Synopses & Reviews
From the author of
Nine Months, which
Marcy Dermansky called “deliciously, dangerously rogue,” comes a powerful, daring new collection about the curious, complicated relationships girls have with their bodies, with other girls, and with boys.
A young anorexic girl comes to terms with her changing body while lying in the hospital; Polly deals with her unwelcome puberty whilst falling prey to peer pressure in the suspenseful vein of "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"; Mary's nice-girl attitude is challenged when she begins a job at a psych ward; two best friends discover the power of being beautiful and young; Madeleine discovers menstruation and the power that comes with it; a kinky sexual relationship turns into a dangerous obsession.
This eagerly awaited book seethes with alienation, lust and rage. It’s even more daring and accomplished than Bomer’s first collection, which Jonathan Franzen described as “like being attacked by a rabid dog— and feeling grateful for it. This is some of the rawest and most urgent writing I can remember encountering.”
Synopsis
"With surgical insight, Inside Madeline delves into the most complex female territory imaginable and dissects until every honest bone is revealed. Bomer's prose doesn't flinch, doesn't filter—the bravery of these stories left me breathless.” —Alissa Nutting, author of Tampa
From the author of Nine Months and Baby comes a daring new collection that seethes with alienation, lust and rage. Bomer takes us from hospitals, halfway houses, and alleyways, to boarding schools and Park Avenue penthouses, exploring the complex relationships girls have with their bodies, with other girls, and with boys. The title novella tracks the ins and outs of an outsider’s life: her childhood obesity and kinky sex life, her toxic relationships, whether familial or erotic, and her various disappearing acts, of body and mind.
About the Author
Paula Bomer is the author of a novel, Nine Months (Soho Press), and a story collection, Baby (Word Riot Press). Her writing has appeared in The Mississippi Review, Open City, Fiction, Nerve, and Best American Erotica. She is the publisher of Sententia Books and a contributor to the literary blog, Big Other. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
"Eye Socket Girls"
first appeared in Girls: An Anthology (Global City Press)
"Breasts"
first appeared in The Mississippi Review Online
"Reading to the Blind Girl"
first appeared in Storyglossia
"Down the Alley"
first appeared in The New York Tyrant
"Cleveland Circle House"
"Pussies"
first appeared in Night Train
"The Favorite Daughter"
first appeared in Necessary Fiction
"Two Years"
first appeared in Nerve
"Inside Madeleine"
an excerpt first appeared in Nerve