‘The delicate frost. For so long I had imagined the landscapes rendered by da Vinci to be mere fantasies of Tuscany; the soft edges in The Virgin and Child, the one with Saint Anne, belonged to a whole world made of butter.’
Had to immediately go read ‘Fleabag’ again just to ‘check’ if I was somehow desensitised, but thank God, Fleabag: The Scriptures still fucks hard. JJS’ writing just didn’t work for me (it just doesn’t do it for me; and so much so that I don’t think I’ll ever change my mind on this). It’s not badly written obviously. I wouldn’t consider it ‘bad’ writing at all, but it’s a book I wish I didn’t spend time reading. But I’m sure someone else/a different reader would feel otherwise.

‘Sometimes these exes called up too late to ask, “What are you doing right now?” “I’m soaking my nipple in salt water.” “What?” She repeated, “I’m soaking my nipple piercing!” Tina never was very good at lying.’

In hindsight, I should’ve stopped reading from the first couple pages. I knew then and there that I didn’t the tone/form/style. But since this was an ARC, I wanted to try a little more. Unfortunately, I can’t be any more certain that this is just not for me. I don’t know what I can compare it to, but I needed some PWB’s ‘Fleabag’ to cleanse my biblio-palette so to speak (it was an involuntary reaction I should say). Makes me want to immediately go and read more Lynne Tillman and Miranda July; perhaps even Ottessa Moshfegh.

“But compared to most programmers, I guess I seem emotionally intelligent. What about you?”

The worst thing one can do is ‘try’ to love, right? If you vibe, you vibe; if you don’t, you don’t. Right? It’s my fault, obviously. Probably should have been reading The Pugilist instead. Could have even read William H. Gass. What else (short stories-wise)? Lorrie Moore. Ha Seong-Nan. Joyce Carol Oates. Norman Erikson Pasaribu. Alice Munro. Alice Walker. ZZ Packer. Jeanette Winterson. Felisberto Hernandez. Bora flipping Chung’s Your Utopia (translated by, of course, Anton Hur). Or even finish Chen Chuncheng’s ?????? ,‘A Submarine in The Night’ (the English translation will be published some time next year by Honford Star/Riverhead Books; so thrilled about this). Fine, I’ll chill my fucking tits and stop listing books from my TBR.

‘I ask her, Really, how are things at home? I am home, the daughter says with a frown. I ask her what she thinks about the election cycle and find that she is pessimistic. They’re both screwy, we’re all screwed. I’m exhausted by the way she flaunts her breasts, but what can I say? That she must vote. That it would mean so much to her father if she visited more often. How about your father? she says.’

‘For certainty is difficult to come by, these days, and I am reluctant to ruin it all. Beliefs are such a comfort to other people until you ask them to explain.’

Definitely not for me, unfortunately. The ‘dialogues’ and characters in particular were not-for-me. And their ‘relationships’ were just not ‘it’ for me. If anything they made me feel just a bit uncomfortable? Is it (meant to be) satire? Even if it was satire, it just didn’t work for me; instead they simply made me feel super disconnected to the writing. I wanted to it so desperately because the title is so brilliant (and I also really, really this publisher), but alas the writing is just not to my taste at all. It’s just as simple as that.

‘Anand suppressed a smile.
“What’s so funny?”
“Same to you.”
She laughed. “Nothing’s funny.”
It came to light that they’d both been wondering what the driver of the pickup had thought about a couple them.’

Also, the narrator(s) reminded me of what one of my friends had said once (about someone we both knew). She had very specifically described her as ‘mousy’ which made me laugh. And I didn’t know what she meant, and she repeated, ‘I mean, you know, she’s kind of ‘mousy’’. And I was I think she is kind of cute, no? And she responded again with, ‘Probably, but she’s kind of ‘mousy’ though, you know what I mean?’ Did I fully know what she meant? Maybe, but even more so now. Did the conversation go anywhere? No. Was it a serious/important conversation? Again, no. But reading this book made me think of that particular friend and it made my heart a little fuzzy/tender. At least that is one ‘good’ thing I managed to salvage from my experience of reading this book. So if anything, thank you for that.

