Unkempt: Stories

By Courtney Eldridge

Book Overview

In the seven stories and one novella collected in Unkempt, Courtney Eldridge gives life to characters of astounding originality. Probing the darker corners of the human psyche, she shows-with a sly and unexpected sense of humor-the neurotic mind at work, the skewed perspective of an alcoholic parent, the nature of sexual conquest, and the hazards of working in retail. Fresh, funny, and candid, Eldridge's writing delivers a new and marvelous vision of life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156032082
• ISBN13: 9780156032087
• Release Date: August 2005
• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Length: 276 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Her Lovably Neurotic Characters Will Suck You Right In

Courtney Eldridge does things with the short story that I didn't know were possible. I found her work via her essay "Thanks, But No Thanks" in the anthology Alone In The Kitchen With an Eggplant, and was blown away by her inventiveness as well as straightforward style. She jumps right into her stories, and it's often a few pages before readers have adjusted to the voices of her pull-no-punches characters, who talk to you like you should already know them. They can be pushy and demanding, like the caller in "Becky," who simply won't take no for an answer. Told in a series of phone messages, Eldridge paints a woman so needy for human attention she's willing to beg, yet its her subtle but barbed backhanded compliments showing her bitchy side that makes this story a winner. It's hard to pick a favorite here, because each story has its own quirky appeal. The characters who don't seem to be aware of how fucked up they are were charming, but the ones who did, or who at least questioned their interactions with the people around them, like the mom in "Unkempt," lured me in. Yes, she's an alcoholic and I'm sure the story could've been told from her lesbian daughter's POV with a completely different result, but that would've been a story we'd read before. Instead, Eldridge, as she does throughout the book, gives voice to the kinds of people we're unlikely to hear from, like the gangbang former record holder who just wants someone to love her, in the final story. The title story also had one of my favorite passages in the whole book: "Honestly, though, when I found out that my daughter was gay, I was relieved. I thought, Thank god, at least she's having sex with someone. I mean, I couldn't figure out where she'd developed this great love of women, but I figured that was probably naive. Because I certainly know men who don't like women, and that doesn't stop them from being heterosexual." And any writer will surely relate to the author narrator of "Fits & Starts," who can't seem to get past the first sentence of any given story, rambling this way and that with a stream of consciousness style that tries to mask her self-consciousness over her work. Her contemplation of whether you're allowed the courtesy of a first paragraph, first sentence, or first five words to make your mark is just the sort of self-absorbed, mad thinking I'm sure most of us (ahem) are capable of. It's also a wonderful introduction to the book and Eldridge's style of writing, which is often like someone talking your ear off a mile a minute, maybe like a slightly deranged person you'd meet on the subway, but they have a glimmer of coolness, something that makes them, yes, crazy, but also intriguing. Her characters are lovably neurotic, some more fearful or freaky than others, yet before you can totally distance yourself, they've drawn you in both to their stories and the more universal themes they speak to. In "The Former World Record Holder Settles Down," the narrator has to deal with

Shark!

Why aren't there more young writers, particularly young women writers, like Eldridge? I haven't read anyone in a long, long time with such an ability to find humor at exactly the moment before it becomes inappropriate. She's a brave original. Perfectly placed, brilliant, warm, wise writing. Always just this side of scary. (Kind of like a shark in a swimming pool, in fact; feel free to start with "Sharks.") The novella "The Former World Record Holder Settles Down" is a masterpiece, and that's not only because I'm someone who's captivated by any character who has a sex dream about Don Zimmer. Eldridge knows, in great detail, how laughable human beings are-particularly New York human beings-and that's the best part. So sharp, so sweet.

Loved These Stories!

I loved this brilliant short story collection. And once I got used to Ms. Eldridge's very unusual, distinct style, I loved it even more. In the hilarious "Fits and Starts," the narrator describes her writing process and more specifically, what happens to those imperfect first sentences; In "Sharks," the narrator meets with a friend hoping to take her swimming only to discover the friend is terrified of scientists experimenting with sharks in the public pools. What makes this story so funny is the fact that Eldridge knows so well the infinite answers the neurotic mind will provide to support its fear; in "Summer of Mopeds," the narrator recalls a painful childhood memory; a food-adict makes herself a phone pest in "Becky;" And the last in the collection, the novella "The Former World Record Holder Settles Down," is nothing short of brilliant. Eldridge uses first person narration to its fullest advantage showing the reader the narrator's denial and painful process of moving beyond a past that holds her prisoner.

my best short story find since lorrie moore

This is a terrific read, funny and tragic and powerful. It's a little edgy like Lorrie Moore, but much more intimate, more personal. You're really inside the characters' thoughts, which are mostly going at warp speed. The tone is urban and energetic, not to mention pretty neurotic most of the time. These are characters with Issues, and usually they're quite aware of them. One woman is deathly afraid of sharks in swimming pools -- she knows there are not sharks in swimming pools, but she's constructed a very elaborate rationale for her fears. But the anxieties and neuroses are cut with great personal warmth and intimacy, not to mention great humor. Even the title story, which develops from a rather breezy look at a woman estranged from her daughter to a very intense and direct portrait of What Went Wrong, even this story has some laugh-out-loud material. It ends on a nicely optimistic note, too. The Former World Record Holder of the last story, whose record was as pornographic as records get, she settles down and discovers her Inner Wife and Bowler. And it's beautifully plausible, beautifully real, like all these stories.

Consciousness made unsimple

It's easy to coast along and admire the breadth of vernacular on display in Unkempt and forget that there is one virtuostic voice at work, and she hears EVERYTHING -- every fragment of consciousness, every syllable of contemporary anguish, every exhalation. There are a lot of writerly fragments and run-ons running amok out there, but these are the most perfectly flawed sentences I've seen in many years. Eldridge has an incredible perception of what's going on in the minds of apparently everyone who walks down her street, and a rhythmic sensibility for making it understood. While all of these stories at first appear to be messy tangents, they serve as well-scrubbed mirrors.