Publishers Weekly
★ 01/25/2021
Duffy-Comparone gives voice to a wide range of women and girls leading hardscrabble lives in her bold debut collection. In “The Zen Thing,” Anita, 23, endures her family’s eccentricities during an annual beach vacation with her older art professor turned boyfriend in tow. Here, as in all the stories, the prose packs a punch: “The narrative of an affair much more reasonable than the living of it, which is, when you get right down to it, a clusterfuck,” Anita reflects. “Marvel Sands” is an exquisite story of 15-year-old Ann’s sexual awakening after she takes a job to escape living in the cramped apartment of her mom’s boyfriend, Ronny, “one side of a defeated-looking duplex.” In “The Package Deal,” the author blazes through the labyrinthine terrain of step-motherhood as a woman develops a relationship with a divorced man and his difficult eight-year-old son. In the marvelous title story, a woman upends her life to care for her hapless brother. Duffy-Comparone nails her characters in a mere few words (when Anita’s mother gets hot flashes, she yanks her bra from her sleeve “like a rabbit from a hat”), often placing them in a realistically oppressive atmosphere (Ronny, according to Ann, wears “hostile cologne” along with his netted sports jerseys). Heartrending prose and a sprinkling of humor make this one a winner. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"A collection as dangerously sharp as a rust-glinted razor. . . For a friend who needs a reminder that love is weird, humans are complicated, and bad things often get better or at least later become funny stories to tell our friends."
—Vanity Fair
“Subtly female obligations—of caregiving, career, the ever-present need to cater to the male ego—[are] woven through each tale as sometimes sinister forces, and then picked apart with Comparone’s edgy wit. Her protagonists are jagged, hard-edged women and girls, but they are also, in their unique and quirky way, quite lovable."
—Vogue
“A witty, provocative short story collection, filled with women who are delightfully difficult and resolutely incapable of doing the "right" thing, Love Like That is the kind of book you can snack on, dipping into a story here and there, or — and far more likely — inhale all in one sitting, as you find it impossible to wait even one more day to find out just where Emma Duffy-Comparone has decided to take you next.”
—Refinery29
“In this debut short story collection, Duffy-Comparone does an astounding job of portraying women navigating complex relationships or dealing with family drama…These stories perfectly reflect the meaning of finding yourself again.”
—Palm Beach Daily News
"Duffy-Comparone’s collection celebrates feminism in an entirely different way by portraying the genuine, unglamorous mistakes that women can make. Her stories allow us a road for deeper empathy, connection, and relation to women who are more similar to us than we may realize."
—Paperback Paris
"...Stylish and sharp debut collection...[Duffy-Comparone] brings an ironic, wry, yet generous eye to the power dynamics of ordinary life..."
—The National Book Review
"Duffy-Comparone gives voice to a wide range of women and girls leading hardscrabble lives in her bold debut collection...Exquisite...Marvelous...Heartrending prose with a sprinkling of humor makes this one a winner."
—Publishers Weekly (starred)
“Young women glimpse men’s baffling behavior and discover their own....Lorrie Moore’s “Terrific Mother” and Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance?” come to mind...Well-crafted, emotionally stirring work.”
—Kirkus
"Duffy-Comparone’s stories are indeed as layered as an elaborate cake, and as incisive as a blade...delightful prose, rich with unexpected, yet pitch-perfect descriptions..."
—Ploughshares
"[An] unforgettable debut....this collection of dark, tender, and enthralling stories is captivating. Duffy is a masterful storyteller and uses vivid imagery to showcase the pivotal moments in the lives of these broken but resilient female characters as they go through loss, love, hurt, and healing."
—Booklist
“Emma Duffy-Comparone’s debut is smart, witty, and razor-sharp. These stories perfectly capture the complications of love and heartbreak, longing and desire. The women and girls in Love Like That are written with precision and compassion and it is fascinating to eavesdrop on their lives, to witness the pivotal moments as they deal with family, lovers, children, and loss.“
—Jennifer Close, author of Girls in White Dresses and The Hopefuls
“Emma Duffy-Comparone is an extraordinary talent and Love Like That is an accomplished, masterful collection. These stories hinge on surprising intersections of emotion—devastation and hopefulness, heartbreak and hilarity, control and submission—allowing us the full impact of those precarious, life changing turns. Bold and smart, with a voice all her own, Emma Duffy-Comparone is a writer not to be missed.”
—Jill McCorkle, author of Hieroglyphics and Life After Life
"The stories in Love Like That are funny and raw and big-hearted. Duffy-Comparone acknowledges the people we want to be and puts crosshairs on the people we are and the places we are loved nonetheless. This collection is a grand tour of the human heart, a true pleasure to read."
—Danielle Lazarin, author of Back Talk
"Duffy-Comparone’s collection is intense fun, whip smart and creates a family out of those lovable, eccentric people who are fallible yet so, so self-aware. On each and every page, the voice shines with enviable confidence and verve, demanding to be read. This is a stunning debut that unsettled me in the best possible way."
—Weike Wang, author of Chemistry
"These stories tingle like a fresh sunburn, secretly pleasant in their heat and specificity. Here, women burn inside their bodies, bodies that have done bad things or had bad things done to them. Whether they are fuming at the beach or hiding in a projectionist booth, it’s a sharp joy to watch them make tender and merciless decisions to reclaim their lives. You’ll think of short form masters like Joy Williams, Deborah Eisenberg, and Tessa Hadley, but most of all you’ll be thinking of the ruthless and beautiful voice of Emma Duffy-Comparone."
—Aja Gabel, author of The Ensemble
"What a joy to read these stories! This accomplished collection is dark and delightful, hilarious and heart-breaking. Fearless, tense, funny, and surprising, these witty, sharp stories will devastate you. Duffy-Comparone is a marvel!"
—Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of The Five Wounds
Kirkus Reviews
2020-12-25
Young women glimpse men’s baffling behavior and discover their own.
In this debut collection, which includes two Pushcart Prize–winning stories, Duffy-Comparone’s female protagonists are betwixt and between. They’re teenage girls not yet experienced enough to know the difference between abuse and affection, girls who unwittingly thrill to lecherous male attention. They’re young women dating dramatically older men who like the idea better than the reality. They’re childless women moving in with men who are fathers and finding themselves jealous of their boyfriends’ offspring. The world is bewildering, in part because of the mysterious nature of love. That’s the case for Anita in “The Zen Thing,” who is having an affair with a man her parents’ age and trying to reconcile two very different feelings: that she has totally ruined her life and that she loves a multitude of things about her boyfriend, not least of which is that “he looks good in everything.” Elsewhere, it’s the inexplicable nature of physical desire. In “Marvel Sands,” the 15-year-old narrator thinks she wants her 60-year-old boss to “touch [her]” even though he repeatedly invades her personal space and insults her intelligence. There are allusions to other iconic short stories here—Lorrie Moore’s “Terrific Mother” and Raymond Carver’s “Why Don’t You Dance?” come to mind, and Duffy-Comparone’s characters are the offspring of both: emotionally flattened while also capable of sharp, witty thoughts. (Braces, one character observes, “made a wet, tragic thing of consonants.”) This combination is devastating in “The Offering,” the collection’s standout story, about a little girl trying to navigate her parents’ separation and her mother’s emotional abuse. You’ll want to cry at the end when you learn what the girl sacrifices to try to control a situation that is completely out of her hands.
Well-crafted, emotionally stirring work.
