Slut Lullabies
Following her debut novel, My Sister's Continent, which delved "fearlessly into questions of identity, abuse...trust, trespass, and delusion" (Booklist), Gina Frangello continues her exploration of the power dynamics of gender, class, and sexuality in this collection of diverse, vibrant short fiction. Slut Lullabies is unsettling. Like the experience of reading a private diary, these stories leave one feeling slightly traitorous while also imprinting a deep recognition of truths you did not know you felt.
It is through beauty, horror, humor and chaos that Frangello has managed to pull these ten stories out of her deep understanding of the human experience. A gay Latino man whose pious relatives are boycotting his `commitment ceremony' becomes caught up in hypocrisy and splendor when his lover's Waspy mother hires a glitzy wedding coordinator; a precocious girl seduces her teacher in order to blackmail him into funding her young stepmother's escape from their violent home; a wife turns to infidelity and drugs to distract her from chronic pain following an accident; a teenage boy attempts atonement in Amsterdam after having exploited his naive girlfriend at home; and a socialite must confront her dark past as her husband's deterioration from Huntington's Disease destroys both her bank account and social standing.
Each insightfully drawn, deeply felt character moves delicately amid the despair and wreckage of ordinary life, but always towards hope. And Frangello's oddly uplifting voice acts as the unifying thread, drawing out a beauty and dimension which demands both our criticism and our empathy.
-Product Description
Praise for Slut Lullabies
"Gina Frangello is unafraid to look hard at the dark side of human nature, but she writes with such compassion and humor that we come away from these fictions with new insight into the strange world we all live in. You lift your head from this book dazed and blinking in new light. These are jaw-dropping stories."
-- Dan Chaon, Await Your Reply
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Comments
Haven't read this one yet, but really liked My Sister's Continent. I've met Gina briefly a few times, she's as interesting as you would expect (re: very).
on my list, as you know, can't wait
Did I beat you to it, Richard?
Either way, I am looking forward to your thoughts.
And thanks again for bringing it to my attention. I ordered a copy of her novel and a copy of "Slut Lullabies" because I want a real copy, not a download. I'll be reading this one again.