Inside Madeleine
Paula Bomer
ISBN: 9781616953096
Published: May, 2014
Pricing
More books by Paula Bomer
Description
From the author of Nine Months, which Marcy Dermansky called “deliciously, dangerously rogue,” comes a powerful, daring new collection about the curious, complicated relationships girls have with their bodies, with other girls, and with boys.
A young anorexic girl comes to terms with her changing body while lying in the...
From the author of Nine Months, which Marcy Dermansky called “deliciously, dangerously rogue,” comes a powerful, daring new collection about the curious, complicated relationships girls have with their bodies, with other girls, and with boys.
A young anorexic girl comes to terms with her changing body while lying in the hospital; Polly deals with her unwelcome puberty whilst falling prey to peer pressure in the suspenseful vein of “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”; Mary’s nice-girl attitude is challenged when she begins a job at a psych ward; two best friends discover the power of being beautiful and young; Madeleine discovers menstruation and the power that comes with it; a kinky sexual relationship turns into a dangerous obsession.
This eagerly awaited book seethes with alienation, lust and rage. It’s even more daring and accomplished than Bomer’s first collection, which Jonathan Franzen described as “like being attacked by a rabid dog — and feeling grateful for it. This is some of the rawest and most urgent writing I can remember encountering.”
Media
“With surgical insight, Inside Madeline delves into the most complex female territory imaginable and dissects until every honest bone is revealed. Bomer's prose doesn't flinch, doesn't filter—the bravery of these stories left me breathless.”
—Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa
“The stories in Paula Bomer’s Inside Madeleine are many things—funny, horny, sad, smart—but what makes them exemplary is Bomer’s utmost fearlessness in confronting both the betrayals of the human body, and the irreparable loneliness of living inside of one. Whether we’re at a South Bend skating rink or CBGB’s, a halfway house or an anorexia ward, the humanity of Bomer’s characters is on hi-def display, allowing readers an intimate glimpse at what goes on in another person’s skin, and providing no holds barred illumination on such subjects as the uncontrollability of desire and the futility of discipline in the face of nature’s unfairness. This book is not for the faint of heart. Rather, it’s for the Reader who wants something courageously real: sweaty, bloody, beautiful. ”
—Adam Wilson, author of Flatscreen: A Novel
“So arresting I raced to finish ... ”
—Lorin Stein, Paris Review blog
“Dysfunctional doesn't begin to describe the marriages in this brilliant, brutally raw debut collection. ”
—Praise for Paula Bomer from O Magazine
“If Bomer's harsh portrayal of modern parenting and marriage were water, it would be transparent, unflecked, jagged ice.... She lands firmly between Mary Gaitskill's articulate, unflinching anhedonia and Kathy Acker.... Amy Hempel with a twist of Grace Paley. ”
—Praise for Paula Bomer from Bookforum
“This is a brave and provocative book about the insidious power of PC. That’s Parental Correctness, not Political Correctness... [Bomer’s] wounding analysis of herself and the vicious new mummy tribes she introduces us to make this book an instant classic. ”
—Praise for Paula Bomer from The Guardian
“Raw and urgent ... Bomer does not hesitate to talk about sex, violence, the perversions we hide inside, or the forgiveness and acceptance we desire. Never for the faint of heart or weak-minded.”
—BuzzFeed Books on Inside Madeleine
“Bitter little pills about the world through the eyes of disillusioned girls.”
—Kirkus Reviews on Inside Madeleine
“[The title story] “Inside Madeleine” is the heartbreaking—and erotic—description of the destruction caused when the only man who sees her realistically leaves a vulnerable woman. ”
—Booklist on Inside Madeleine
“The stories in Paula Bomer’s Inside Madeleine take your hand, tell you a secret, and then burp in your face, giggling. They are honest, playful, and cagey, and the very title of the collection suggests these tonal complexities.”
—HTMLGIANT on Inside Madeleine
“[Bomer] stares many things in the face in Inside Madeleine, and that’s what makes it such a thought-provoking read.”
Small Press Picks on Inside Madeleine
“Paula Bomer’s new short story collection should come with a warning label: not for the timid or easily shocked ... If you’re looking for an unconventional summer read that is both brutally funny and powerfully emotional, don’t miss this book.”
—The Brooklyn Daily on Inside Madeleine
“Bomer’s book will be talked about because she writes with such honesty about sex, but it is in matters of the soul she is most honest. These are women laid bare. Bomer dares us to look.”
—The Rumpus
“The stories are often brutal, disappointment being the mildest outcome, with Bomer capturing her characters’ anger and helplessness in a graphic and gritty style. For readers who enjoy their short fiction explicit and tough.”
—Library Journal on Inside Madeleine
“Dynamite and obscene ... Inside Madeleine is an honest and urgent collection.”
—Review of Contemporary Fiction on Inside Madeleine
“Bomer offers her characters no outs—only the creeping sense that they're doomed to swing forever between futile attempts at self-determination.”
—The New York Times Book Review on Inside Madeleine
“These stories, these girls, will stick with me for a long time ... even if I want to forget them.”
—LitReactor on Inside Madeleine
“Paula Bomer is one of those rare writers who can fit us snugly into the skin of a character within the confines of a short story. Whether it feels sickly or claustrophobic in that skin, it’s never too much to make you not want to keep turning the pages. ”
–Brooklyn Based on Inside Madeleine
“It might be best to imagine Bomer’s characters as moths endlessly flying toward the flickering blue neon light of a bug-zapper. Desire inevitably leads to futility. ”
–Tweed's Magazine on Inside Madeleine
“I loved Paula Bomer’s Inside Madeline—perhaps more than its predecessor, Mary Gaitskill’s Bad Behavior—because what Bomer nails isn’t the raw real courage—it’s the quiet staring, the lip-chewing looks by which girls devour each other.”
–American Microreviews & Interviews on Inside Madeleine
“Paula Bomer is unrelenting. She deserves more readers. You should be one of them. ”