last story I started scanning my shelves in order to decide what would be my next read (I settled on Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education by Sybille Bedford).

This already indicates that it couldn't hold my interest. I found the writing in these five stories bland, the characters unengaging. The only thing I liked was the denouement of the last story, "Letter from the Last Bastion", but not enough to give a higher rating.

[WordsBeyondBorders · Rating 3 out of 5]

"... people were all different things at the same time. They were like onions under fine layers of skin; you didn't ever peel away a last layer, because the layers were what they were"

So thinks a character in the short story 'The Tutor'. This in a nut shell is what 'Nell Freudenberger's debut collection 'Lucky Girls' is all about. The blurbs about the book place much emphasis on the fact that the stories are set mostly in Southeast Asia and particularly India, but the backdrop for these stories are not not as important as the blurbs may indicate (more on that later).

The book starts off with the title story 'Lucky Girls', which is about the narrator an American woman meeting Mrs.Chawla, the mother of a deceased Indian (married) man Arun, with whom she had an affair. The story is mostly about the interactions between the two. The tentativeness present in the narrator during the first meeting contrasting with the confident demeanor of Mrs.Chawla who does not make her disapproval known explicitly or in anger, but just states things in a matter of fact manner have been brought out with precise clarity. When the narrator says that she should have been present when Arun passed away Mrs.Chawla says
"You didn't belong there, she said. Nobody would have known what you were".
There is no anger or recrimination in it, just a statement as to what she thinks.

Though the events and actions of the characters are brought out clearly, the actual intent behind them is always behind a fog as it were, with us not being entirely sure of their motives, lending credence to the lines given in the beginning of the post. For e.g. when the narrator thanks Laxmi, Arun's wife, for helping here out, Laxmi says
"I have my sons", she said casually. "And you have no one."
Here one is not sure where she is taunting the narrator or just stating a fact, as there is not outward indication of Laxmi being a vindictive person. It is these moments of uncertainty in human relations that is the focus of the entire book. This story has been included in the 'Granta Book Of American' Short story' edited by Richard Ford which was my first introduction to Freudenberger.

'The Orphan' is probably the most puzzling story of the collection. Alice and Jeff a middle aged couple have divorced and go to Thailand on a trip to visit their son and daughter who are living there to inform them about the divorce. It's clear from the first time when we see the 4 get together that there is something gone irreversibly bent in the family. The four of them are completely awkward with the meeting, the awkwardness giving way sometimes to sniping at each other. This is where Freudenberger is at her best, bring out the manner in which the four of them circle each other, treading on tip toe as if to avoid breaking anything more, but never giving us the reason why this family has grown so apart. In fact Mandy at a point thinks
"She laughs, but she's glad that she's not the only one who can't talk to their children"
Is this the natural progression of any family, one that we do not wish to acknowledge, wanting to be safe and secure in the knowledge that families are forever. It's not that the 4 members hate each other, it's just they have all gone so far apart, that each one could be a stranger to the other. One doesn't know why Mandy Alice's daughter puts with a man who she says sexually assaulted her (in the beginning of the story). When Alice meets her in Thailand, Mandy is still with him, she neither denies the sexual assault incident nor does give any reason for staying with him, going so far as to say that maybe she liked it rough. Finally as the story ends, one wonders whether the title 'The Orphan' in a way refers to each individual family member given that they seem to be so alone (even Jeff who has since taken up with another woman). There is a piece of conversation at the beginning of the story which subtly shows the absurdity of the way in which the human mind functions and how it comes out as conversation. Mandy Alice's daughter calls up and says that she has been sexually assaulted, at a particular point the conversation takes a turn, when Alice says
".... You have to go to the hospital. Is there a hospital there?"
"Is there a hospital? Mom, I'm in Bangkok - maybe you've heard of it? Is there a hospital?"
.....
"Then you can go there. Get in a cab and go there". She refrains from asking whether they have cabs.
"I don't usually take cabs here, Mom"

One can see that the conversation has completely turned on it's head with both of them disassociating from the actual incident and almost quibbling over minor things when something more important has happened. Given the context of their conversation the above exchange may stick out like a sore thumb, but when you factor in the capacity of the human mind to somehow flush of things it does not want to discuss and the manner it can get numbed in many cases, it does make perfect sense. It's one of the many subtle nuances that Freudenberger applies in all the stories, an eye for detail while describing the events and an ear for dialogue when recording the conversations.

