Boys and Girls Like You and Me: Stories [Hardcover]

Aryn Kyle (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 20, 2010

ARYN KYLE, whose award-winning novel The God of Animals was hailed as "reason for readers to rejoice" (USA Today), turns her gift for storytelling to the lives of girls and women in this spectacular collection. These eleven stories showcase Kyle’s keen eye for character, her humor, and her uncanny grasp of the loneliness, selfishness, and longing that underlie female experience. In "Nine," a young girl given to exaggeration escapes a humiliating ninth birthday celebration with the help of her father’s new girlfriend. The dubious benefits of sleeping with one’s boss are revealed when a bookstore manager defends an employee from an irate customer in the hilarious "Sex Scenes from a Chain Bookstore." A raid on a neighbor’s meth lab strengthens the unlikely friendship between a solitary woman and a Goth teenage girl in "Boys and Girls Like You and Me." And in a notable exception to the rule, "Captain’s Club" features a boy whose devotion to a lonely woman transforms his cruise vacation.In moments electric with sudden harmony or ruthless indifference, the girls and women in this collection provoke, beguile, and entertain. Writing with remarkable tenderness and wisdom, Kyle gives us a collection radiant with bittersweet revelations and startling insights, and secures her reputation as a major young talent.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This sure-to-please collection by Kyle (The God of Animals) probes the frequently wrongheaded choices girls and young women make to feel happy and loved. Girls growing up with fathers whose wives have vanished, girls perilously desirous of acceptance, young women enthralled by unsuitable men: these are the characters inhabiting Kyle's low-key tales. In Nine, the young protagonist tells elaborate lies to deflect the pain of her mother's absence, though her attempts at befriending her father's new girlfriend go terribly awry. Allegiance depicts the ruthless extent the new girl will go to get invited to a sleepover party held by the popular girls, especially as her mother offers suggestions for tormenting the weak. Similarly, in Brides, the new girl in the high school play learns how to ingratiate herself with the lead and the pervy theater teacher. Meanwhile, dallying with married men only brings grief to smart women, as in Sex Scenes from a Chain Bookstore and the moving title story. There's no shortage of heartache, and Kyle's varied approaches to it consistently reveals new ways of feeling bad. (Apr.)
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From Booklist

Kyle, whose first novel, The God of Animals (2007), was selected as an Alex Award winner, turns her creative energy and dark imagination to shorter fiction in her second book, producing 11 stories that are irresistibly readable in the same way that a goiter or a carbuncle demands careful scrutiny. The girls, young women, and, in one case, 12-year-old boy who serve as protagonists are or soon will be unrelievedly miserable, disappointed by life, betrayed by love, and convinced—like Lilly in “Company of Strangers”—that they they will “die horribly.” As she did in her novel, Kyle reinforces the bleakness of mood and tone with loving descriptions of unsavory settings (a school is “a dirty scab of a place”; skies are “the color of concrete”; and air smells like “grease and diesel fumes”). There is an almost perverse artistry at work here, however, and at least two of the stories—“Nine” and “A Lot like Fun”—are near-perfect exercises in persuading readers that the hallmark of human nature is imperfectability and that truth is its ultimate falsehood. --Michael Cart

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1 edition (April 20, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416594809
• ISBN-13: 978-1416594802
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #820,179 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Aryn Kyle was born in Peoria, Illinois, and grew up in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her debut novel, The God of Animals (Scribner, 2007) was an international bestseller and the winner of an American Library Association's Alex Award, a PNBA Award, an MPIBA Award, and others. Aryn's short fiction has appeared in The Atlantic Monthly, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories 2007, Best New American Voices 2005, and elsewhere. Aryn is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Award and a National Magazine Award in fiction. She lives in New York City. Visit her at www.arynkyle.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Couldn't put it down, May 27, 2010

By 

Laurie A. Brown (SANDPOINT, ID USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Boys and Girls Like You and Me: Stories (Hardcover)

I don't usually care much for short stories; I don't understand them most of the time, and so they bore me. This collection is different. It grabbed me from the first paragraph and never let go. In each of these eleven stories about young women and girls (and one young boy), I recognized either myself or people I know. There are many, many ways that a woman can mess up her life, and several of these ways are brought to living, breathing, despairing life in these tales. It's uncanny how vivid these short tales are, despite dealing with the mundane situations of life.

Affairs with married men, trying too hard to be accepted, allowing a betrayal to ruin one's life, compulsive lies- they're all here, bad choices aplenty. In all these stories, you have the feeling that these lives could have reached dead ends, but you keep hoping for these people. Each story *does* end with the possibility that these lives can be turned around. These are stories about women and girls, but it's not chick lit.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection, May 16, 2010

By 

nashvillegirl - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Boys and Girls Like You and Me: Stories (Hardcover)

After reading The God of Animals, I've been eagerly waiting for Aryn Kyle to come out with a new book. This is her latest offering - a collection of eleven short stories about young people ranging from elementary-school aged children to college-aged young adults.

In each of the stories, Kyle takes a common scene, such as a love affair, dealing with steparents, idolizing a mentor, and gives it a new twist so that when you are reading through the stories, you never know what will happen next. For almost all of the stories, I found myself amazed at how the author expertly moves from scene to scene, building up to an ending that you almost don't see coming. Almost all of her characters are outcasts of some sort - people not quite fitting in with mainstream society - and she does an excellent job of character development. Her writing is very crisp and clear and does not get bogged down by metaphors or overly descriptive passages.

For those people who found The God of Animals to be too intense or depressing (the most common complaints I heard), I think you would enjoy this collection more. None of the stories are particularly "happy," but being short stories, they do not reach the same level of intensity that the author's first novel does.

Kyle clearly has a great deal of talent, and I will again be waiting to see what she comes out with next.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, great, great stories., May 9, 2010

By 

Reader "cvrcak1" (Boca Raton, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Boys and Girls Like You and Me: Stories (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

Each and every one of these stories is a touching one and true to its core. It is my first book by this young and talented author, Ms. Aryn Kyle. I loved it so much, that I intend to read her first book which brought her to fame in literay circles. Ms. Kyle writes about women and their experiences. These stories are about love and loss, search for beauty and meaning, young girls' search for their own identity away from misfortunes and dysfuction of their own families. Stories are about emotionally fragile women who try to find meaning in their lives thought thier work or service to others.

If only I can say that I have a favorite story in this collection. But I cannot do that because it would be of disservice to this wonderful author. Each one of the pieces is strong and well developed. They will stay with reader for a long time. Writing style is excellent and at the same time easy to read. Each time I finished one story, I could not wait to start the next one because I wanted to see what the the next story is all about.

Please read this book and recommend to others. It is worth every single word - trust me on that!