Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Reviews
Three Stars
Best for: People who really enjoy short stories that have more sex than your average book.
In a nutshell: Collection of short stories about many different interesting women.
Line that sticks with me: “In the complex calculus between men and women, Milly understands that fat is always ugly and that ugly and skinny makes a woman eminently more desirable than fat and any combination such as beautiful, charming, intelligent, or kind.” (p 163)
Why I chose it: I really enjoyed Roxane Gay’s nonfiction work and wanted to try her fiction.
Review: I ran very hot and cold with this collection. I suppose that might be the case with most short story collections. Some of the stories were intriguing and kept me reading regardless of the fact that I was walking in the rain at night (seriously – the middle 20 pages are all warped now). And some I just sort of skimmed to get he idea of because I just couldn’t get into them.
There are a LOT of stories. Some are just a couple of pages long; others are much more involved. I would imagine that you could find a few that you enjoy. But it’s just not my favorite, overall.
