Quirks of fate highlight this debut short story collection whose characters are women of dazzling ironies and introspections, always in motion and trusting in love—even when it remains out of reach. Two friends plan a visit to Nantucket, but find themselves on a different island completely, where the men they have loved are lined up on the beach in chronological order; a grieving mother and daughter encounter naked strangers in unexpected places en route to the Dordogne River; a restless New York artist travels to Madrid to find a European lover, only to fall for another persnickety New Yorker. From the mysterious island in the Atlantic to the crowded highways of Los Angeles and from the Charles Bridge in Prague to the temples of Luxor and the most remote regions of the Myanmar peninsula, the worlds invented here are inspiring and unique, original in the manner through which the physical landscape never fails to inform the emotional one.
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"Beirlein's deft character development, nuanced prose, and honest treatment of the ups and downs of love make this a memorable and engaging collection–a trip readers will want to take again and again." —Publishers Weekly
“Bierlein’s stories are beautifully made, constantly surprising, and utterly believable. She tightropes an enviable line between making unknown worlds utterly familar, and turning the known world into something tantilizingly exotic, undeniably fresh. If you are lucky, her narrators will remind you of the best friends you've ever had, sharp-edged steely-eyed women with weaknesses for all of the best things in life. These are stories that will make you laugh, and long for, and challenge, and think.” —Pam Houston, author, Contents May Have Shifted, Cowboys Are My Weakness, and Sight Hound
“Bierlein’s work is like a glass of water with cucumber slices in it. What I mean is that the vitality in her prose is absolutely refreshing. Things you don’t expect suddenly make complete sense.” —Aimee Bender, author, The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and Willful Creatures
“Intoxicates like the best doomed love affairs. Bierlein possesses the sober precision of a clairvoyant who knows better, but who can’t resist the ride.” —Gina Frangello, author, My Sister’s Continent and Slut Lullabies
“Bierlein’s short fiction is elegant, sensuous, and tough too. In addition to story, there’s rhythm here—heart and depth and precision. Page after page I am struck by their lyricism and urgency.” —Lisa Glatt, author, A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That and The Apple’s Bruise
"Bierlein's stories are overtly sexual, but she strikes a balance by baring her characters' inner turmoil with grace and understanding. By the end of A Vacation on the Island of Ex-Boyfriends, we are indeed left exhausted, swept along satisfyingly by the exotic locations and emotional highs and lows of the characters, recognizing a few of the women in our lives in them along the way." —bookslut.com
"Do not be misled by the book's fun and feminine cover, which may cause some to assume that A Vacation to the Island of Ex-boyfriends is a chick-lit, beachy, in-and-out sort of read. It is most definitely anything but. Bierlein has written an unflinching account of what it means to find, lose, and regain oneself within the melee of meaningful relationships, imparting her truth with intelligent wit, stunning clarity, raw emotion, and finely honed humor." —Lauryn Allison Lewis, thenervousbreakdown.com
About the Author
Stacy Bierlein is a founding editor of Other Voices Books and cocreator of the Morgan Street International Novel Series. She is the editor of the award-winning anthology A Stranger Among Us: Stories of Cross Cultural Collision and Connection and coeditor of Men Undressed: Female Writers and the Male Sexual Experience. She lives in Los Angeles.
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Customer Reviews
The common thread linking the fourteen essays in this anthology is, ostensibly, sex and relationships. However, these also function as a jumping-off points from which to explore a variety of other topics, such as loss, grief, friendship, and self-expression. (As elucidated by the author in the Reader's Guide, which is primarily comprised of an interview with Bierlein.) With the sole exception of "Ten Reasons Not to Sleep with a Poet," I found all the stories enjoyable. "Three Naked Men," "Linguistics," and "Where it Starts" in particular are standouts. (I quite liked the reverse timeline in "Where it Starts," even if it proved confusing at first. Bierlein describes herself as someone who "write[s] and think[s] in fragments" - and the nonlinear quality these stories is part of their charm, I think.)
Even so, I had trouble relating to many of Bierlein's characters, all of whom tend to be heterosexual, cissexual, middle- to upper-class (many with seemingly unlimited disposable income, and residing in large cities on the East or West coast), and (apparently) white. This lack of diversity will no doubt turn some readers off.
Bonus points because: Bierlein self-identifies as a feminist.
The collection changes drastically in tone and style, depending on which story you're reading, but the narrative voice remains consistent. While some of the narrators blend together due to similar voices or situations, I didn't consider this to be negative; I get the feeling that while these particular characters may be forgettable, the story isn't ABOUT them in the first place. Instead, it's a collection of human emotions, human reactions, things that can be lifted from this book and applied to any number of relationships between any number of people. It's less about the stories it contains and more about the currents that run deeper--we're all insecure, we're all looking for something impossible, we all want what we can't have.
I especially enjoyed "Two Girls," a story halfway through the collection that focuses on two women who get together to discuss their husbands and lovers. Both characters feel a very real love for their husbands and their on-the-side gentlemen, but through their anecdotes and the non-linear structure of the story, we find out why each relationship is important, why each needs or needed to exist.
In "Luxor," a woman shields a small child as a firefight breaks out in an Egyptian tourist trap. The description of the physical locale is fragmented by the narrator's frenetic thoughts, giving the entire scene a feeling of mixed-up emotions and muddled reality, paralleling the emotions of the characters on the page. This is very mature writing, the kind that only comes through intense revision and dedication to the manuscript, and it really shows.
Stacy Bierlin displays an excellent grasp of emotional writing throughout the book, easily putting me into the shoes and minds of her characters and gracefully translating her own thoughts and stories into images and feelings that I can't seem to forget. This is an excellent collection from a small publishing house that's on the rise, so do yourself a favor and check out this book. You can tell your friends, "I read Stacy Bierlin BEFORE she was famous."
The irony in most of the stories is what kept my attention and what makes them realistic. The relationships are so believable and I could easily see similarities of either my own experiences or someone that I know. Unfortunately there were some stories that I felt were unfinished like the author just got tired of writing it and quit or rushed the end. There are also some characters that felt hollow and forgettable. Honestly I am surprised that I liked it as much as I did. This is usually not something I would pick up and read but I was looking for something different when I entered to win this one and I am glad I did. I have already recommended this to some friends.