'Outside the Eastern Gate' is somewhat similar in mood to 'The Orphans', where the narrator goes to meet her father in India who may be suffering from the beginning stages of alzheimer's. Through narrative snapshots of events from the past and in the present, we get a glimpse of another family life in the 60's, a family where everything seems perfect outwardly, but there is a sense of something less appealing just beneath surface. This air of disquiet hangs over most of the other stories too, where the reader's mind either goes back to the past to think about what could have happened and to the future thinking about how things could go wrong. Freudenberger with her back and forth narrative, allowing us one glimpse at a time of the past and present but never giving us the full picture always keeps us on tenterhooks. Here, in this story we do not know what the narrator is after, what is it that keeps haunting her from the past. The narrator's mother obviously plays a central role in this, but this is again left to us to interpret in whatever way we want. There is a hint that the mother could have been suffering from depression, but never mentioned explicitly. There is poignant moment in the story, when the narrator as a kid feels sad and starts crying. Her mother sees this and asks her what's wrong.

"I don't know what it is," I sobbed. I can't stop."
"Oh God", my mother said.........................."
"You too", she said."Not you too"

The last line tells more more than what could be said in an entire chapter about the mother. (Many characters are unnamed in the stories, leading to curious mix of alienation and at the same time having an affinity with the reader at the end of the stories). More than anything, what struck me here was the mother could have been aware of her own depression and her failing battle against it, that seemed more heartbreaking than her sorrow for her child. I was reminded of 'The Bell Jar when I read this particular conversation, the hopeless battle against one's own mind.

In "The Tutor" an young American girl living with her father in India takes tuition with an Indian tutor (Zubin), who has returned from America. Through a series of snapshots of the past, we get to know the reason for the girl's turmoil and also the inner conflicts of the Tutor, why he returned from America. In a kind of reversal of the themes in the other stories, this story shows how an Indian adjusts in America (no there is no major homesickness or a love for the homeland). There is no mention about the time when this story is set, but from the manner in which people react to Zubin, one can imagine that it would have been up to the early to mid 90's when going to the US was still a huge thing and an American desi a prize catch in the marriage market. ('Hyderabad blues' anyone?). This story again has a non-ending, but fits in with the overall style of the book, where we are only allowed to view a part of the characters lives and even then there is no final resolution to the part that we view.

"Letter from the Last Bastion", has a different narrative format. An unnamed girl writes a letter to a university as part of her interview process to it. In the letter she describes some events from the life of Henry, a reputed writer and contrasts it with the events that are described in his novels. The story starts of as an exploration into the ages old discussion of reality in fiction, how much of an author is actually present in his works. We see how some events in Henry's life have been transported into his works as it is, some events which have been changed to a great extent and we think about how/when does an author decide when/how much of what actually happened should go into his works. The story then diverges into focusing on the girl. Who is she, how does she know so much about Henry, what is their relationship are some questions that come to our mind as we read it. It's not as if the author shifts the focus into the girl, but it's a natural progression as we read some events Harry's life which could not be known to just about anyone. The only issue I had with this story was the ending, which seemed to conform to an "ending", when the other stories didn't seem to have an ending as such, but just the drawing down of the curtain of a particular act in the characters lives. The ending in this story didn't seem forced anyway, in fact it's quite logical too, but compared to the other stories it didn't seem to fit in with the overall pattern of the collection.

As I said in the beginning if you expect any expatriate experiences of living in Asia/India you would be disappointed. The canvas of these stories are just that, they do not become characters in themselves as it happens in several novels/stories. This is because the characters in these stories are not suffering from any form of longing for their country and neither do they want to get out of where ever they are living because they hate it. Their problems stem from the inside, their relationship with their parents, with the other people they meet, problems that do not have a great deal to do with the country to live in, but problems in the dynamics of the human relationship which could probably be the same in any country. As one of the characters in the book says
"Travelling is for people who don't know how to be happy", so setting the book
outside America could be a result of the characters personal issues more than anything else.

