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A review by jessicaesquire
Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin
4.0
The women in this collection of stories are not the same, but they do share a set of characteristics: white women, middle-class women, women who live in New York or thereabouts. When something is set in New York it often goes with the highs and the lows: the rich, the poor, the billionaire, the addict, the socialite, the prostitute. But Lazarin is more focused on the heightened emotions in the everyday lives of everyday women.
Falling in love, raising children, breaking up, fighting with parents, most women will be able to find each page filled with a familiar emotion. And while this all sounds like typical stuff, I found myself surprised at how rarely I actually see women like this depicted in "quote" literary fiction. These women are in commercial fiction, their love affairs and parenting dilemmas are regular fodder there, but we have this tendency to say that these women and their lives belong only in that kind of space. They can star in a Lifetime movie but not a dramatic indie film. Their stories can be melodrama but not literature. Lazarin's stories work because she treats her characters with a seriousness that is usually reserved for men, a respect for their emotions and their experiences that is sadly still unfamiliar to many readers.
After a few stories you develop a trust with this book the way you'd trust a friend. You know each story is going to give you something real, something solid, something you can feel deep within you. You know it will not pull punches. You know the prose will be clear. You know you will see something familiar and true.
(Note: I'm twitter friends with Danielle, which has more to do with me reading this book in the first place because I was excited to see what she's written, than with my review but is still worth noting.)
Falling in love, raising children, breaking up, fighting with parents, most women will be able to find each page filled with a familiar emotion. And while this all sounds like typical stuff, I found myself surprised at how rarely I actually see women like this depicted in "quote" literary fiction. These women are in commercial fiction, their love affairs and parenting dilemmas are regular fodder there, but we have this tendency to say that these women and their lives belong only in that kind of space. They can star in a Lifetime movie but not a dramatic indie film. Their stories can be melodrama but not literature. Lazarin's stories work because she treats her characters with a seriousness that is usually reserved for men, a respect for their emotions and their experiences that is sadly still unfamiliar to many readers.
After a few stories you develop a trust with this book the way you'd trust a friend. You know each story is going to give you something real, something solid, something you can feel deep within you. You know it will not pull punches. You know the prose will be clear. You know you will see something familiar and true.
(Note: I'm twitter friends with Danielle, which has more to do with me reading this book in the first place because I was excited to see what she's written, than with my review but is still worth noting.)