Lucky Girls: Stories

There are no weak stories in Lucky Girls, yet a couple dazzle more than others. Each presents a look from the perspective of an American woman, in her 20s to 40s, with ties to Asia. The writing is very accessible, and also gives us access into the worlds of these five "lucky girls".

I was lucky to hear a reading by Nell Freudenberger recently at the Madison Book Festival. It is always a treat to discover a new author. I enjoyed all the stories, but especially Lucky Girls and The Orphan. In The Orphan, Freudenberger wrote the best description I have ever read of an interaction amoung parents and their young adult children. "She had not been angry in that furious, helpless way since Mandy was a teenager. She remembered one incident in particular, when Mandy had gone somewhere that was not allowed - she couldn't remember now what hadn't been allowed - and lied about it, and then listened to her mother's lecture about lying, about how it was the lie rather than the dance club or the bar or the party under the bridge, with a tiny smile, as if honesty were a kitschy fad from her parents' generation, like spider plants or macrame. And she thought now that it was as if Mandy had known, while she and Jeff were busy drawing up rules and lists of instructions, that this whole nonsensical era of unbelievable things was coming, and she was smiling at it, like a collaborator, over her mother's left shoulder." This book is fun, lively and insightful. Enjoy the fresh voice of this young writer.

Why is everyone so uptight about this book? It's one of the best short story collections I've read in years, and 100% of my (rather paltry) living is derived from writing book reviews. Reading over the harsh condemnations levied against Ms. Freudenberger makes me wonder if all the would-be writers out there (MFAs now waiting tables?) are just embittered by their jealousy. Hmm.

A very solid first collection. A lot of the reviews below, which talk more about marketing and advances, are clearly sour grapes from jealous would-be writers. Who cares how much she got paid?

It's sad that the whiny, undereducated people below have nothing better to do than trash this book. It's an exquisite, elegiac, subtle and very unusual collection. It has it's weaknesses, but it remains the best debut of the year, and I've read everything. Read it.An addendum: the "reader" below has given one star to every book he's ever reviewed (and trashed) except for American Psycho. Nice going reader. But get a dictionary.