So has Freudenberger just put the canvas as East just because it would be exotic, not at all?. It's more a reflection of the increased communication between the east and the west in the last 20 years, when the East is looked upon a place with people just like in the West, instead of just just a land of Sadhus, Snakes, Rope climbing, babas sitting on thorns which was the staple image of the East till about the 90's. It's still the same in some cases, but this collection is an indication that things are changing. When any foreigner writes about a country he has only visited, he can either be condescending or downright vicious or be afraid of his own feelings that may hurt the people of the country he is writing and end up not giving an opinion at all. Lets see what Alice ('The Orphans') thinks on seeing a Mercedes in Thailand
"The only other car in the parking lot is a teal Mercedes-Benz, which seems out of place in a Third World Country. She knows better than to comment on this...
In a couple of lines, we not only get to see the typical mindset of a person from a first world country viewing the 3rd world ones, but also the guilt/apprehension he/she feels in feeling these thoughts and his/her reluctance to voice these thoughts. It may seem like a small thing, but when you think about it, it can lead you to a lot of things. Freudenberger keeps the canvas understated, but strong enough that we get a sense of the place where the stories are set and do not see that they happen in a vacuum. When Vivian ('Outside the Eastern Gate' ), says on the heavy traffic in India

Vivian slammed on the breaks. "Fucking Biharis"
"It's gotten worse," I said, about the traffic.
"It gets worse every year,", Vivian said. "You have no idea"

you realize that Vivian is as domiciled as anyone in India. That's why she is able to rant at the traffic and abuse without any thought as to how it would look. It's the contrast between what Alice thinks about Thailand but does not say as she has just come there and Vivian who has been living in India for a very long time now. That's why even the abuse on Biharis does not come out as racist, because Vivian is so integrated into the Indian lifestyle (and roads). So people who read this do not start branding Freudenberger as racist. The only observation I found a bit jarring was in 'Outside the Eastern Gate' where the narrator mentions shoe shine boys outside the Delhi international airport. The setting of the story is in the late 90's and I was surprised that shoe shine boys still operated during that period. I would have thought shoe shining would have become less prevalent by then, but maybe the author did indeed experience it.

I was constantly reminded of Alice Munro and Deborah Eisenberg when I read this book. (Freudenberger states Munro as one of her favorite authors). It's not that they share the same canvas or narrative style or some such external thing. The way in which Freudenberger manages to flesh out the characters , without telling too much, but only showing us (always following the adage don't tell, only show) and leaving a lot for us to think about, it is the result that she achieves that reminds me of Munro and Eisenberg. Have you ever wondered in the evenings when you return from work or when you are at your window at dusk seeing people pass by, the brightly lit windows in the houses opposite, have you wondered about what takes place within those walls, what sort of domestic/financial problem is the husband/wife/father/mother/son/daughter returning home to? I am not talking about gossip but a state of mind where you feel a curious affinity with all those people who you don't know nothing about, but at that moment feel close too. Well you could get that sort of a feeling in this book where you are transported smack in the middle of domestic turmoil, memories of the past and you can't help but become one of them. For a debut collection, this is of very high quality and one can only hope that better things would be written by her. This was first published in 2004, so I have been pretty late in reading it, but she is one writer I would be on the look out for from now on.

Having said all this, I must also mention that this is a brooding and intense book, one which is relentless in it's evisceration of the upper layer of relationships. One cannot just move on from one story to another, it requires a bit of time to assimilate what one has read before moving to the next. The consequence could be that either you like the book or hate it, particularly it's languid pace, the non-endings etc. I belong to the former category and this is one of the best books I have read this year. Don't miss it.

[Richa Bhattarai · Rating 2 out of 5]

What even were these stories, I didn’t understand the last one (because I didn’t want to, it was so boring).

The idea of characters from and in different Asian countries is interesting, but where actually is the story itself?

[Mindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories fell flat. Nothing ever quite rang true, though many moments came close. It was frustrating because while the writing was quite competent, the stories didn't carry the emotional weight they promised. Maybe tomorrow I'll reconsider and give this 3 stars instead of 2, but I don't imagine any of the stories really resonating for that long.

[Kennedy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book exemplified why I don't like short stories. They always feel they taper off into nothing-- no conclusion, no plot wrap-up. What's the point of reading them when there's such frustration in the lack of outcome?

[Vivienne Strauss · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand all the crappy reviews people have given this book, it was amazing! I loved The Newlyweds too and look forward to Freudenberger's next works.

[Katherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Five stories. Exotic places, mostly India. Older men, younger women. 'Lucky' obviously a little tongue-in-cheek. Several poor little rich girls. Good writing that doesn't call a lot of attention to itself. Skillful, smooth, not self-indulgent; just a hair the wrong side of bland, at times.

