In Other People We Married, Straub creates characters as recognizable as a best friend, and follows them through moments of triumph and transformation with wit, vulnerability, and dazzling insight. In “Some People Must Really Fall in Love,” an assistant professor takes halting steps into the awkward world of office politics while harboring feelings for a freshman student. Two sisters struggle with old assumptions about each other as they stumble to build a new relationship in “A Map of Modern Palm Springs.” In “Puttanesca,” two widows move tentatively forward, still surrounded by ghosts and disappointments from the past. These twelve stories, filled with sharp humor, emotional acuity, and joyful language, announce the arrival of a major new talent.
Other People We Married
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Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
Straub’s collection of short stories is a resplendent debut, arriving in a whirl of buzz, thanks to her appearances in Tin House, the Paris Review, and Slate. Heir to Ann Beattie and Lorrie Moore, Straub evinces marvelous literary confidence in her deadpan hilarity, eye for redolent details, and acute psychological insights. She also excels at the art of sudden reversals as she takes measure of the unbridgeable gaps that divide us and the leaps that save us. The deeply involving title story is one of several featuring magnetic Franny Gold, whose entanglements cause equal degrees of bliss and anguish. Elsewhere, three young college English professors share a tiny office, and two very different sisters make the mistake of vacationing together. In the standout, Abraham’s Enchanted Forest, a teenage daughter assesses her life with her hippie parents, who run a funky roadside attraction. In the wistful, funny, and unnerving Fly-Over State, a New Yorker comes undone in Wisconsin. Straub’s stories glow and pulse and, like sea anemones, are far more complex and dangerous than their bright and beckoning appearances suggest. --Donna Seaman
Review
“Other People We Married is a revelation.”
—Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America and A Gate at the Stairs
“Emma Straub is worthy of our adoration. These stories are wise, surprising, hilarious, and unforgettable.”
—Karen Russell, author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and Swamplandia!
“Emma Straub is a wry, witty, incisively observant writer.”
—Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply
“Emma Straub’s stories mean that there are fewer lonely people in the world; they are the best kind of company. I’m giddy about their very existence, the way you get giddy when you meet someone you’d like to know for a long, long time. I look forward to knowing Emma Straub’s fiction for a long, long time.”
—Thisbe Nissen, author of The Good People of New York and Osprey Island
“Razor sharp and tenderhearted, funny and wrenching. Emma Straub’s stories take place in all the messy, fascinating, uncanny corners of contemporary relationships.”
—Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners
“Emma Straub has such a graceful, brittle, subversive voice that it takes a moment after you surface from her stories, drugged with pleasure and ringing with sharp insight, to realize how deeply she loves and understands humanity. Other People We Married is a terrific collection of stories, and Emma Straub is a joyous marvel of a writer.”
—Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Delicate Edible Birds
“The smarts and humor of a Lorrie Moore or a Laurie Colwin or a Laurie Anderson—any number of Lauries.”
—Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead, for the Oxford American
—Lorrie Moore, author of Birds of America and A Gate at the Stairs
“Emma Straub is worthy of our adoration. These stories are wise, surprising, hilarious, and unforgettable.”
—Karen Russell, author of St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves and Swamplandia!
“Emma Straub is a wry, witty, incisively observant writer.”
—Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply
“Emma Straub’s stories mean that there are fewer lonely people in the world; they are the best kind of company. I’m giddy about their very existence, the way you get giddy when you meet someone you’d like to know for a long, long time. I look forward to knowing Emma Straub’s fiction for a long, long time.”
—Thisbe Nissen, author of The Good People of New York and Osprey Island
“Razor sharp and tenderhearted, funny and wrenching. Emma Straub’s stories take place in all the messy, fascinating, uncanny corners of contemporary relationships.”
—Kelly Link, author of Stranger Things Happen and Magic for Beginners
“Emma Straub has such a graceful, brittle, subversive voice that it takes a moment after you surface from her stories, drugged with pleasure and ringing with sharp insight, to realize how deeply she loves and understands humanity. Other People We Married is a terrific collection of stories, and Emma Straub is a joyous marvel of a writer.”
—Lauren Groff, author of The Monsters of Templeton and Delicate Edible Birds
“The smarts and humor of a Lorrie Moore or a Laurie Colwin or a Laurie Anderson—any number of Lauries.”
—Kevin Brockmeier, author of The Brief History of the Dead, for the Oxford American
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is one of the best and most impressive collections by a new writer to come out in a long while. My personal favorites are 'Fly-Over State,' 'Some People Must Really Fall in Love,' 'Hot Spring Eternal' and 'Pearls.' Franny is one of the most memorable and well-crafter characters of recent memory. If you enjoy the folks like Jennifer Egan, Salinger, Eudora Welty, Straub's tales will ring true and make your day.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Emma Straub has written a wonderful, original collection of stories that are riveting portraits of our intimate relationships from the inside out. Each story seems to take the reader a step further, almost as if the author knew we would resist confronting the honesty and clarity of her revelations and wanted to let us into this rarefied vision gently. I couldn't put this book down, and as soon as I read the final story, "Hot Springs Eternal" - which had me marveling at the universality of certain human experiences - I sent copies off to those among my friend who love great new fiction.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By porqueno
Format:Kindle Edition
A thoroughly entertaining collection of short stories. Emma Straub has a great voice and vision that speaks to my generation.
