Black Swans: Stories

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And what really is shocking about it all, too, the men who committed incest on their own daughters told a lot of them “You’re so fat, no wonder nobody will ever love you. Police brutality, tense race relations, and disenchantment with the false veneer of progress are contemporary concerns, though Babitz’s light, palliating tone is not. The discursive nature of her short stories allows her narratives to move in tandem with the sociopolitical issues she is constantly and effectively addressing. So pick this up if you want to feel the same kind of smooth wistfulness you would when flipping through faded vintage black and white photos of strangers at a soirée.

It was a sea change; though silver boots, feather boas, and four-day trysts at the Chateau Marmont take precedence, Babitz threads this story with references to ’90s racial tensions and weak generational critique. Equally good, if somewhat labored (Babitz's chief stylistic flaw is repetitiousness), is a pair of pieces about learning to tango, being swept up in the dance's 'fearless wrongness': funny, philosophical. Babitz's writing is also like the jacaranda tree in glorious bloom—bewitching an entire city, but all too brief.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Despite her own levity, even Babitz can’t help but quip that “the thing she fears most is bad taste, in other words. The way she was so casual about cheating like everyone cheats and it is normal to do so, it is not and not everyone does it! Babitz is an acquired taste: her slewing style, bad–girl postures, and sad–funny takes on hedonism can be deliciously shocking.

The liveliness of her portraits and plates-in-the-air precariousness of her storytelling reach through the decades to entertain a completely new audience. While her light take is undeniably frustrating, this self-centered framing is human, and uncomfortably relatable. She has contributed articles for publications such as Broadly , LensCulture , Paste Magazine , and Teen Vogue . It is our intent and purpose to foster and encourage in-depth discussion about all things related to books, authors, genres, or publishing in a safe, supportive environment. It restricts their polemical efficacy and narrows their scope but takes away the awkward tinge that other fiction so dedicated to making a point can have.

According to Babitz's sister, "When I told Eve that The Huntington was very interested in her archive, she said, 'I would love to be with Blue Boy and Pinkie again, like when we were kids. Black Swans is a collection of nine stories that look back on the 1980s—a decade of dreams, drink, and stoned youth turning Republican.I mean, she says so much in the book but her central theme was true tho — you shouldn’t be with someone intimidated by your greatness and the fact that you age and are a continuously maturing human being, also you shouldn’t fuck your friends exes or current partners. I recommend reading the book through this lens, and I often found myself wondering if she wrote it that way - it’s biographical fiction, after all.

I really hate giving bad reviews and try to find something good about most books but I could not get into this book at all. In the end, Black Swans leaves the reader impressed with the author's talents and wishing she would try writing about a less self-absorbed group of people—or maybe take a vacation from L.is a kind of pushback against the notion of Southern California's banality and vanity: it gives great merit to simple beauty and solitude, and does its part to redeem the SoCal lifestyle. Once this happened the term’s meaning transformed: the black swan became a symbol of the improbable. She renders dead-perfect scenarios of contemporary angst, generously imbued with wit and her characters’ hard-won wisdom. Babitz's talent for the brilliant line, honed to a point, never interferes with her feel for languid pleasures.