Esil's Reviews > Difficult Women

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 -- the aftermath of sexual abuse, violent relationships, racial violence, unfaithful relationships, economic desperation, loss of children, etc... But these are not passive victims -- Gay gets deep into the complex subjectivity of her female characters -- often portraying a web of complicated emotions and motivations. There is a tiny silver lining that occasionally shines through in the form of powerful redemptive relationships mostly between sisters, including a couple of sets of twins. My 3.5 star rating is a recognition of Gay's talent. She writes fearlessly, treading confidently into seriously uncomfortable territory. But, oh man, so many of her stories are on the far end of bleak, relentlessly so. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an opportunity to read an advance copy.