Back Talk

by Danielle Lazarin

Overview

“Beautifully crafted . . . the sentences in these stories are living and seamless, as if Lazarin had run her hand over them until they became smooth and gleaming with the evidence of her touch.” —Carmen Maria Machado, The New York Times Book Review

From an award-winning writer, a stunning collection of stories about women’s unexpressed desires and needs, and the unexpected ways they resurface
 
In “Floor Plans,” a woman at the end of her marriage tests her power when she inadvertently befriends the neighbor trying to buy her apartment. In “Appetite,” a sixteen-year old grieving her mother’s death experiences first love and questions how much more heartbreak she and her family can endure. In “Dinosaurs,” a recent widower and a young babysitter help each other navigate how much they have to give—and how much they can take—from the people around them.
 
Through stories that are at once empathetic and unexpected, these women and girls defiantly push the boundaries between selfishness and self-possession. With a fresh voice and bold honesty, Back Talk examines how narrowly our culture allows women to express their desires.
 
“Deceptively quiet but packs a powerful punch . . . The best collection I’ve read in years, from a phenomenal new talent.” —Celeste Ng

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780143131472
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/06/2018
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Danielle Lazarin's short stories have won grants from New York Foundation for the Arts and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance, the Glimmer Train Family Matters Award, and Hopwood Awards. She is graduate of the writing programs of Oberlin College and the University of Michigan's Helen Zell Writers' Program. She lives in her native New York City with her husband and daughters.

Editorial Reviews

[Lazarin's stories] are, certainly, beautifully crafted. I loathe the word "polished" in the context of prose. It's too clinical, implying that the work was dull before the author intentionally spruced it up. So I'd prefer to say that the sentences in these stories are living and seamless, as if Lazarin had run her hand over them until they became smooth and gleaming with the evidence of her touch. Yet they are not without viscera; sublimated rage fills the crevices between them…Although Lazarin's work has the tone and style of traditional mainstream short fiction, it joins a growing canon of quietly realist stories that establish women's experiences as worthy of literary attention. And not just women's experiences: These stories also explore the exhausting, slow poison of masculine power, the grind of the patriarchy on even the most privileged of women, the subtle ways in which men have trained women to minimize themselves.

The New York Times Book Review - Carmen Maria Machado

★ 10/23/2017
Lazarin’s exceptional debut collection digs deep into the lives of women, telling complex stories of loss, hope, and joy. In “Hide and Seek,” a young mother aims to give her two daughters a happy childhood by moving them to the suburbs, only to discover the dangers that stretch into their new neighborhood. “Lovers’ Lookout” concerns a newly single woman in San Francisco, who meets a man while out on a run and toys with the idea of sleeping with him. “American Men in Paris I Did Not Love” takes a clever structure—each section focuses on one man who lusts after the story’s protagonist—to spin a tale detailing the strain of long-distance relationships. In “Floor Plans,” a friendship forms between two women as one tries to buy the other’s apartment, leading to a struggle for power. Equally effective are Lazarin’s narratives about adolescents. The title story, one of the collection’s shortest, powerfully conveys the experience of seeing a moment of youthful pleasure transform into a gossiped-about scarlet letter, while in “Gone,” two teens create a list of girls in their neighborhood who have died as they face their own struggles with boys and school. Lazarin’s work is confident and exhilarating; this auspicious collection is uniformly excellent. Agent: Julie Barer, the Book Group. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

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Dazed: Five Weird and Wonderful New Short Story Collections You Should Be Reading
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“Beautifully crafted . . . the sentences in these stories are living and seamless, as if Lazarin had run her hand over them until they became smooth and gleaming with the evidence of her touch. Yet they are not without viscera; sublimated rage fills the crevices between them. . . . These stories hand their warnings to us: Don’t be pleasant or easy to touch. Look mean for the camera. Just get up and go.”
—Carmen Maria Machado, The New York Times Book Review

“Intimate short stories . . . exploring the mixed blessing of human entanglement.”
—New York Magazine

“Danielle Lazarin’s first story collection, Back Talk, is a marvel of its kind, and it’s marvelous precisely in its Munrovian shiftiness, its ability to bend form and turn the story into something that is temporally and emotionally elastic.”
—San Francisco Chronicle

“Terrific.”
—Chicago Tribune

“This is the collection to read if you're hungering for the stories of women who subvert, who flick at the misogyny that surrounds them. I found myself shouting in recognition as Danielle Lazarin's expertly crafted characters extricate themselves from hostile relationships or snatch back the power that has been taken from them. Lazarin has a talent for crafting dynamics that are so real; the friendships, the families, the insidious ways women are undermined is all on display. Reading her work, and seeing her characters take up—and sometimes win—the fights I know so well is like taking sips of an antidote for the many things that afflict us women.”
—NPR’s Best Books of 2018, Kat Chow, reporter, Code Switch

“Long live the short story, as long as writers like Lazarin are here to keep the form fresh. . . . Short stories are like sideways glances or overheard whispers that become more, and Lazarin makes us believe there’s worth in stories that we can steal moments to experience.”
—The Millions

