Soft Maniacs: Stories [Hardcover]

Maggie Estep (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 14, 1999

Estep follows her first novel, "Diary of An Emotional Idiot, " with a set of linked stories that glimpses two women through the eyes of the men in their lives.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Not a book for the timid, this wonderfully intense collection of interconnected short stories from the author of Diary of an Emotional Idiot presents a cast of searchers, almost-but-not-quite-lost souls crisscrossing a lusciously sordid New York. The book centers around the tangled lives of two single women. In "Horses," the reader is introduced to free-spirited Katie, the daughter of a circus lion tamer, and to wealthy, almost pathologically oversexed Jody, who is slumming it as the lion tamer's lover. Though both women leave the circus and travel to New York, where Jody becomes a therapist and Katie works at various jobs (walking dogs, doing phone sex, etc.) and takes photographs, their parallel paths never cross (although they both date the same man at different times). The juxtaposition of Estep's fluid prose with her jarring, hard-edged contentAher stories are laced with sexAkeeps the reader's constant attention, as does her fascinating though sometimes disconcerting decision to track her female protagonists by allowing the men in their lives to narrate. In "The Patient," Jody's artist lover, Rob, impregnates a lesbian he calls Crone after he comes home and discovers her having sex with Jody. In "Teeth," Jody seduces her patient, Jack, during a session in which he describes his mistreatment at the hands of a sexually predatory intern. Later, in "Monkeys," Jack and Katie are living together, and Jack progresses from using Katie's cat as a prop in his tourist scams to working an honest job at a stable in Brooklyn, while in "One of Us," Jody, now married, takes steps to adopt the Crone's child. Though their paths may be crooked, Estep's richly drawn characters do ultimately manage to reach a hard-won state of grace in this disturbing, audacious and unconventionally satisfying book. (Sept.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Estep (Diary of an Emotional Idiot presents a first collection revolving around reappearing characters. The stories are purported to be about women as seen through the eyes of men. Amidst a plethora of graphic sexual description, often dark and violent, comes an occasional insight into the human condition. In "Circus," the characters are still endlessly searching, but there is a gentleness and strength unseen elsewhere. "When I was seven, my mother forgot my name," says Joe, who is still searching for someone who will remember it. This is the one story in which sex is not the only expression of despair. These pieces, apparently meant to explore the dark side of the down and out, have a disturbing superficiality. Not recommended.APatricia Gulian, South Portland, ME
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; First edition. edition (September 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684863332
• ISBN-13: 978-0684863337
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #594,919 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Reality, August 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Soft Maniacs: Stories (Hardcover)

Love isn't always like a Hallmark card. No more than Family Life is always like a Rockwell painting. Birthdays aren't always happy, and families aren't always made from relatives.

If anything, Life is more like an Arbus photograph: strange and vulnerable and damaged and beautiful all at once.

Human beings are imperfect creatures. And, in spite of this, we somehow manage to connect with each other.

In SOFT MANIACS, Maggie Estep captures this reality brilliantly. Comprised of nine intertwined stories which show two women - Jody, a sexually insatiable and unstable psychiatrist, and Katie, an assistant in forensic psychology who spent her youth traveling with her lion-tamer father and the circus - as shown through the eyes of the men who have loved them, this collection is like GEEK LOVE from the inside. Instead of being physically different, the characters in SOFT MANIACS could easily be called Freaks of the Heart.

Just like real humans.

This book is beautiful and resonant and will utterly disappoint anyone searching for a tenderly-narrated Rockwell-esque vision of love at the end of the century. But those of us who live in Reality will see the reflection of the darkest and most profound secrets of our hearts, and how in spite of our imperfections, we still have hope.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Waxing Circus-like, October 22, 2000

By 

Fugue Satori "Mitch Elle." (Oklahoma City, OK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soft Maniacs: Stories (Hardcover)

Soft Maniacs was difficult to get into, however personally, it didn't take me too long to adjust; it was real without being real. It was honest on the most perverted of levels; arousing and saddening. I discovered Maggie via Alan Wilder's spoiled brainchild, Recoil, to which she collaborated on Unsound Methods, which didin't hook me entirely until I listened to Love is a Dog from Hell. Maggie is itchy and unique, and definitely for those who veer toward the freakier side of fiction. I don't recommend her to all people, only those willing to recognise that perverse weirdness in us all.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maggie Does it Again!, August 31, 2000

By 

The Mad Hapa "http://themadhapa.blogspot.com" (Orange County, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soft Maniacs: Stories (Hardcover)

Maggie fans will not be let down by her latest book, "Soft Maniacs." It is a collection of short stories with characters that cross over from story to story. Most of the stories are about 20-30 somethings in New York City; however, Maggie does branch out into carnival workers. As with her previous book, "Diary of an Emotional Idiot," Maggie's recent work is full of unusual people described with Maggie's irrististable wit. Fans of Maggie's earlier work will likely notice a hint of maturity which only serves to strengthen her latest work.