Fresh Complaint
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- €6.99
Publisher Description
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR
AN EVENING STANDARD BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘What was it about complaining that felt so good? You and your fellow sufferer emerging from a thorough session as if from a spa bath, refreshed and tingling?’
The first-ever collection of short stories from Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jeffrey Eugenides presents characters in the midst of personal and national emergencies.
We meet Kendall, a failed poet who, envious of other people’s wealth during the real estate bubble, becomes an embezzler; and Mitchell, a lovelorn liberal arts graduate on a search for enlightenment; and Prakrti, a high school student whose wish to escape the strictures of her family leads to a drastic decision that upends the life of a middle-aged academic.
Jeffrey Eugenides’s bestselling novels Middlesex, The Virgin Suicides and The Marriage Plot have shown him to be an astute observer of the crises of adolescence, self-discovery and family love. These stories, from one of our greatest authors, explore equally rich and intriguing territory.
Narratively compelling and beautifully written, Fresh Complaint shows all of Eugenides’s trademark humour, compassion and complex understanding of what it is to be human.
Reviews
‘[An] excellent short story collection … Eugenides deploys his pronounced gifts for comedy and characterisation at the same time as he builds an overwhelming atmosphere of suffocation’ Guardian
‘A very good short story writer…they are a breeze to read and Eugenides inhabits each new consciousness with easy confidence’ The Times
‘I adored Fresh Complaint … beautifully written and couldn’t be more topical’ Observer, Books of the Year
‘Eugenides has always been known as a master of prose, a sharp and precise writer whose use of language is second to none …If you want a manageable yet unputtdownable reading experience for the week, it has to be this’ Sunday Times Style Magazine
‘The ten stories that make up Fresh Complaint, Eugenides first collection, boast a wide range of themes – a collage of the writer’s myriad of interests and voices’ TLS
‘Deftly drawn sketches … most concern the tribulations of growing older, and the infernal complications of family life as we adjust to the requirements of ever-changing circumstances’ Financial Times
‘The collection explores the connection between the inner and outer life, with a suave wit and equanimity that make it deceptively conversational’ Literary Review
‘These are poignantly told, but it’s the characters who are feeling an emotional lack that make the biggest impact’ Daily Mail
‘Jeffrey Eugenides’s beautifully written collection of short stories Fresh Complaint is not only the best thing I’ve read all year – it also couldn’t be more 2017, featuring transgender teenagers, rape allegations on campus and much more besides’ Rohan Silva, Evening Standard, Books of the Year
‘There is much to enjoy and admire; notably the fact there’s not a dud in the collection, an achievement that’s harder to pull off that it might seem’ Independent
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Best known for the Pulitzer Prize winning novel Middlesex, Eugenides here collects the stories he has been steadily producing through the years. The earliest story, "Capricious Gardens," originates from Eugenides's M.F.A. thesis. In it, two American backpackers spend the night at the home of a recently divorced Irishman. Its plot (the host desires one of the travelers, but her companion has other plans) is of less importance than the structural experimentation. In the humorous "The Oracular Vulva," "the famous sexologist" Dr. Peter Luce (also featured in Middlesex) makes one last, uncomfortable attempt to salvage his theory of intersexuality and his prestige by journeying into a remote jungle village to do field work. "Airmail" is an epistolary account of a young man's journey towards enlightenment and gastric peace in India. "Baster" is a tale of a woman taking her fertility into her own hands with a marvelous O. Henry ending. The title story is an adroit and moving exploration of an Indian-American teenager's desperate attempts to avoid an arranged marriage. "The Great Experiment" is the collection's highlight: working for a small press called Great Experiment run by Jimmy Boyko, an elderly former pornographer turned free speech advocate Kendall spends his days collecting quotes from de Tocqueville's Democracy in America for a slim volume to be entitled The Pocket Democracy. When Jimmy's accountant tells Kendall over drinks, "If you and I weren't so honest we could make a lot of money" by embezzling from Jimmy's publishing venture, Kendall must weigh the price of his integrity against taking his slice of the American Dream. The collection is uneven, but even the weakest story is never boring, and Eugenides's prodigious abilities are showcased throughout.
