Difficult Women by Roxane Gay

The Roxanne Gay book Difficult Women has been been forward for the inaugural Aspen Words Literary Prize. A collection of short stories titled Difficult Women focuses on the highs, lows, and humour of women’s daily lives.

It’s challenging to read Difficult Women. Its readers will be deeply moved by how honest and genuine it is. Gay people’s experiences are those that society refuses to accept. We all have open secrets that we are aware of but cannot discuss in public for a variety of reasons. Many of the stories won’t give you the emotional lift you need if you’re a reader who needs it.

Gay’s stories undoubtedly centre on the women. Gay has a wide range of characters. Women frequently assume responsibility for mistakes made. When a woman is assaulted, we often hear our mothers question what she was doing with him alone or analyse how it was “destined to happen” given her history with males. Gay’s women bear the consequences of other people’s acts, despite the fact that they don’t include violence.

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The crude and underdeveloped men cast straight from central casting complicate the female perspective. Even in moments of pleasure, there is only suffering, therefore there is no reason to wander from the confines of evil. In the stories of violence, the men are horrible and maniacal lacking only a mustache to twirl. They are wholly vile without the need of development.

Break All the Way Down was a really challenging book to read. A mom who has lost her kid is engulfed and overcome by pain. This reader was moved to tears by the mother’s abject desperation, which was so genuine and natural. Such a tale may be much more heartbreaking if you are a parent. The stories in Difficult Women contain a lot of explicit sexual content.

In the film Bad Priest, a priest has an affair with a much younger woman, and they engage in a lot of sexual activity. I just thought the plot was weird as a reader. As readers, I believe the majority of the anthology is meant to make us uncomfortable. Perhaps the most timely story is that of a woman who is sexually harassed by her boss and gives in to him as she needs the job.

The majority of the tales centre on violence towards women. There are misogyny, racism, and sexual violence themes. There are tales with romance, magic, and infidelity components. This reader believes that Gay’s intention is to discuss the often-ignored real in life. It seems incredibly unjust, but as my grandmother would say, “Whoever said you life was fair, lied,” Gay sheds light on the problems women confront. Pick up a copy of Difficult Women right away if you’re seeking for an excellent book and don’t mind cringing.

About The Book

The women in these stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters, grown now, have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister’s marriage.

A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind. 

From a girls’ fight club to a wealthy subdivision in Florida where neighbors conform, compete, and spy on each other, Gay delivers a wry, beautiful, haunting vision of modern America reminiscent of Merritt Tierce, Jamie Quatro, and Miranda July.