Customer Reviews

Spoiled: Stories

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In today's unprecedented economy, this isn't necessarily a good time to be rich (and it's NEVER been a good time to be spoiled), according to growing class wars. I strongly suspect there will be judgmental reviews in this space based on the types of characters Ms. Macy has decided to create. That would be a shame, because she is obviously a very talented writer.

She writes little gems about post-collegiate privileged women in Manhattan who often don't "get it"; women who have been way too "spoiled" and who are not lacking in money but are definijtely lacking in contentment or happiness. Some of her observations are laser-sharp and dead-on. For example: "They griped on insufferably about their inadequate help...Liubov who eschewed the organic products purchased online by her employer and instead cleaned the whole apartment with industrial-strength bleach that made even the cat's eyes water. Trish laughed with the others and clutched her champagne, seething."

The stories are varied and insightful: a young girl, Leigh, on the verge of leaving for boarding school, who knows she screwed up horribly at her last horse show with a far less privileged trainer...a newly-married woman Trish who needs to feel superior to her fashion-conscious first cleaning woman...a wealthy young man who is about to propose to his up-and-coming actress girlfriend and catches a glimpse of who she really is...each story is very nuanced.

Ms. Macy seems to say that all of us -- those who obsess about designer labels, the lack of good help or assistants, who try to gain status for our young children (and, by the way, she is excellent at depicting children) are, in our own way, "spoiled." This is a very self-assured collection of short stories, and I recommend them.

This is a superb book of stories. My favorite aspect of the writing is the insightful explanations of all the unspoken undercurrents among people -- the things that you think that no one has ever noticed, except for you.

I'm going to suggest it for my book group, because there is so much to discuss. I love writers like Roxanna Robinson, Laurie Colwin, Louis Auchincloss, J.P. Marquand, Edith Wharton...SPOILED is part of that tradition.

I loved this book. The title of _Spoiled_ perfectly expresses in one word the deleterious effects of modern-day preoccupations with social status among women of a certain class. These women are the socially insecure who want and have been raised to expect a certain level of social attainment but seem to fall short by their own measures. I enjoyed immensely these acerbicly funny, thought-provoking stories and find that these stories bear re-reading to savor Macy's nuanced descriptions and layers of meaning.

These stories are devastatingly true to life. Macy writes with shocking clarity and accuracy of the mean, pathetic, even cruel things women think, say, or do. If you think you do not like the characters in these stories, could it be that you are a woman who denies the person looking back in the mirror? I cannot believe that any woman can fail to recognize some aspect of herself in these characters. Recognizing oneself in these stories of social insecurity can make one feel uncomfortable and even sad, but there is beauty in the truth of Macy's writing.

I was happy to be done with Spoiled. I don't read to find "friends" in books or "feel good", but I must say that I didn't find any terribly likeable people in these joyless stories. The characters shared a sort of relentless cynicism and a decided lack of redemptive qualities. A glimmer of uplift somewhere would have made a great difference.

However, the characters, most of their dialogue, and their situations were very well drawn. I suspect I'll remember some of them for quite a while which is more than you can say about many short stories these days.

Caitlin Macy definitely has promise and I'll look for her next book, hopefully a novel which will allow her to get a little deeper into her characters. I agreed with previous reviewer, Estelle, about the unevenness of the prose. Occasionally, I would stumble across a sentence construction so clumsy and jumbled that I had to read it three times. I noted perhaps 6 or 8 examples, largely confined to two of the stories. This made me wonder if there was a single editor assigned to the book or maybe an editor who had good days and bad days.

Caitlin Macy's new volume of short stories is a delight not only for Upper Eastside yuppies but for anyone who values beautiful, incisive writing. She has a rapier wit cushioned by a human understanding and compassion.

I had initially bought this book as light spring break reading but was surprised at the dense prose and vivid characterizations that Macy brought to her short stories that left me startled at the gravity behind the book. Her characters are not admirable, they are products of faulty upbringing and vessels of privilege that behave as if they were trapped in a gilded world they don't really want to get out of anyway. That they are all women makes them even more identifiable to the likely demographic that is reading this book, and the desperation in most of these stories that gets under your skin within the first 20 pages reminded me of the desperate women of the Edith Wharton novels. Of course, these concerns, written the way they are by Macy, seem much more mundane and trivial when compared with Wharton's stories of class struggle.

I was left unsettled by the book, which on hindsight I appreciate, since very few books these days are so upfront about how unsatisfied you will be left reading these stories. It was not an enjoyable read because the wrecked psychology of so many of these characters was presented so relentlessly, as if the author wanted you to know how absolutely spoiled (in privilege and in psychology) these women were. Perhaps the insertion of some tension-relieving moments i.e. humour would have made Macy's stories easier to digest, not only because the constant repetition of similar emotional tinges immunizes you to understanding the characters' pain, but also that contrasting emotions might have made that pain not just more palatable, but more poignant.

What troubled me the most was the actual writing in the stories. Dangling modifiers, complex sentence structures that tried to pack in as much emotion as possible - perhaps an attempt at grammatical stream-of-consciousness to convey the delicacy of these women's neuroses. However, if they were not intended for this purpose, then I would say that the actual writing was the weakest part of the book, making it hard to follow ideas and trains of thoughts and generating a little irritation at the general lack of steady narrative voice in the collection.

Stories reminisecent of Louis Auchincloss in that they deal with snobbery, moral conflicts and dilemmas among upper crust society--but in a contemporary milieu. Even though these tales were written by a woman and deal mainly with female psychology, they do have some universal appeal. Conversely, they are densely written and crammed with descriptive detail and dialogue which make for very slow reading. Keep in mind that one gets increasingly comfortable with the writing over time, so allow a bit of time for adaptation.

Perfectly evokes the tone and atmosphere of an Edith Wharton novel - that's a high compliment.

This collection is, in short, flawless. Tight, beautifully constructed, poignant, witty stories. As a writer, I'm filled with admiration for how sharp and well-crafted this book is -- there's not one extraneous sentence -- and as a reader, I couldn't put it down. Spoiled: Stories

This collection of short stories provides an insightful look at those in society who are "privileged" - no matter how recently that privilege was acquired. Caitlin Macy observantly explores issues of class and how it motivates us in this concise collection of stories. As much as you may not want to, I think most readers will recognize themselves in at least one of the characters. Worthwhile read!