"Lucky Girls": my favorite of the stories. Like the other most engaging ones, told in the first person. About a young American woman who used up many good years on an affair with a married Indian man, who has since died. SHE NEVER GOT TO SEE THE TAJ MAHAL.

"The Orphan": The daughter is dating a Vietnamese man who may or may not have raped her. But the mother is married to a man who is almost certainly kind of an asshole, so.

"Outside the Eastern Gate": Beautiful and mysterious (maybe a little too mysterious?) story about beautiful but depressed mother, told from the POV of that now-dead mother's now-grown, often-depressed daughter. Though nonplussed by the supernatural sub-plot, I feel indulgently toward the story because of all the loving and minutely observed details about the contents of the family house.

"The Tutor": In which the older man is only about 30 and the younger woman is but in high school. Though separated in age, they are united in angstiness.

"Letter from the Last Bastion": Very long story, the most remarkable voice in the collection, kind of crazy (which I guess is welcome in a collection that's otherwise very self-controlled and by-the-book). I read it all in one sitting, so I think some of the finer points and details were lost on me, but I appreciated the not-quite-realistic but compulsively readable voice, with its appealing, Salingeresque informal-but-precocious thing.

Three stars is probably not quite enough. I think this was Nell Freudenberger's first book. I think she is good and I bet she got even better. I will read something more of hers, if I come across it.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting read, if for no other reason than all of the buzz -- positive and negative -- around the author. I have never seen such vituperative reviews as the user reviews on Amazon for this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Girls-ebo...

Curtis Sittenfeld -- author of "Prep" and "American Wife," both of which I loved -- wrote a redeeming piece on Freudenberger in Salon that is also interesting background reading:
http://dir.salon.com/story/books/feat...

I finished three of the five stories in this collection and read much of the fourth, but ultimately decided to stop reading the book because only one of the stories had actually worked for me. The second story, "The Orphan," is IMO very, very good. It is told from the point of view of a mother, going through a divorce, who meets up in Thailand with her estranged husband, her college-age son, and her daughter who is traveling in Thailand. The parents are there to tell the children about their plans to divorce. The mother's sense of unease and unhappiness and her ambivalent, complicated relationship with her estranged husband was well-done, I thought.

The other stories in this collection, though capably written, lacked a real pull for me. Some of the situations were interesting, but I didn't feel particularly drawn in or particularly compelled to keep reading.

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gave Freudenberger another chance, but this one was worse. Her style falls flat for me, and her content is an eyeroll. Five stories about rich white women with ties to various Ivy League schools (or, when being edgy, Freudenberger throws in ~Berkeley~) who then become expats in countries that they don't understand but feel special in because people keep jumping out of the way to marvel at them on the streets because they're white but worldly. Oh, and also they go through first world love problems. I've never read 'Eat Pray Love' but I get a feeling this is the closest I'll come.

[Diana Nagy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a book of stories written by a new author. This is her first book. I would have loved to have given excellent reviews on this book but I am not a fan of stories (sorry Nell) and while this book was well written, the stories didn't keep me compelled to continue reading and this book took awhile to finish for me. I just have to stop reading books with stories to read because the only one that I have enjoyed is John Grisham's Ford County.

[Marjorie Elwood · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing - slow-paced doesn't even begin to describe the short stories in this book. They are each told from the point of view of a woman or girl living in Asia. Several times, I thought of not reading the rest of the book because I just couldn't see what the point was in the stories, but I did persevere.

[Steve Kettmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed the stories more than loved them until I came to the last one, which for me vaulted the collection to another realm. It's clear Freudenberger is a writer of both great taste and great talent; I for one won't let a book of hers hit the shelves without sooner or later arriving in my to-read pile.

[G]

Quick, breezy, accessible, transporting - but I wonder how much an American woman can really understand India after only a few brief trips.

[Athena · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's good but I don't really FEEL anything while I'm reading it.

[Muthulakshmi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is the second ever short story collection I've read, so that context is important for this review. Lucky Girls covers two themes largely: displacement and feelings of alienation. The central characters are middle class white people in "third world" countries, 3 stories around India, 1 Thailand and 1 Vietnam.

I enjoyed the book, if I'm being honest. It was easy to get through, and I enjoyed how the places were described. As an Indian, I really have to give kudos to how the author captures the vibe of Indian elders and secondly, the dynamics of house help here. The first story is about a young American woman who moves to India to continue an affair with an married Indian man twice her age. The man passes away, and his mother drops by the house he lived with the young woman. In that scene, the woman says it is the first time the mother has come to visit but realizes later that she's in fact been here before (because the mother knows where things in the apartment are located) but she's visited only when the woman wasn't home. She was let in by the house help that the mother loaned to the couple.

