You Are Having a Good Time

Stories

Fiction & Literature, Short Stories
Cover of the book You Are Having a Good Time by Amie Barrodale, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Amie Barrodale ISBN: 9780374713294
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: July 5, 2016
Imprint: FSG Originals Language: English
Author: Amie Barrodale
ISBN: 9780374713294
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: July 5, 2016
Imprint: FSG Originals
Language: English

Ema was in a bad situation with a married man. She was visiting him in Washington, D.C. His wife was out of town. He had gotten them an outrageously expensive hotel room, out of respect for his wife and their home. Ema took that as a sign of his decency, and as a sign of her doom.

So begins "The Real Sloane Newman," one of the stories in Amie Barrodale's debut collection, You Are Having a Good Time. In these highly compressed and charged tales, the veneer of normality is stripped from her characters' lives to reveal the seething and contradictory desires that fuel them. In "Animals," an up-and-coming starlet harbors a complicated attraction toward her abusive director. In "Frank Advice for Fat Women," an ethically compromised psychiatrist is drawn into the middle of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. And in "The Imp," a supernatural possession ruins a man's relationship with his pregnant wife.

Barrodale's protagonists drink too much, say the wrong things, want the wrong people. They're hounded by longings (and sometimes ghosts) to the point where they are forced to confront the illusions they cling to. They're brought to life in stories that don't behave as you expect stories to behave. Barrodale's startlingly funny and original fictions get under your skin and make you reconsider the fragile compromises that underpin our daily lives.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Ema was in a bad situation with a married man. She was visiting him in Washington, D.C. His wife was out of town. He had gotten them an outrageously expensive hotel room, out of respect for his wife and their home. Ema took that as a sign of his decency, and as a sign of her doom.

So begins "The Real Sloane Newman," one of the stories in Amie Barrodale's debut collection, You Are Having a Good Time. In these highly compressed and charged tales, the veneer of normality is stripped from her characters' lives to reveal the seething and contradictory desires that fuel them. In "Animals," an up-and-coming starlet harbors a complicated attraction toward her abusive director. In "Frank Advice for Fat Women," an ethically compromised psychiatrist is drawn into the middle of a dysfunctional mother-daughter relationship. And in "The Imp," a supernatural possession ruins a man's relationship with his pregnant wife.

Barrodale's protagonists drink too much, say the wrong things, want the wrong people. They're hounded by longings (and sometimes ghosts) to the point where they are forced to confront the illusions they cling to. They're brought to life in stories that don't behave as you expect stories to behave. Barrodale's startlingly funny and original fictions get under your skin and make you reconsider the fragile compromises that underpin our daily lives.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book Tuck-in Time by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Draft No. 4 by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book From the Mouth of the Whale by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Bangkok Days by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Temporary Stories by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Autumn Princess, Dragon Child by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Belle Prater's Boy by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Bomber County by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book The Violent Bear It Away by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Death Is Hard Work by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book The Minutemen and Their World by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book What I Lost by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book My Son's Story by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Isabella's Above-Ground Pool by Amie Barrodale
Cover of the book Oblivion Banjo by Amie Barrodale
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy