Wow. What a collection. I just happened upon this book at the library and am glad I did. Each one of these stories packs a mean punch much like the tone of Joyce Carol Oates but maybe pulled back just a fraction or perhaps just saving the final killing blow for after the end of the story, where the reader doesn't have to suffer it. ( )

Un ritratto duro e sofferto della periferia americana in questi racconti ambientati nella piccola cittadina del Kentucky, Roma. La vita proletaria in una dimensione di anonime larghe strade, locali, pub, case isolate, scuole, campi, negozi. Soprattutto storie al femminile, strette e colme di sogni frustrati. ( )

Girl Trouble‘s central focus on sexual suffering in a limited environment frees it from many of the dilemmas of contemporary short fiction collections. The women-centered stories share a frustration with all-permeating male sexuality which recalls similar pieces by Lorrie Moore and Miranda July, but with neither author’s penchant for wordplay and humor. The pieces do not drag with existential angst or vagueness. Although many types of suffering are present, they are alike in their precision. Characters are haunted by a definite thing, a definite moment (or collection of moments) that went horribly wrong. Regret is for many of these characters almost tangible, a person or place or time that should have been destroyed.

Simultaneously, however, the collection manifestly avoids sentimentalizing or moralizing treatments. Girl Trouble focuses on the suffering and reality of the experiences of its characters. These stories play out as direct excerpts from people’s lives, with the characters, their thoughts and immediate experiences presented as it is experienced, and no more. Such a presentation relies almost entirely on empathetic characters to carry the weight of immersing the reader, and indeed Jones excels at this. Characters are at once completely ordinary and distinctly memorable. They are people you almost know, might even be friends with, but with their lives and thoughts laid bare in a way that no one could ever see from outside. You are precisely *in* these characters, but not at all *with* them.

http://doomedtoretweetit.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/13/ ( )