The Difference Between Women and Men: Stories

By Bret Lott

Book Overview

In this deeply affecting, beautifully crafted collection of short fiction, Bret Lott broadens his stylistic range, striking a surprisingly surreal tone with stark, hyperrealistic prose. As story after dazzling story deliberately takes you down a deceptively ordinary path, the arresting center of each startles your unsuspecting sensibility.

Among the narrative gems is "Family," in which a husband and wife bicker incessantly before realizing that their two children are missing, only to discover them in a surprising place-and in a disturbing condition. In "Everything Cut Will Come Back," a long-distance phone call between two brothers takes a turn when their own tragic past crackles over the line. In "History," a widow thinks she spots her son at the airport and is left instead with a simple memory of her late husband that resolves her grief. The innocence of three boys is lost when they witness a devastating winter tragedy in "The Train, the Lake, the Bridge."

Within these pages, adulterers are unceremoniously caught, epiphanies arrive during bizarre encounters, and characters move through everyday moments with a fortitude that elevates these stories almost to mythical status. Without a stroke of false sentimentality, The Difference Between Women and Men will leave you strangely shaken-and ever aware of the odd permutations of humankind.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345494709
• ISBN13: 9780345494702
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.41 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 7.9"

Customer Reviews

Reality and Metaphor Extended

If I had not read Catherine Wald's The Resilient Writer: Tales of Rejection and Triumph by 23 Top Authors, I would not have found this interesting author. This is a collection of short stories that frequently lifts the reader off the page and into flights of imagination. It is not type of the writing I usually seek out. Typically I spend a lot of time with language heavy literary writing and nonfiction works. To my surprise, I was immediately intrigued by Lott's unique style after finishing the first story, "Family." I liked "Everything Cut Will Come Back," for how accurately it demonstrated the difficulty men have communicating their feelings to each other. Lott's blending of grounded reality and flights of fancy caught me off guard, but as soon as I let go of preconceived expectations, I was able to find much to admire. By the time I read "Appraisal," the story of a woman drowning in financial problems, I found myself missing the author's fanciful flights of unreality. Lott's stories focus on compassion, gratefulness and how important love is in our lives. These stories teach in much the same way traditional fables do. In some, the oversize metaphors required me to read the piece more than once. Tackling the kinds of relational issues that bring people into therapy is a daunting task, so I liked reading a totally original approach. The Difference Between Women and Men: Stories offers refreshing, light and entertaining reading where thought provoking ideas await discovery.

thumbnail sketches

Bret Lott's short fiction seems to be one of the great, accidental secrets of today's literary scene. Borges, Kafka, Flannery O'Connor, Raymond Carver--I have to go back to the Dead Greats to find someone to compare him with. Lott's stories are thumbnail sketches of heartbreak and tragicomedy, and each is written straight from the gut. Like Carver, Lott has mastered the craft of narrative minimalism, and his 3 collections put to shame most of the modern novels I read. In this book Lott makes a welcome addition to his bag of tricks, giving us a handful of superb magical realism tales. So I dare you: pick this up, read maybe "The Family" or the very short "A Part of It," and then try--just try!--to tear yourself away from the book.