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Barbara the Slut and Other People

Review

Barbara the Slut and Other People

Television shows like HBO’s “Girls” and Comedy Central’s “Broad City” have gotten a lot of media coverage for their portrayal of young women who are unashamed to talk (often in plainly raunchy terms) about sex. Now debut author Lauren Holmes adds her voice and characters to the zeitgeist with BARBARA THE SLUT AND OTHER PEOPLE, a collection of 10 stories that often touch, implicitly or explicitly, on what young women are thinking and talking about when it comes to sex.

Among the book's strongest entries are the opening story, “How Am I Supposed to Talk to You?” and the title story, which closes the collection. In the first one, a young woman --- who has come out as a lesbian to her dad years earlier --- travels to Mexico on the advice of her girlfriend, hoping to break the news about her sexual orientation to her mostly estranged mother, who fails to see her as the adult woman she is. In “Barbara the Slut,” a Princeton-bound high school girl who has decided never to sleep with the same boy more than once reveals the reasons for her lack of emotional commitment.

"Each story creates a credible and compelling situation or character, and yet seems to participate with the other tales in a larger project of observation and reflection on what it means to grow up and make one’s way today."

Other stories depict young women trying to navigate the rocky waters of the “real world,” including the simultaneously confusing and alluring realm of sexual intimacy. In “Desert Hearts,” a recent law school graduate who has moved to San Francisco with her more ambitious boyfriend poses as a lesbian to get a job at an adult toy store. In “Pearl and the Swiss Guy Fall in Love,” a young woman realizes that she has made a horrible mistake when she lets an international student get too familiar with her domestic life. And in “I Will Crawl to Raleigh if I Have To,” a young lady on a family vacation from hell just wants to escape so she can finally break up with her boyfriend and move on with her life.

Not every story is about sex --- and one of them (“Weekend with Beth, Kelly, Muscle, and Pammy”) is even narrated from a guy’s point of view. “New Girls” is a painfully realistic story about girls’ friendships, centering on the fraught relationships of an American girl spending a couple of years in Germany for her dad’s job. There are a surprising number of stories that include dogs and some truly memorable canine characters, especially Princess, who irresistibly narrates the breakup story “My Humans.” Several of the stories are genuinely funny, with humor derived equally from dialogue, situations or “there but for the grace of God” moments of recognition.

Not all of the stories are equally successful --- one called “Mike Anonymous,” set in an STD clinic, seems to lack the drama the author intended to impart, for example. But for a debut collection, this one is exceptionally strong. Each story creates a credible and compelling situation or character, and yet seems to participate with the other tales in a larger project of observation and reflection on what it means to grow up and make one’s way today.

Reviewed by Norah Piehl on August 21, 2015

Barbara the Slut and Other People
by Lauren Holmes

  • Publication Date: August 2, 2016
  • Genres: Fiction, Short Stories
  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Riverhead Books
  • ISBN-10: 0399576037
  • ISBN-13: 9780399576034