“[Danielle Lazarin] has the rare ability to evoke an entire ecosystem of human behavior—replete with decades of slights and longings—in just a few pages. The word ‘haunting’ is so often overused, but in this case, it is an accurate description of how these stories, set between New York and Paris, maneuver their way into your thoughts long after reading.”
—Esquire

“This fantastic debut short story collection is filled with excellent stories of women and girls, centering on their lives in a way that feels refreshingly real. If you couldn't get enough of ‘Cat Person,’ this collection should be next on your list. . . . [Back Talk] examines how narrowly our culture allows women to express their desires through stories that are all about women’s hidden yearnings, and the unexpected ways they surface.”
—Bustle

“[An] excellent short story collection . . . Lazarin’s trove of protagonists, ranging in age, circumstance, and city, will speak to a different part of you.”
—Refinery29

“At a critical moment in feminist history, Lazarin’s intimate stories find women of almost all ages exploring the essence of freedom and the mixed blessing of human entanglement.”
—Vulture

“[A] confident, powerfully written debut collection . . . Lazarin’s themes stand out starkly: women, the ways they define themselves, and the ways they relate to one another.”
—Harper’s Bazaar

“I'm always up for a story collection that centers fully around women. . . . Lazarin [celebrates] the inherent complications of being a woman, and of being alive.”
—Nylon

“In this powerful debut, Lazarin has written her heart out chronicling the lives of recognizable girls and women as they come of age, find their footing and chart their path through life’s curves, on their own terms. She takes the reader into the crevices and corners of these women’s minds, where you can accompany them on their daydreams as they leave or enter relationships, or just generally try to figure it all out. Their voices stay with you long after the final story.”
—The Rumpus

“Through sixteen affecting short stories, Danielle Lazarin delivers a powerful look at the moments that define relationships. It’s a phenomenal debut.”
—HelloGiggles

“Back Talk is full of stories that make you feel uncomfortable, but that also push you to look at the ways in which the world controls and guards girls.”
—Dazed

“Together, [these stories] leave you with a sense of crystalline fragments, sharp-edged shards of stories and experiences that paint a fractured picture of life as a woman and a girl. . . . At the center are always Lazarin’s vibrant, peculiar, brilliant girls and women navigating getting what they want in the world. This is a powerful and tender collection.”
—Thrillist

“Grief, love, wariness, empathy, the confusions of simply being a woman—these are emotions that most of us feel but sometimes find difficult to express. Lazarin gives us the tools to do just that.”
—Oprah.com

“Back Talk is the ultimate collection of stories centered on the experience of women and girls—and we can't recommend it highly enough.”
—PopSugar

“I’d say remember the name Danielle Lazarin, but if you read her first collection of short fiction, there’s no danger you’ll forget it. In Back Talk, her tales of the inner lives of girls and young women are nothing short of revelatory.”
—BookPage

“Back Talk by Danielle Lazarin is the gateway book to my full-on 2018 obsession with short stories. Lazarin writes such subtle, quiet tales with remarkable empathy, insight, and integrity. When I read her book, I finally began to ask myself the most important question I encountered in 2018: How do women operate in this world? I think Lazarin has an unparalleled ability to write about tiny, generally unseen occurrences that, in the moment of that particular woman's life, are difficult to identify, but are actually the core relationships/experiences/feelings that end up changing the course of their internal and external life experiences.”
—MyDomaine, Payton Turner, Girls at Library
 
“Some of the writing does, rightly, remind one of Alice Munro’s work, particularly due to the focus on the lives of girls and women. But mostly, it's strikingly reminiscent of Melissa Bank’s The Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing. . . . A noteworthy debut collection [that] showcases a writer with much promise; one who is not afraid to give voice to facets of womanhood that our socio-cultural conditioning, for both men and women, teaches us to avoid or ignore. And, by giving us an honest, unabashed language for these facets, it also enables us to reconsider the arcs of our own lives and those of other women around us with a closer scrutiny.”
—PopMatters

“In the wake of the widespread #MeToo movement, this powerful short story collection could not be more well-timed. A multitude of characters are introduced throughout Back Talk . . . but their tales, however different, are thematically the same: strong female voices and lives and the way in which they connect with each another.”
—Jetsetter

“In this collection of stories, Danielle Lazarin ventures into a host of lives in a variety of settings, and explores questions of grief, the emotional toll we can expect from others, and the unexpected ways that we do (or do not) connect with those around us. It’s powerful stuff, handled in unexpected ways.”
—Vol.1 Brooklyn

“Lazarin’s exceptional debut collection digs deep into the lives of women, telling complex stories of loss, hope, and joy. . . . [Back Talk] is confident and exhilarating; this auspicious collection is uniformly excellent.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Brilliant and tender . . . With poignant imagery and a fresh voice, Lazarin portrays these women honestly and relatably. Her exceptional craftsmanship speaks to the heart, as she paints these tales with empathy and a compassion that extends to all humankind.”
—Booklist (starred review)

“Sensitive, intricate, and quietly powerful, Lazarin's stories give voice to women learning to live on their own terms.”
—Kirkus (starred review)

