Daddy
-
-
3.8 • 4 Ratings
-
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
'Taut, beautiful and savage' Guardian
A man travels to his son's school to deal with the fallout of a violent attack and to make sure his son will not lose his college place. But what exactly has his son done? And who is to blame?
A young woman trying to make it in LA, working in a clothes shop while taking acting classes, turns to a riskier way of making money but will be forced to confront the danger of the game she's playing.
And a family coming together for Christmas struggle to skate over the lingering darkness caused by the very ordinary brutality of a troubled husband and father.
Subtle, sophisticated and displaying an extraordinary understanding of human behaviour, these stories from the best-selling author of The Girls are unforgettable.
______________________
PRAISE FOR DADDY:
'It is her piercing understanding of modern humiliation that makes these stories vibrate with life...brilliant' Brandon Taylor
'Razor-sharp' Evening Standard
'Cline's talent at uncovering the seedy and somehow bringing it to beautiful light is brilliant' Daisy Johnson
'Something about Cline's intimate tone, her talent for conjuring the feeling of being alive, is entirely and uniquely her own' Rachel Kushner
'A stunning collection of stories that plunges deep into the dark corners of the human experience' Dazed
Customer Reviews
Daddy’s girl
Author
American, from California. Her stories have been published in The New Yorker, Tin House, Granta and The Paris Review. In her first novel, The Girls (2016), the titular girls are followers of a Manson-style sect that does bad stuff. I thought it was overwritten, but rumour has it Ms C received a $2 million advance. (Did someone say KFC?) The book was shortlisted for the John Leonard Award from the National Book Critics Circle and the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. In 2017, Cline was named one of Granta's Best Young American Novelists.
In brief
Ten well constructed stories that circle around issues without ever confronting them face-to-face. Like life, really. Themes include male-female interactions, masculinity, toxic or otherwise, disappointment, and assorted other vagaries of human nature. Resolution, complete resolution at least, is rarely achieved in short fiction, and that is certainly the case here. In every story, something significant goes unsaid, not that there's anything wrong with that.
Writing
Ms Cline reins in most of the excesses of style that annoyed me in The Girls. The writing is spare in the main, not quite Raymond Carver but impressive enough. While her knack for unusual metaphors might not be everyone's cup of tea, I like it.
Bottom line
After being disappointed by The Girls, I was in two minds about purchasing this, but it was a worthwhile investment.