Roxane Gay

"A collection of stories of ... hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection"--

Difficult Women

Kendall McClain

Short stories hold a special place in my heart, especially when the stories are about sullen and often slightly crazy women

azliana aziz

i love bleak stories. i love bleak stories with female characters. naturally, i was so so hyped with this new collection of short stories all about difficult women. hurrah

while i agree wholeheartedly that Gay is a tremendous writer who really know what's her story but sadly in difficult women, i couldn't summon up the 'i love this book so passionately i want to hug it and keep it near my heart forever' which i usually get with my share of books with troubled women. 
case in point:
the woman upstairs, love me back, eileen, sharp objects, nobody is ever missing.

i think there's this effortless beauty in writing difficult, burdened female characters without centering the whys in traumatic experiences. 
we can be difficult, hateful, angry without never being in hurtful incidents.
we are bad, broken, sad, 
because it's in our blood, because we are wired differently from other people, because yes we're just that vindictive and ugly and perhaps it's just who we are, the way it's always have been.

i do appreciate Gay's intention in trying to give lights to how all of those experiences shaped our life and sometimes we embraced it, we grow in spite of it all BUT when 80% of your stories revolves around similar things it quickly become same old tired vignettes that by the end of it all i can't help but feel so numb.

there is graphic rape and sexual assault described in this book! i did not expect it and it made me feel awful. also there is just so much sex in these stories (which is fine i get it but it was not described like that and there was just so much of it). the stories were fine i just didn’t feel too strongly about any of them. 

Clara Gauthier

Liz B

Great short story collection. Some stories were a little more compelling than others (to me), but all really powerful. Very heavy though--approach with caution if you have trauma triggers.

Maddie

Many of the stories are difficult to read, involving physical and/or emotional abuse, particularly to women. The stories explore some of the darker things that happen that aren't often discussed.

Maggie Gordon

Difficult Women is... a difficult read, unsurprisingly. However, I find myself shocked that I didn't adore this collection of short stories given how much I like Roxane Gay. I think my indifference towards the collection relates to one thing: the stories are all very tonal similar. Each narrative is a brutal exploration of abuse and pain, and most end on a rather dark note. This is a book filled with violence, not gratuitous or exploitative violence, but violence nevertheless. Is this a bad thing? No, but I will admit that after reading several mainstream reviews about what an important, feminist book this was, I was expecting something different. Even Gay herself said the book was supposed to have a hopeful core, but I am afraid I missed that message. While there were a few stories with a ending that wasn't utterly bleak, I would not say that the overall message of the book is particularly hopeful. It's about survival and the terrible things we do to ourselves as we try to survive. It casts a light on some of the dreadful things that women experience, often at the hands of men. But in terms of moving women forward to a better future? Honestly, it doesn't offer much in that regard which is why I was disappointed. Difficult Women wasn't a terrible book, but it wasn't really a book I needed or wanted (my non-book related life is all violence against women so...). I was frustrated with the fact that all the stories blended together into a mess of violence and destruction, but for some this might be a valued reflection of their own experiences. Or for others, this might be a good book to read to develop empathy for survivors of violence. Not really the book for me though.

Vivian

A collection of short stories that didn't shy away from going to dark places.. Not a pleasant read and I couldn't emotionally or intellectually relate to any of the women. Roxane Gay is clearly an excellent writer who wields words as weapons, but this book is just not for me.

Alianor Chapman

The stories in Difficult Women are beautiful and challenging just like the title suggests. Roxanne Gay develops characters who play with the many ways a woman can be categorized as difficult but there are no straightforward clichés to be found in any of the stories. Every story is portrays a multi-dimensional woman which is refreshing to see since it makes so many of the characters connect to friends or family. When archetypes are employed, Gay takes care to poke at the edges of symbols which challenges the readers to explore their own expectations of female experience. 

It's easy to read the stories but there are so many moments where I needed to put down the book. Gay deftly describes some of the toughest, common parts of being female that remain tricky to talk about if you don't share that particular pain. Difficult Women shines light on the feelings of women as they navigate common and difficult experiences. During reading, I kept thinking this would be a great book to share with people who have quesitons about the gristly parts of female experience. 

I've had a few days to marinate on the stories which made me bump up my star rating from 4 to 5. I can't shake some characters from my mind. 

Stand out stories: 
I Will Follow You: Deeply bonded sisters venture to Nevada so the older sister can reconnect with her husband- or so it seems. This story starts the book. If you're unsure about the book, I'd read this in the bookstore to see if you want to proceed. Not all stories are as heavy but it's a solid peek into the deft handling Gay gives troubling topics. 

Sacrifice of Darkness: This story will appeal to Margaret Atwood fans since it's one of two dystopian stories. 

Difficult Women: This isn't a story. It's a taxonomy of types of women. It ends with two sentences that pack such a punch my breath got stuck in my throat. 

Noble Things: Imagine a second Civil War and you're picturing the start of this story. It takes social events and takes them to their inevitable conclusion. I'd say it's dystopian if it didn't seem so, so possible.

Alisa

I enjoy Roxane Gay's writing, and I think these stories are dark in the best possible way. I did find the book to be about 30% too long, but that may be more of a reflection on my appetite for short stories than it is on the book itself. 3.5/5

Melissa Schwartz

This was a book of short stories, and I rated each one and took an average which came to 3.64.
I Will Follow You - 5
Water, All it’s Weight - 4
The Mark of Cain - 5
Difficult Women - 3
Florida - 3.5
La Negra Blanca - 4
Baby Arm - 1
North Country - 5
How - 5
Requiem for a Glass Heart - 4
In the Event... - 4
Break All... - 4
Bad Priest - 3
Open Marriage - 2
A Pat - 3
Best Features - 4
Bone Density - 3
I Am a Knife - 2
The Sacrifice... - 5
Noble Things - 4
Strange gods - 3

Award-winning author and powerhouse talent Roxane Gay burst onto the scene with An Untamed State and the New York Times bestselling essay collection Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial). Gay returns with Difficult Women, a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Jamie Quatro, and Miranda July.

