Anyone who does not know who *Roxane Gay* has been living under a rock for too long! She's a phenomenal talented inspiring woman. Roxanne has brought tears to my eyes more than once. She's a feminist who turned to books as a child when her family moved several times and struggled to make friends. She began writing essays as a teenager-- and her work today is greatly influenced by a sexual assault she experienced at age 12. From the first time -last June - when I had the honor to hear her speak -...

Twenty-one short stories about flawed, complex individuals who might typically be reduced to dismissive categories. I can't say I enjoyed reading Difficult Women, but I'm glad I read it. One of the many things that Gay excelled at was creating fully-formed characters and relationships in just a few pages. I felt like I intimately knew each character, even though some of the stories were very short. We're introduced to a variety of women: jaded women, women who don't think they deserve love, wome...

I'd give this 4.5 stars.This is a crazy-good collection, filled with stories that are sometimes quirky, sometimes moving, sometimes ribald, sometimes funny, but nearly always utterly compelling. There are 21 stories in this collection—some last little more than a page, while some are much longer, but there is a real power in Roxane Gay's storytelling, whether the stories have an almost frenzied pace or proceed in a slower, more contemplative fashion.While the title of this collection is Diffi...

Roxane Gay slays what she needs to slay with this riveting, hard-hitting short story collection about difficult women and the dangerous situations they face. As Gay has discussed in interviews, society often puts women in positions where they must fight and act "difficult" to survive - to fend off a leery coworker, to break free from an abusive boyfriend, to feel understood as a woman of color in a town filled with whiteness. This collection contains challenging topics, such as sexual assault, r...

Roxane Gay can fucking WRITE. Even though the stories can be phenomenally uncomfortable in their subject matter, the precision of her language and the wonder of her story construction leave me in awe.

Difficult Women could have easily been titled Sad Women or Sad Women Having Sex. No, no, no, not every woman is sad, and not every single story is about sex, but that’s the impression it left me. Don’t fret—it’s not too graphic and it’s not porn, it’s just there. I’d love to hear why Gay titled the book Difficult Women. When I think of difficult women, I think of women who are generally a pain, who are sassy, who rock the boat. But here, these women have had their boats rocked. They have difficu...

my becoming-a-genius project, part 12.5!here is the accursed lowdown:i have decided to become a genius.to accomplish this, i'm going to work my way through the collected stories of various authors, reading + reviewing 1 story every day (in this case 2 a day - i'm allowed to break the rule because i made them) until i get bored / lose every single follower / am struck down by a vengeful deity.this is 12.5 (and not 13) because this project is allegedly one in which i read the COLLECTED STORIES of

A stunning collection of hard-hitting, discomfiting stories about women. In all their forms.Many of the stories here pack a severe emotional punch, or challenge you to think, or disgust you. But what is evident throughout is that Gay is an amazing writer. For someone like me who generally prefers characters, plot, atmosphere and most things over the words themselves, it was astounding to be so floored by the author's command of language. She wields sentences as weapons and uses them to break you...

True confession - I haven't read any Roxane Gay, but I have heard a lot about her work. It's not like I've avoided her writing, just haven't had access to it. So when Netgalley had her latest collection 'Difficult Women' up for grabs, I grabbed with both hands. Admittedly, between reading the blurb of the book and reading the actual book, several months went by, so the first of the stories was not what I expected, and neither were the rest. The collection didn't quite fit the book's title of Dif...

Difficult Women is a collection of short stories all centered around different women's lives. Common themes are race, sexism, family, death, trauma,motherhood, assault, and many more. Most of them are dark and heavy, yet very powerful. Her words hit deep and you feel raw emotions as you get to know the characters to such a depth that I thought was impossible in a short story. Each chapter is a different tale of the challenges of being a woman. These stories, through their painful details, captur...

This. This is the reason why I started reading more short story collections. I knew there must be brilliant books that I would miss otherwise. This collection is absolutely incredible and it might very well end up being my favourite book of 2016 (and I read some really great books this year).There is not a single bad story in this collection and some were among the best things I have ever read. The collection is aptly named "Difficult Women" - women and their experiences are at the centre of thi...

Okay, first of all: I love Roxane Gay. I've actually never read anything by her before, but I saw her speak at my local bookstore recently and absolutely loved it. She was one of the funniest speakers we've ever had, I think. I also love that she's a famous feminist who isn't a skinny straight white woman. Nothing against skinny straight white woman; it's just great to see famous feminists who have different marginalized identities, too. Unfortunately, as much as I respect her, I'm not sure how

4.5 Stars!My reviews can also be seen at: https://deesradreadsandreviews.wordpr...Roxane Gay is one talented writer. I'm not usually one for short-stories but I really enjoyed this collection. Many of the stories first appeared in publications such as Best American Mystery Stories, American Short Fiction, The Minnesota Review, Best American Short Stories and many others."a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connecti...

Anything with Roxane Gay’s name on it is guaranteed to pique my interest.Difficult Women is a collection of short stories that cover a wide range of modern women, from a woman pretending not to realize when her husband switches places with his twin brother to a stripper putting herself through college and fending off an obsessed customer.And a number of the stories had me just floored by the raw emotion and chilling writing.Here are a few of my favorites pieces: I Will Follow You: A fantastic

3.5 stars. Ouch... Maybe it's the mood I'm in, but at times Difficult Women felt almost too harsh and painful for me to keep reading -- I had to temper its effects by breaking up my reading with a few chapters from a book about the Berlin Wall of all things. Difficult Women is a collection of short stories. Some are very short -- vignettes really -- and others are longer. Some flirt with surrealism, but most are anchored in a very dark reality. They almost all focus on women in nasty situations

3.5★“For difficult women, who should be celebrated for their very nature.”Roxane Gay's introduction.I really liked the first stories – the writing, the characters, the situations. But as it went on, too many of the women (and the men and occasional friends) were like replicas of each other. Whether wealthy or dirt poor, they were difficult for those around them.I also had the feeling that almost all the women seemed to be defined by the men in their lives. In some cases, they were men they had l...

There is no question that this author can write and write well, and that I am the outlier so far in many reviews. These stories were grim, women placed in difficult situations, women treated with little kindness, many seemed to just accept their lives would be like this. Hopelessness, despair, women in many different situations, many occupations. Some were more fantastical and I found these a welcome relief. These may be realistic, thankfully I don't know, maybe these are true depictions of some...

Yesterday Goodreads ran a question and answer session with author Roxane Gay in anticipation of the release of her memoir Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body. I felt that Gay delivered poignant responses as she voiced what it means for her to be a feminist as we move forward through the 21st century. Next month, a group I belong to, Literary Fiction by People of Color, has selected Gay's Difficult Women as its monthly read. With Gay being a popular author as she continues to churn out novels and story...

Broken WomenLost WomenTroubled WomenAbused WomenMany titles come to mind to describe these stories; difficult is not one of them. And I guess because I was expecting a different interpretation of difficult - though, admittedly with Bad Feminist lingering in the back of my mind - this book caught me off guard. Had I picked up this book with An Untamed State frame of mind, I would've been on target. My primary issue with the book is that nearly all of these women deal with their issues the same wa...

You can’t just use words like “great” or “amazing” to describe this story collection. I settled on astonishing, arresting, and staggering. It requires language that pinpoints at least a little the ways that Difficult Women will wreck you. You will be wrecked, but you will also feel affirmed and seen and known. That may sound like a contradiction, but that is what Difficult Women is all about. The contradictions of existing as a woman in the world. The contradictions of sex, love, and connection....