Show Them a Good Time
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2.0 • 1 Rating
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- £8.49
Publisher Description
A New Statesman, Irish Times and Guardian Book of the Year
'A masterclass . . . Bold, irreverent and agonisingly funny' Sally Rooney
A young, broke Irish woman narrates her relationship with a successful comedian in New York; two hapless university students take to the stage in a bid to assert their autonomy; a school teacher makes her way through a series of dead-end dates, gamely searching for love or distraction as the world teeters towards ruin.
The characters in these magnificently accomplished stories are haunted as much by the future as they are by their pasts. Urgent and unforgettable, Show Them a Good Time marks the arrival of a strikingly original new voice in fiction.
'Demands repeated reading' Jon McGregor
'Explores difficult questions about self-worth, agency and intimacy with thrilling sharpness' Sunday Times
'Announces the arrival of a brilliant talent' Financial Times
Winner of the Irish Book Awards Short Story of the Year 2019
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Disenchanted characters maneuver through difficult settings in Flattery's surreal and offbeat debut collection. Though diverse in content, the stories come together through their dystopian elements and comparably cynical protagonists. In "Sweet Talk," a young teen falls for her father's employee against the backdrop of a series of mysterious disappearances of multiple women in her hometown. In "Track," the girlfriend of a has-been comedian withstands neglect and abuse from him while secretly contributing to his downfall through an internet forum. The title story tells of a former adult film actress who confronts workplace politics at her new job as a gas station attendant. A woman navigates dating during the apocalypse and finds it to be equally as disappointing in "Not the End Yet." In "Abortion, a Love Story," two college misfits unite to produce a stage play that questions the expectations forced upon them as adults. A seamless blend of reality and the surreal, Flattery's stories defy genre in an affecting yet unobtrusive manner. Readers should expect to be equal parts intrigued and unsettled.
