Baby Other Stories ebook

by Paula Bomer

Paula Bomer Short Stories and Anthologies English

Paula Bomer is a dangerous writer.

Baby and Other Stories book. I quote : Paula Bomer is a dangerous writer. Paula Bomer is a dangerous writer. The short stories in her. Details (if other): Cancel.

Next book . Baby & Other Stories. 2010) A collection of stories by Paula Bomer. From a husband who traces his internal crisis to witnessing his wife giving birth, to a mother who forces her young son on a rainy walk through a cemetery as she contemplates the detritus of her marriage, Bomer s characters are hauntingly familiar. Their fear and rage, their failures and desires are our own. Genre: Literary Fiction. Praise for this book.

Baby boomers (also known as boomers) are the demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The Baby Boom generation is most often defined as those individuals born between 1946 and 1964. In Western Europe and North America, boomers are widely associated with privilege, as many grew up during a period of increasing affluence due in part to widespread post-war government subsidies in housing and education.

In The Shitty Handshake, the second story from Baby & Other Stories, it’s unclear where I can start to describe Karen, a character who refuses to believe life can be lived sober, even when she ruins her marriage by fucking another man. Her husband works constantly and expects dinner on th. . Her husband works constantly and expects dinner on the table when he comes home.

She grabs Toby by his belt and twist it until he gets a wedgy so bad that he falls to the ground. Toby becomes so embarrassed by getting beat up by a girl that he decides to leave town on the "Straight "O" Way Express. Now the adventures begin as he is joined by two other wimpy friends!

There’s a canny pageant of revelations on parade in Paula Bomer’s wry, butch, and persistently despairing debut collection, Baby & Other Stories.

There’s a canny pageant of revelations on parade in Paula Bomer’s wry, butch, and persistently despairing debut collection, Baby & Other Stories. Not the kind of classic revelations that come at the end of most short stories, like the sun cracking open a rainy sky. Rather, these are more like broken umbrellas in a storm. The everyman misanthropes at the center of Bomer’s stories are subject to frequent, blunt epiphanies that uncover an axis of disappointment-with life, love, and procreation. Here is the dawning of truth: In reality.

Paula Bomer is the author of the novel Nine Months, the short story collections Inside Madeleine and Baby and Other Stories, and the essay collection Mystery and Mortality. She lives in New York.

Paula Bomer is a dangerous writer. The short stories in her debut collection are subversive portraits of the modern American family. From a husband who traces his internal crisis to witnessing his wife giving birth, to a mother who forces her young son on a rainy walk through a cemetery as she contemplates the detritus of her marriage, Bomer s characters are hauntingly familiar. Their fear and rage, their failures and desires are our own.

Adorardana

I first heard about Ms. Bomer's book of short stories in an online magazine article. I was intrigued enough that I purchased the book. I was not disappointed. I found the book to be filled with short stories that were angry, despairing, bitter, raw and dissolute.

Many stories deal with the angst and existential loneliness of people, even (and maybe especially) those in relationships. Those with families feel alienated and frightened. Nothing comes out like expected and the ideal does not exist except as a fleeting idea.

The characters are mostly affluent and educated people, disenchanted with their lives and their families. They are graduates of Smith, Middlebury, and Connecticut College. Unlike the wonderful writers Donald Ray Pollack and Raymond Carver who write about the poor and disenfranchised, and the cultural calamities that they face, Bomer examines the dysfunction and poverty of life of the more affluent and educated.

There is the wife who can't get her husband to leave home until she holds a knife to her neck and threatens to kill herself, the man who believes that his life's trauma results from having to watch his wife give birth. There is a woman trapped in a loveless marriage, governed by her own anger and alcoholism. She can only feel anger, rage, resentment and disappointment. These are typical feelings shared by many of the characters that people Bomer's stories.

Many of the stories deal with the dynamics of marriage once children are present. There is the family where one child 'belongs' to the father and the other to the mother. In another story, the father is the odd man out. In yet another, a mother tries to appease the child she loves by paying more attention to the child she loves less.

Almost all these stories deal with imploding families, with dynamics so mercurial and devastating that the reader wants to hold on to their chair for dear life. This is a book to savor. It definitely will stay with you whether you want it to or not. It is powerful, bold and strong. Don't miss this book. Thank you Paula Bomer!

Mr_TrOlOlO

I found Bomer's stories filled with the kind of brutal honesty that people think, but don't say out loud, when it comes to having and raising a family. I also like that she's taken all of her stories into different perspectives with each new character introduced: from a doting mother and a dissonant father to their polar opposites--all the while maintaining that gut-wrenching sense of self-truth that few authors explore, while exploring that same theme throughout.

My only criticism, which is minor, lies in the hype of the book's marketing; I myself write horror stories. The only thing that should shock people about this kind of writing is that, when they read the title "Baby," their expectations wind up a bit different from what they arrive at after they've put the book down--whether they've finished it or not. The idealistic hermits that can't handle Baby don't deserve the kind of insight that Bomer provides in her stories. However, in my case, when you've written tales involving gory murders, mass genocide, and introspective, suicidal self-loathing, reading Baby is a stroll in the park: albeit, a very, very insightful walk. I'd recommend this book to anyone that isn't pregnant.

Uranneavo

I am transported by Ms Bomer's writing. To a place so real...where hard things and funny things and true things intertwine and nudge each other and being alive makes as much sense as is possible, given the amazing unpredictable nature of the journey through our lives. She observes what I observe but she grants these little details a weight and significance that I don't. And I, as the reader, benefit from that diligence and depth. Strong, unforgettable stories. Loved it!

Lemana

Paula Bomer scares people because she talks about things that most likely has entered every person's mind, especially women, whether we want to admit it or not. So, you know, be honest with yourself and read you some Baby.

Hanad

After reading the first story, was not sure I wanted to continue .. Glad I did ...Paula Bomer gives the reader a raw world of emotions, and feelings seldom seen.... She hits the nail on the head with relationships, motherhood, addiction, and rage against the trapped and wasted lives... Recommend.

Moswyn

The theme of these stories is how children can change a marriage. Being a parent I agree that having children is a big adjustment for any marriage but generally a happy one. All the characters in these stories are angry, depressed and unhappy with their lives and marriages. She is a talented writer but the stories are so dreary and depressing that I did not enjoy the book.

Cktiell

In spare and unsparing prose, Paula Boer has written a dark, brilliant collection of stories that's as compelling as good gossip, as insightful as a wise therapist.

A bit dark. Cringeworthy. Abrupt endings. Meanings not evident. Something I look forward to deleting off my ipad. Do not recommend