Florida
Ratings22
Average rating3.8
15
Ratings22
Average rating3.8
In her vigorous and moving new book, Lauren Groff brings her electric storytelling and intelligence to a world in which storms, snakes, and sinkholes lurk at the edges of everyday life, but the greater threats and mysteries are of a human, emotional, and psychological nature. Among those navigating it all are a resourceful pair of abandoned sisters; a lonely boy, grown up; a restless, childless couple; a searching, homeless woman; and an unforgettable, recurring character – a steely and conflicted wife and mother.
The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but Florida—its landscape, climate, history, and state of mind—becomes its gravitational center: an energy, a mood, as much as a place of residence. Groff transports the reader, then jolts us alert with a crackle of wit, a wave of sadness, a flash of cruelty, as she writes about loneliness, rage, family, and the passage of time. With shocking accuracy and effect, she pinpoints the moments and decisions and connections behind human pleasure and pain, hope and despair, love and fury—the moments that make us alive. Startling, precise, and affecting, Florida is a magnificent achievement.
Winner of the Story Prize. Finalist for the National Book Award, Kirkus Prize, and Southern Book Prize. Stories from this collection previously appeared in Best American Short Stories 2014, 2016, and 2017, the 100 Years of the Best American Short Stories, PEN/ O. Henry Prize Stories 2012, The New Yorker, Tin House, Subtropics, American Short Fiction, Esquire, and in Granta’s 2017 Best of Young American Novelists issue. Named one of the best books of 2018 by over two dozen publications. Published in thirteen foreign markets.
([source][1])
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Contains:
Ghosts and Empties
At the Round Earth’s Imagined Corners
Dogs Go Wolf
Midnight Zone
Eyewall
For the God of Love, for the Love of God
Salvador
Flower Hunters
Above and Below
Snake Stories
Yport
[1]: https://laurengroff.com/book/florida/
Reviews with the most likes.
Beautiful writing, but a bit of a slog. Every story was so bleak and without humour or hope. One could say the writing quality was completely my style but the content was not. In most cases I had no sympathy for any of the characters and many of them I actively disliked. I actually cheered when I finished it because now I get to read something happier.
I mean what is there to say about Lauren Groff. I've loved every novel of hers, and this short story collection did not disappoint. “Eyewall” is a stand out, but there's a masterclass in craft on every page. Check trigger warnings, especially if you are a parent, but even the hardest to read stories are incredible pieces.
My favorite of these stories is Yport, the long, last piece in the collection, which felt more like a personal essay than a short story.