“Danielle Lazarin’s Back Talk is deceptively quiet but packs a powerful punch—much like the girls and women in its pages. The stories in this collection batter at the boundaries of female desire—not just for sex, but for intimacy, for visibility, for agency. They talk back to the idea that stories about women are ‘domestic,’ burrowing deep to find wildness and a smoldering fury beneath. The best collection I’ve read in years, from a phenomenal new talent.”
—Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

“The stories in Back Talk are not only fierce and unflinching in their clear-eyed portrayal of women and girls, they are also tender and compassionate, imbued with a deep longing. Lazarin is a sophisticated writer and her remarkable debut offers us subtle but profound truths about growing up, moving forward, and finding ourselves.”
—Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California

“I fell in love with these elegant, beguiling tales. They’re about young women, but they are for everyone, whatever gender, whatever age, so universal is their poignant take on life and loving and loneliness, too. Reading Lazarin's writing is like having a great friend in the room, telling you something that you know you need to hear, and telling it to you brilliantly.”
—Robin Black, nationally bestselling author of Life Drawing

“These are wonderful stories—sparkling, witty, and tender, riding that sweet spot between urbane and vulnerable, between hilarity and heartbreak—all those impossible contradictions that remind us of what love is like. Lazarin’s astonishing insight and craftsmanship put me in mind of short story masters like Beattie and Baxter. I think she’s destined for the big leagues.”
—Dan Chaon, New York Times bestselling author of Ill Will

“Back Talk offers a kaleidoscopic portrait of the contemporary family in a state of creative destruction, flying apart and simultaneously reconstituting itself in new forms. Danielle Lazarin guides us through the varied permutations of her extended, blended families with insightful wit, surpassing empathy and wry wisdom.”
—Peter Ho Davies, author of The Fortunes

“Misfits and mess-ups, dreamers and delinquents, kids chafing at adolescence and adults failing at parenthood—it’s easy to see yourself in Danielle Lazarin’s characters. But these stories, like all good stories, aren't a mirror: they're a window that shows us the whole world.”
—Rumaan Alam, author of Rich and Pretty

“I absolutely loved this book—from the first page to the last, this collection is stunning for its insight into the lives of young women, revelatory for its finely tuned prose, and unforgettable for its humor and tenderness. I will return to these stories again and again. I envy the reader who gets to discover Danielle Lazarin’s work.”
—Julie Buntin, author of Marlena

“Smart, sharp, well-paced stories—worlds of their own that circle life and loss with humor, wit, and sparkling intelligence.”
—Megan Mayhew Bergman, author of Birds of a Lesser Paradise and Almost Famous Women

“Thank God, a collection of stories about women who don't hate themselves, don't hate other women, don't hate their bodies, don't hate their husbands, or even their ex-husbands, don't hate their sisters, their mothers, their fathers, their children. Women who sometimes choose to have sex and sometimes choose not to. Women who are simply, like me, trying to figure out what it means to be alive, to be in love, to be daughters, parents, siblings, wives, citizens, human beings. I hope Danielle Lazarin writes a million more stories like the ones in Back Talk so I can keep reading her work forever.”
—Eileen Pollack, author of A Perfect Life

From the Publisher

★ 2017-12-24
This exquisite debut short story collection speaks to the ways women and girls define themselves and delineate their paths.A teenage girl acclimating to her mother's death and its effect on her family leaps into the bracing waters of first love. A woman absorbing the end of her marriage forges a friendship with the woman next door whose choices and losses shed light on her own. Another young woman takes in a boyfriend's departure by connecting with a stranger and taking stock of the things her ex has taught her, the bits of knowledge he has left behind, and the aspects of herself that remain. A teenager and the widower whose young children she babysits connect across the empty space his wife has left behind. The protagonists of Lazarin's stories—daughters, mothers, siblings, girlfriends, wives—are gauging their strengths and soft spots, the ways in which they are independent and intertwined with those around them, their appetites for and aversions to risk and heartache, the truths they choose to know and those they cannot escape. These young women and girls—many of them white, middle-class New Yorkers, some living in the city, others outside of it—have their own particular interests and quirks, their own experiences and inclinations, their own losses and hopes with which to contend. Yet readers may see in them glimpses of their own stories and struggles, their own choices about how and when to act. "It's my hope that this book adds to a conversation about the importance of women's stories, of the domestic, of the subtle and often unspoken ways women care for each other and ourselves," Lazarin writes in the advance galley of the book. Mission accomplished.Sensitive, intricate, and quietly powerful, Lazarin's stories give voice to women learning to live on their own terms.

Kirkus Review

A girl copes with the loss of her mother. A woman grapples with her upcoming divorce. These are two of the stories of love and loss that Reba Buhr's strong narration ramps up in this female-centric collection. She captures the sardonic yet vulnerable tone of teenagers perfectly and demonstrates the range of her abilities in other stories in which she makes real the turmoil of middle age. Moving between these characters with the ease of an experienced narrator, she captures the universality of grief in the human experience. Her tender treatment of life's biggest disappointments will be welcomed by avid listeners who are looking for shorter listening segments that can be completed while running an errand. M.R. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine

FEBRUARY 2018 - AudioFile