Flavia Louise

Astha Prakash

This book got me out of my "I'm unable to read anything" funk. Every story is fast-paced and almost intoxicating. The way Roxane Gay describes women is so refreshing, so real, so effortless. She plays with structure, pacing, timelines, formats, characters, descriptions. So powerful. So playful. I love how there aren't any discernible rules and how human complexities are allowed to sprawl out and take their place in all her stories. I can't say I liked every single story, but my favourite one was definitely 'Break All The Way Down.' So, so good.

Caroline Lewicki

I wanted to like this so badly because I've heard so many incredible things about Roxane Gay. I have nothing bad to say about her writing, as it's eloquent and beautiful. I didn't think that writing individual, separate stories worked well. I think Gay has a very strong voice, which is wonderful, but it means each story read almost exactly the same. It didn't feel like I was reading a string of independent stories.

I also felt unsatisfied by so many of the stories. They're dark and many depressing. I didn't feel like any of them really showed strong women, or difficult women, or women you should want to be. I'm not normally opposed to these things in writing, but every story was inundated with sex, or abuse, or incredible hardship that often has no resolution.

I plan to read other works by Roxane Gay but this one was not my cup of tea.

A national bestseller from the “prolific and exceptionally insightful” (Globe and Mail) Roxane Gay,Difficult Women is a collection of stories of rare force that paints a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America. Difficult Women tells of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and, grown now, must negotiate the elder sister’s marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. Astripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay gives voice to a chorus of unforgettable women in a scintillating collection reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Anne Enright, and Miranda July.

Corinne Falotico

Sam Pulliam

I’m not sure how to sum up the stories in this collection in a couple of sentences. These are raw and real stories about women from all types of backgrounds going through or dealing with hardships or simply just trying to live. If you’re familiar with Roxane Gay’s writing outside of Bad Feminist, you probably have an idea of what these stories are like.
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This collection is heavy. There are stories about strained marriages, abuse, miscarriages, and rape. It’s in the same vein as Roxane Gay’s Hunger and Not That Bad. This wasn’t an easy read, of course, but I always appreciate the way Gay tackles not only these difficult topics but the difficult emotions that come along with them. There are women who like being hurt and that might be hard to understand but Gay included that because for some people, that’s true. Two stories that stood out to me were “Open Marriage” and “Noble Things.” The first is about a woman who is married to a twin; the twins often switch places and she pretends she doesn’t notice. The second is about an America that has gone through a second civil war. If you’re in the right headspace, I definitely recommend this collection.
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Trigger Warnings from Storygraph:
Child abuse
Child death
Sexual assault
Sexual content
Death
Domestic abuse
Fatphobia
Infertility
Infidelity
Miscarriage
Misogyny
Physical abuse
Racism
Rape
Sexism
Sexual violence
Toxic relationship
Blood
Kidnapping
Grief

Emily C Peterson

Award-winning author and powerhouse talent Roxane Gay burst onto the scene with An Untamed State and the New York Times bestselling essay collection Bad Feminist (Harper Perennial). Gay returns with Difficult Women, a collection of stories of rare force and beauty, of hardscrabble lives, passionate loves, and quirky and vexed human connection. The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls' fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Jamie Quatro, and Miranda July.

Dearna Mulvaney

You can find my full review at https://wordsoftheroses.wordpress.com...

“It was too much. She didn’t dare trust it. She broke his heart. When she closes her eyes, she remembers his fingers, tracing the bones of her spine.”

Difficult Women is Roxane Gay’s latest short story collection. The collection focuses on quirky women with hardscrabble lives who are hunting for passionate loves through vexed human connection. The women live lives of privilege and poverty, and are in marriages both loving and haunted by crimes or emotional blackmail.

This is a very dark collection; focusing on abuse victims, mother dealing with the death a her children, pressure to conform to society ideal body image and broken families. I can’t say this was a collection I enjoy reading, in the traditional sense of the meaning enjoy. Some of the stories like La Negra Blanca makes my skin crawl. It’s an important collection, which gives voice to haunting realities some women live.

Anyaconda

Well this one was ok, although not as good as Hunger or Bad Feminist. I feel like I should've read Difficult Women before the other two

Brook

I loved this book—with some stories standing out more than others, and some being a bit confusing. Ultimately, it's a hilarious, sad, and painful book about life as a woman. There's abuse in this book, and death. It's not something I'd recommend to everyone, because it's a hard book to get through at time, but if you can read it, you'll find depth. Somehow this is my first book by Gay, and I wasn't sold on reading it until I saw her speak & read from it at Powell's. She's hilarious, often in a dark—I've-seen-too-much-and-now-I-laugh-to-survive way. Maybe you feel this way too. This book is likely for you.

'Phenomenally powerful and beautifully written' the Guardian The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. From a girls' fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America. 'Gay brings the powerful voice that flows through her work as a novelist and cultural critic to the 21 short stories in her first collection . . . Gay's "difficult women" are unforgettable' BBC.com 'Gay's signature dry wit and piercing psychological depth make every story mermerisingly unusual and simply unforgettable' Harper's Bazaar

Difficult Women

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