In Party Girls, her third collection of short stories, Diane Goodman deftly explores community, class and culture through the allure of the party -- the desire to throw one, the work it takes to pull it off, and the surprising and sometimes devastating ways these seemingly light-hearted events can alter the lives of the people who attend them. Goodman's writing displays the finesse of a professional hostess. She mixes intimacy, expectation and protocol into an adept examination of how contemporary manners and mores battle against the fundamental needs of friendship, acceptance and belonging. In these accomplished stories, Goodman invites us to be her guest as she explores the emotional issues that ultimately derail the best intentions, leaving us with the question one of the characters asks: What do people want from each other?
In Party Girls, her third collection of short stories, Diane Goodman deftly explores community, class and culture through the allure of the party -- the desire to throw one, the work it takes to pull it off, and the surprising and sometimes devastating ways these seemingly light-hearted events can alter the lives of the people who attend them. Goodman's writing displays the finesse of a professional hostess. She mixes intimacy, expectation and protocol into an adept examination of how contemporary manners and mores battle against the fundamental needs of friendship, acceptance and belonging. In these accomplished stories, Goodman invites us to be her guest as she explores the emotional issues that ultimately derail the best intentions, leaving us with the question one of the characters asks: What do people want from each other?