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A review by erboe501
Fresh Complaint by Jeffrey Eugenides
3.0
I have enjoyed all of Eugenides' novels. These stories were well-written and easy to get into, but I wasn't really blown away by any of them.
I found myself frustrated by the very male-centric viewpoints in the stories. Particularly in "Fresh Complaint"--do we really need stories that perpetuate the narrative that young girls are responsible and/or lying about sexual assaults perpetrated by older men? Multiple stories in the collection involve older men lusting after young women: "Capricious Gardens,""Find the Bad Guy,"--as well as an encounter between an older man and young boy in "The Oracular Vulva." And I was horrified by the end of "Baster." But I did like how "The Oracular Vulva" dovetailed with Eugenides' most famous work, Middlesex.
A lot of these stories are writing from the same perspective of the dissatisfied, disappointed middle-aged straight man.
I found myself frustrated by the very male-centric viewpoints in the stories. Particularly in "Fresh Complaint"--do we really need stories that perpetuate the narrative that young girls are responsible and/or lying about sexual assaults perpetrated by older men? Multiple stories in the collection involve older men lusting after young women: "Capricious Gardens,""Find the Bad Guy,"--as well as an encounter between an older man and young boy in "The Oracular Vulva." And I was horrified by the end of "Baster." But I did like how "The Oracular Vulva" dovetailed with Eugenides' most famous work, Middlesex.
A lot of these stories are writing from the same perspective of the dissatisfied, disappointed middle-aged straight man.