I can see how this interaction can seem passive aggressive or even evil in some eyes but it is SUCH an Indian boy mom thing to do! She doesn't want to acknowledge the legitimacy of their relationship but still wants to ensure that her baby boy is taken care of. It is such a small micro interaction in the book, but I loved the author's insight into something like this.

My biggest issue with the book were the endings to each story - it was either confusing or felt incomplete. My favourite story was about mother Alice and daughter Mandy - the story starts with Mandy saying she's been assaulted by a man she's dating in Thailand. It was so so well written, the relationship between them, points where there is conflict. But this whole setup was never explored and it ends with a development that is irrelevant to the story. The endings were consistently bad and it took away from the story overall.

Overall verdict: enjoyably written, can finish reading in a few hours. But silly and unsatisfactory endings to each story.

[Risks Are · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who discovered Freudenberger on the most beautiful of whims— being handed an Advanced Reader’s Copy of her novel Lost and Wanted at the age of 14 at a book convention— and finally reading it four years later at the age of 18— it was fascinating to discover through the reviews on this ancient website and other online sources the nonsense “controversy” that surrounded her in her early years. Jealousy is vicious, a young, attractive woman in an academic field is exactly ripe for that sort of thing. It did shock me a little, though— all I knew of Nell was that she was semi-obscure, married, and taught writing in The Bronx. I’m sure I would’ve sided with her anyway, but I do wonder. As someone with neither an MfA or an ambient belief in the inherent inferiority of intellect in the face of beauty, I hope I would have been fine.

Freudenberger’s stories in this collection touched me deeply, each of them, stories of love. The dual perspectives in The Tutor, my favorite story, was one of my favorite of her literary tricks; the same situation is alternately sweet, slightly notable, and teenage and cosmic, huge, and all-consuming. Its closing moments remain sweet and emotionally real.

The final story made me cry.

The rest are excellent too, The Orphan frustrating in a way that lets you know you care, Lucky Girls sad but never somber, Outside the Eastern Gate about what its missing.

In many ways the stories are the same. At the end of my book, in an interview, Freudenberger names David Mitchell one of her favorite writers. In many ways, this is her Cloud Atlas.

[aya · Rating 1 out of 5]

pretentious. unsatisfactory. spectacularly mediocre.

do adults really live like this? because if so i hope i never grow up.

each short story fell flat, with the other more disappointing than the last (the author should be awarded for somehow managing that). literally, where are we going with these stories? it's just rich white women bemoaning and moping around in a third world country. i suspect that this book is just the author projecting. at this rate, i'm going to have to put a ban on white authors.

this is a total hot mess of short stories, even my little sister could write a story that's actually comprehensible AND with a good open-ended ending. how on earth did this mockery even win an award? the only thing this book did best was continuously piss me off. even giving one star is a bit much.

[Steph F · Rating 2 out of 5]

I tried. The stories lack depth and are very pretentious. It was hard to read and I kept cringing throughout. I thought maybe it was satire or a caricature of the upper class white american who travels to another country and behaves ignorantly the whole time? But I dont think so, it seems to lack research and makes a lot of cultural assumptions. 2 stars because I did think some characters were well written, like the mother in the first story.

[Baljit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was not too impressed. Most of the stories focused around self-absorbed women who have major issues. The characters seem hollow.
I found The Tutor q engaging but the story has an abrupt ending. I felt bereft.

[Shawn Aebi · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly strong first collection. Most of the settings involve an ex-pat in Asia dealing with various circumstances. While the storylines are simple, she excels at bringing you close to the situation to better understand rationals.

[Erica Hauswald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stories are a bit uneven, but I really loved her writing and character studies. So glad this was a long-owned book that quarantine forced me to pick up off my shelf. Definitely hoping to read more of her!

[Dami Cobb · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read, multiple short stories.

[Joseph Landes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seriously good set of short (slightly long) stories that primarily take place in India. Must read.

[Melinda Griffith · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me.

[Tedi Teodora · Rating 2 out of 5]

5 love stories that take place in SE Asia. I didn't find any of the stories very interesting or very beautiful.

[Jennifer]

Read two of the short stories and that was enough.