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mothtimothy's review against another edition
4.0
i have had this book for at least ten years, and i just finally read it. (on the inside front cover, written in amalle's script, it reads "this book belongs to: [my old name:]". and at the very end of the book, on the page that advertises other books by the same imprint, there is a tiny drawing of a face -- also clearly amalle's work. all from when we were dating ten years ago.)
anyway, it was really good. i liked it much better than Nugent's "Live Girls," her novel from a couple years later, which i also just read. these are short stories, and many of them are set in a New York City that is clearly of late 80s and early 90s. the place i grew up, which in some way, doesn't exist anymore. that is, what New York signifies or means in these stories is basically unrecognizable today. it made me think about how the gentrification of the last 20 years, and other forces of change, have not just changed the place itself but what it means, the idea of the place.
also, if you didn't know, now-dated journalism/essays/cultural-crit from like 1988-1998 are one of my favorite things, particularly if they are new-york-specific. something about revisiting the forces that shaped me when i was young, before i knew how to look at them? these are short stories, but i had a flicker of that feeling with them, too.
anyway, it was really good. i liked it much better than Nugent's "Live Girls," her novel from a couple years later, which i also just read. these are short stories, and many of them are set in a New York City that is clearly of late 80s and early 90s. the place i grew up, which in some way, doesn't exist anymore. that is, what New York signifies or means in these stories is basically unrecognizable today. it made me think about how the gentrification of the last 20 years, and other forces of change, have not just changed the place itself but what it means, the idea of the place.
also, if you didn't know, now-dated journalism/essays/cultural-crit from like 1988-1998 are one of my favorite things, particularly if they are new-york-specific. something about revisiting the forces that shaped me when i was young, before i knew how to look at them? these are short stories, but i had a flicker of that feeling with them, too.
maggie71286's review against another edition
4.0
The characters in these stories seem so real to me.
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