Boys and Girls Like You and Me: Stories

From the Publisher

“The rare story collection that inspires a reader to go through it in one sitting. Days after reading them, these stories, in their admirable brevity, complexity, and completeness, have a way of hanging on in the mind.” -–The Rumpus

Publishers Weekly

This sure-to-please collection by Kyle (The God of Animals) probes the frequently wrongheaded choices girls and young women make to feel happy and loved. Girls growing up with fathers whose wives have vanished, girls perilously desirous of acceptance, young women enthralled by unsuitable men: these are the characters inhabiting Kyle's low-key tales. In “Nine,” the young protagonist tells elaborate lies to deflect the pain of her mother's absence, though her attempts at befriending her father's new girlfriend go terribly awry. “Allegiance” depicts the ruthless extent the new girl will go to get invited to a sleepover party held by the popular girls, especially as her mother offers suggestions for tormenting the weak. Similarly, in “Brides,” the new girl in the high school play learns how to ingratiate herself with the lead and the pervy theater teacher. Meanwhile, dallying with married men only brings grief to smart women, as in “Sex Scenes from a Chain Bookstore” and the moving title story. There's no shortage of heartache, and Kyle's varied approaches to it consistently reveals new ways of feeling bad. (Apr.)

Kirkus Reviews

The complex emotional lives of women and girls are explored in this riveting collection. Betrayal as the weapon of choice for the female of the species is a recurring theme in these 11 free-standing stories. In "Brides," a teen appearing in a high-school production of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers gets used by both the ruthless leading lady and the drama teacher besotted with her. "Allegiance" features a young British-born girl who, after moving to an American suburb with her troubled parents, gets an unforgettable lesson in the costs-and rewards-of becoming a mean girl. Self-destruction, too, has its place in Kyle's world as Lilly, the bright but unhappy young woman at the center of "Company of Strangers," exemplifies. On the day her father dies, she takes her brother's children to a theme restaurant and ends up in a kinky clinch with their pirate-costumed waiter, while the kids are in the next room. There is also the hard-drinking underachiever of the title story who hides out in a dead-end town waiting for her married boyfriend to come visit, only to be shocked out of her lethargy by an unlikely friendship with her troubled teen neighbor. The most conventionally hopeful story is told from an adolescent boy's point of view, as he comes of age (but not like that) during an incredibly awkward cruise vacation in "Captain's Club." Throughout, Kyle (The God of Animals, 2007) shows a talent for exposing the hurt at the heart of our worst impulses. And she doesn't judge. Her haunting characters, with their vulnerability and cruelty, live on in the imagination. A strange, darkly humorous trip into the female psyche.

Library Journal

Ever been the new girl at school? Know anyone who had an affair with a married man who kept promising he would leave his wife and didn't? Met women stuck in dead-end marriages who pin their hopes on their daughters? These are just some of the situations faced by the characters in this collection from Kyle, best-selling author of The God of Animals. In "Economics," a young college student takes a part-time job to make ends meet. She is hired by Red but really works for his daughter, Amy. Red thinks his daughter is a stellar business student, not knowing that the narrator is covering for her. Reality hits hard in "A Lot Like Fun" when Leigh lives the high life with her husband only to find out one day that he has left her. She turns to teaching second grade and trying to find love again. This book is filled with stories of women and girls trying to fit into society and find love and happiness. VERDICT Kyle has written an engaging collection of tales. Fans of Lorrie Moore or Alice Munro's short stories will find much to appreciate in these moments of female experience. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 12/09.]—Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., OH