‘He’d gained weight, lost hair, this past year. She’d be disappointed to see him when she did—He used to fantasize about fucking her in public restrooms, at parties, in other people’s kitchens; it would be such a relief to be caught, to confess. He swivelled in his chair and looked back into the soft white glow of the empty bath, the gleam of the tiles faint. He recalled the way she flinched, and violently, if he so much as touched a fingertip to the vertebrae of her neck. What he’d to do is take her to the Russian baths, had they done that yet? He’d to take her halfway around the world, up north, away from everyone they knew—Obviously they’ll learn, they’ll speak whatever she s, he’ll tell her everything she’s ever wanted to know in as many languages as he can manage, Schnee and neige—.’

In any case, I am sure there are plenty of other readers who would love and appreciate JJS’s novel properly. I’m just not one of them who can or (ever) will. Hopefully this book falls into more compatible, deserving and loving hands (and/but never back to me ever again for the sake of both the book and me). Actually a big fan of this publisher, so am very excited to go and shamelessly devour Baltasar’s Mammoth.arc compost-pile short-stories7 s Regan462 21

A few favorite passages that I hope convince you to pick up this collection:

"I lost entire minutes of my life trying to make their loveliness compute. How easily they wore it, lines in novels you never forget: 'We carry death within us a stone within a fruit...' The party swelled around the new arrivals, feeding on them fish."

"There is a great dignity problem for the tourist in Italy. Is there supposed to be a Giotto in here? Isn't the dick a little small? Doesn't Jesus look a little fat? I was afraid of saying something stupid. Everywhere we turned I saw ourselves: young couples in blister-proof shoes and fresh white shirts, holding hands, craning toward cathedral ceilings. Older couples, too, were everywhere dreaming of home and separate rooms, where one can shut the door. They stared at us the way one stares into the past. There is a great dignity problem in getting married, I think."

"She'd played many roles over the years, never quite able to shake the sense that she was in fact performing for someone offstage, and that her life was therefore misdirected."

"A little church, no larger than a New York kitchen, thrust its snowy steeple into the air. The windows melted, an organ swelled; a choir was practicing inside. The beauty of it struck them dumb. When had people lost the habit of singing together? Tina closed her eyes. She wanted to dissolve into the choral hymns. The longer her own silence stretched, however, the more she sensed this man was going to try to kiss her, and clumsily."contemporary not-ya short-stories6 s Lottie43 5


Ghost Pains is a stylish collection of stories exploring the chaos of the prosaic in times of extreme inordinacy. Softly powerful and full of warmth, Stevens discusses the many shapes and patterns of women at the edge of disaster.

From cataclysmic parties wounded by carnal dogs, to phone calls on stairwells at the end of the world, Stevens creates portraits on the verge of uncanny. Vibrant against the page and cosmically inspired, this collections ties together labyrinthine universes. Worlds that spill from the page with indulgence. With an eye for small intricacies and quirky details set alongside the vast ideas of violence, war, love and morality, Stevens’ first short story collection is definitely one for the books.

Stand outs from the collection are definitely Siberia and Dispatches From Berlin. 1 C812 3

'The Visitors' was my favorite book out of everything I read the year it was released, so I was overjoyed at hearing there was an upcoming collection of stories. I am a sucker for a great short story collection. Surprisingly, most of the stories in this collection are more down to earth than much of the absolute bonkers details of 'The Visitors'. I thought it would be easier to stretch to be more bonkers in short form rather than a novel, but here I am wrong! Sure, there are still some bizarre elements in these stories, but then there are, for example, many mentions of tea. Oh, I just love her writing-- fun details a fridge being "empty save my collection of half-finished jams." Overall, I don't think much can match 'The Visitors' in terms of how special it is to me, but I definitely appreciated reading more from the mind that created it. And would read more! Even so, many of these stories collected here are now some of my favorites. Any weird and wonderful short story fans out there? Make sure to pick this up.short-stories1 Avery Van3

what an odd little book. so many underlined phrases are now in my copy, the syntax was different without being fussy or ostentatious. it felt difficult at times to ascertain the point of the stories, but that did not detract from the beauty of the writing and clarity of the prose, even if it did make the collection feel a bit opaque at times. Jessie Elland60 14

Usually I read short story collections slowly; drip feeding myself each story, but Stevens’ writing is so addictive that I couldn’t help but read Ghost Pains in one gulp. As soon as I finished one story I immediately started the other in order to treat myself to whatever delicious syntax she had cooked up next. At times her writing reminded me of Deborah Levy who I LOVE, but for the most part Stevens’ prose is so inventive it’s hard to think of a direct comp.1 James Hilton15

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