Hot Little Hands - Softcover

Ulman, Abigail

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241974909 ISBN 13: 9780241974902

Publisher: Penguin, 2016

Synopsis

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About this title

Review

I have already committed my full holiday weekend to Hot Little Hands, a familiar yet highly inventive collection of short fiction which hits virtually all my buttons: dark humor, complex female characters, and a strong summer camp storyline. Best not disturb me in my hammock except to bring me avocados or lemonade (Lena Dunham)

The strength of many of the stories in her collection lies in the space she leaves to the unsaid. . . Ulman has found rich fictional territory (Sydney Review of Books)

[A] stunning collection of short stories about adolescence, friendships, family and female sexuality that should not be missed (Guardian Australia)

It is rare for a collection to so adeptly capture the way life can be at once facile and intense (Kirkus Reviews)

In this sardonic, smart, and thoroughly modern debut collection, Ulman presents nine stories about young women on the verge of adulthood, motherhood, and more who make momentous decisions while delirious with desire (O Magazine)

[Ulman] excels at dialogue and narrative. The more you get to know her characters, the funnier it is to witness their verbal code-switching as they navigate between nosy parents, fumbling love interests, and trusted friends.That none of these stories is constrained by any need for tidy endings makes them all the more believable (The Atlantic)

Deftly written with a fresh and realistic style, and each female protagonist is wonderfully complicated and charming in her own way. Ulman's wit is sharp, and her observations are even sharper as she gives readers portraits of young women on the cusp of self-discovery or radical change. ... There is a narrative looseness in her style, but the emotional pull of the characters is powerful. It is this bi-polarity, the contemporary language mixed with the pop-culture references contrasted by the very real and urgent action of the stories, that is so entertaining and provocative. Ulman's own confidence in writing is captivating, and her characters are colorful. ... Overwhelmingly successful and intense (The Book Reporter)

The protagonists in Ulman's debut story collection, all in their teens and 20s, feel intensely real. The stories have a cumulative effect: themes of friendship, infatuation, self-discovery, and disillusionment intensify with each subsequent tale... All the captivating women in this collection leave a lasting impression (Publishers Weekly book of the week)

The vague melancholy of growing up has hardly gone unexamined in fiction, but Ulman's millennial take is genuinely insightful. ... Ulman portrays her characters as unknowingly determining their places in the world, and she manages to depict this process absent self-seriousness and with a healthy dose of wry humor. Hot Little Hands is the rare collection that portrays how life pivots around mundane moments as readily as earth-shaking events (Shelf Awareness)

Ulman makes a noteworthy debut. ... [She] writes without judgment, and this is what gives her characters life. They are multifaceted, flawed beings-sometimes victims of others, but often victims of their own actions-in whom readers will recognize flashes of themselves. Whether readers feel their consciences pricked or sense of kinship stoked, all will come away with plenty to think about (Booklist)

From the Back Cover

Hot Little Hands immerses us in the world of eight young women at a time when the line between adolescence and adulthood blurs, and life can be thrilling and unnerving all at once. These are stories about break-ups that last longer than relationships; about sexual encounters, both real and imagined; about stumbling on the fringes of innocence and the marks desire can leave. About a desperate longing for maturity - and what happens when you finally attain it.

In this wry and exhilarating debut, Abigail Ulman takes a disquieting look at the excruciating cruelties and surprising power of being a young woman.

'Ulman knows how to write a story, manage a build-up, hold your attention... I love how up-to-the-minute and street-wise these stories are, and how frank about sex and girls' Colm Toibin

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0241974909
• ISBN 13: 9780241974902
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352