I just finished Out Of The Girls Room And Into The Night. Thisbe Nissen’s collection of short stories had me from the very beginning. After reading the first story, I set the book down on the bed and thought to myself, “I’m really gonna enjoy this book”. And I did, right through to the last page.
The novel consists of each character recounting love’s triumphs, failures, deceptions, delicacy, destruction, unpredictability, and enormity. Most of these stories concerned themselves with situations in which the heart is acting and the head is watching, thinking to itself, “I hope you know what you’re doing heart.” Although mostly young women, the characters span all types of demographics from dead-heads to anorexics to lesbians to college students to upper-class boarding school girls to a couple on their 25th anniversary. Most of the stories hang in those moments when we are feeling uncomfortable in our own skin, or are realizing that the skin we thought we had on is not what we had thought it was originally.
The majority of the stories that the author offers in this collection are easily consumed and have underdeveloped or uncomplicated plot lines. But it was their ability to engage me emotionally and my ability to relate to them that has made the novel so successful with me. I found myself only reading a couple of stories at a time because a wanted them to sink in and marinate them for a while before they were discarded for the next set of stories. I would have given it five stars if the characters and plot lines were a little more developed. However, I highly recommend this collection.
Mitch is looking at Drew like he’s a lunatic. And maybe he is. But Drew doesn’t want what Mitch wants: foxy dates for Saturday nights at cheesy clubs and sexy waitresses to check out at the sports bar. He doesn’t even want what he’s supposed to want: a partner, compatibility, we-both-like-to-take-long-walks-with-our-dog kind of love. That’s yuppie love. Drew wants crazy love: fated, astrological, intense, cosmic, I-saw-you-and-I-knew love. He thinks maybe he could find that with the mushroom girl. He doesn’t know why he thinks this, he just does.
i love that feeling at the beginning of a book you know is gonna rock. i hate when im reading so fast cos its so good and then i start to panic cos its all gonna be over soon. i hate when im sorry i finished cos the partys over.
this sounds like a great read! thanks for the tip, i’ve added it to my amazon wish list! 🙂 and, it’s written by someone named “thisbe”…gotta love that!
it is a great book sassy, it comes highly recomended by me! I love the name Thisbe too. But then again, I really like the name Constance too, so my judgement may be off.
Hubs,
Since we were discussing on CatiFab, I thought I’d read your review. Interesting. I too, loved it, and hated to finish the book. I’ve owned it for 3 years now and make a point to re-read it every year.
Oh and the name Thisbe is cool, as is Constance.