It Doesn't Have to Be Me [Paperback]

Carole Rosenthal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2001

This rich, spiky collection of short stories peeks into the obsessions, fantasies, and fears of women. The stories present the forbidden innerlives of women in styles ranging from heightened naturalism to rollicking fable.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Imagine those dreams in which you're in your old high school, even though the place looks nothing like your old high school. Events seem normal enough at first, but then, suddenly, everyone is using fire poles instead of stairs to get from floor to floor, and you realize you're wearing pajamas. Reading Rosenthal's short stories is like having one of those dreams. People say out loud what they would normally only think, and they act in ways usually inhibited by social convention, creating situations that cause the characters (and the reader) to wonder, Did that really just happen? Sometimes it's clear that it didn't--as in the group-therapy participant who swallows the group's leader whole--but other times, the premise is less fantastical, as in the New York woman who invites the homeless woman living under her building's stairwell inside for visits. Through these original and imaginative scenarios, Rosenthal explores ideas that would otherwise go unexamined, providing a fascinating glimpse of the fears that lurk beneath the surface of our everyday lives. Beth Warrell
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Carole Rosenthal's stories have been previously published in many American magazines and anthologies as well as translated into eleven languages. Rosenthal's work has also been dramatized for radio, television, and screen. She lives in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Hamilton Stone Editions (October 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965404374
• ISBN-13: 978-0965404372
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,561,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious, October 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: It Doesn't Have to Be Me (Paperback)

Startling and surreal, outrageous and outspoken, Carole Rosenthal's collection of short stories is also hilarious--fun to read, yet serious. I haven't read any collection this rich in a long time.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bright Light, January 7, 2002

By 

Jane Augustine (New York, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: It Doesn't Have to Be Me (Paperback)

As Carole Rosenthal exposes the semi-disastrous relations between women and men, one feels as if too bright a light came on over the bathroom mirror: uh-oh, I really do look like that. But exposure of disaster, if sharply poignant, is often comical as well. You can laugh at the sight in the well-lit glass. The sly title, It Doesn't Have To Be Me, also says it IS "me," the ego--everyone's ego--deluding itself the more it tries to rationalize. But delusions secretly recognized and indulged create an absurd triumph of intelligence in these stories. Utterly clear and deadpan in style, right-on in observation, they'll do more for your elusive psyche than an hour with your analyst. Give this book to friends--after all, it doesn't have to be them.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An innovative inside/outside writer, October 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: It Doesn't Have to Be Me (Paperback)

This is a book you should check out if you are interested in stories that are funny, outlandish and filled with trenchant observations about our vulnerabilities--particularly about the gap between what we appear to be on the surface and how we are actually feeling. One of my favorites was "Sweeping the Future Clean"--a story about a newly married woman who clears out her old apartment for her new husband and soon meets a shopping-bag lady, her mirror opposite, wearing the very clothes she has thrown away. Then there is the story about the old college boyfriend which is great too; infact, there are too many good ones to list. Buy or borrow a copy and see what I mean.