Nobody's Girl: A Novel [Paperback]

Antonya Nelson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 18, 1999

It's been nineteen months since thirty-year-old Birdy Stone came to Pinetop. Birdy spends her days trying to teach her students to appreciate the beauty of literature and her nights getting high with Jesus, her gay colleague and confidant. Birdy regards Pinetop as merely an escapade. But the desultory quality of her life is interrupted when a middle-aged widow asks Birdy to edit her rambling memoir. Combining superb storytelling with good humor, Antonya Nelson follows Birdy as she helps Mrs. Anthony reconstruct the history surrounding the bizarre and mysterious deaths of Mrs. Anthony's husband and daughter years earlier. As Birdy is drawn deeper into her subject's story, she begins a love affair with Mrs. Anthony's surviving son -- a young man who just happens to be one of Birdy's students. With its sensuous and lovingly rendered Southwestern setting, Nobody's Girl is a startling novel that showcases the striking talents of an emminently gifted writer.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

The folks of Pinetop, New Mexico, would like their town to become a trendy tourist trap, but, alas, it is only a small, sleepy Southwestern place where everyone knows one another's business. Birdy Stone, a misplaced Chicagoan and high school English teacher, is just passing through, or at least that is what she says. Birdy is a thirtysomething slacker who conveniently finds a kindred spirit in her fellow teacher, Jesus Morales. Life for Birdy consists of watching movies and drinking with Jesus, until Mrs. Anthony, a local woman, asks Birdy to edit her life story. Birdy then becomes involved in the curious tale of the Anthony family. In 1984, daughter Teresa fell over a cliff to her death on the Fourth of July. Two weeks later, Teresa's father was killed in a car accident. Suspecting foul play, Birdy begins to ask questions. In addition to her investigation into the double death, she also becomes involved with Mark, Mrs. Anthony's son and Birdy's student. The past, present, and future intermingle in this story of love, friendship, family, and death. A clearly written novel with characters who are honest and believable.?Robin Nesbitt, Columbus Metropolitan Lib., Ohio
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

One of the many pleasures of Nelson's finely crafted and deeply felt novels, which include the award-winning Talking in Bed (1996), is her bright humor, and she has never been funnier, shrewder, or more magnetic than she is here. Her heroine, Birdy Stone, has fled all kinds of heartache in her hometown of Chicago, exiling herself to tiny Pinetop, New Mexico, where she teaches high-school English and hangs out with her one friend, Jesus, who is also an outsider by virtue of his homosexuality. But Birdy is destined for more complicated involvements. A tense little woman named Mrs. Anthony hires Birdy to help her write a memoir about the deaths of her daughter and husband, and Birdy not only becomes obsessed with these mysterious tragedies, she also enters into a wildly erotic affair with Mrs. Anthony's 17-year-old son. As the inevitable complications arise and Birdy tries to understand not only her current predicaments but also the sorrows of her past, Nelson adroitly illuminates our unending struggle to understand ourselves and our often bewildering relationships with family, friends, and lovers. This resonant novel has the power of the best of Ellen Gilchrist and Lorrie Moore and deserves as wide a readership. Donna Seaman --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1ST edition (February 18, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684852071
• ISBN-13: 978-0684852072
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #711,250 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Nelson's Greatest but Worth Reading, July 10, 2007

By 

A. St. James "books and more books" (Cambridge) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nobody's Girl: A Novel (Paperback)

I pretty much read anything by Antonya Nelson--and with great pleasure. She's one of this century's strongest, funniest and most original auhtors of family relations, and always a pleasure. Plus, her writing keeps getting better.

This earlier novel, however, doesn't do her justice. The main character is hard to like, the prose meanders, and Nelson's point gets lost beneath her striving to make such a point.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Perceptive Author, October 25, 2005

By 

Chrissy K. McVay "Writer" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: Nobodys Girl (Hardcover)

Ever since reading Antonya Nelson's short story 'Control Group', which was once a finalist in the O'Henry Awards, I've realized she's so perceptive when it comes to developing the personalities of her characters that it's scary. I've read many of her short stories and had to read one of her novels. I wasn't bored, for not once did she lose touch with that human pulse that brings the people in her stories so close to the surface they seem breathe back at you from the pages!

Chrissy K. McVay

author of 'Souls of the North Wind'

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars great read, good characters, August 7, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Nobodys Girl (Hardcover)

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this novel, Ido find that the central character, Birdy Stone, is not always sympathetic, or even likable. This makes the book interesting, but it also makes some of Birdy's thought processes unappealing. However, despite her rampant insecurities, Birdy is not altogether unlovable. She is funny and irreverent. Jesus, too, is amusing, witty. Luziana, perhaps my favorite character, seems wise beyond her years, yet youthful as well. All around, the book is a worthwhile read. Its humor and its unique views of life in a small southwestern town make it enjoyable. Nelson's attention to detail, such as Mr. John's ever present khaki coveralls offer an authenticity that more than make up for Birdy's small shortcomings.