
We Want What We Want
Stories
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By:
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Alix Ohlin
About this listen
An Esquire Best Book of Summer • A collection of glittering, surprising, darkly funny stories of people testing the boundaries of their lives - from the award-winning author of Dual Citizens, who is "spoken of in the same reverent breath as Lorrie Moore and Joy Williams" (Heidi Julavits, author of The Folded Clock).
In the mordantly funny "Money, Geography, Youth", Vanessa arrives home from a gap year volunteering in Ghana to find that her father is engaged to her childhood best friend. Unable to reconcile the girl she went to dances with in the eighth grade and the woman in her father's bed, Vanessa turns to a different old friendship for her own, unique diversion.
In the subversive "The Brooks Brothers Guru", Amanda drives to upstate New York to rescue her gawky cousin from a cult, only to discover clean-cut, well-dressed men living in a beautiful home, discussing the classics, and drinking sophisticated cocktails, moving her to wonder what freedoms she might willingly trade away for a life of such elegant comfort.
And in "The Universal Particular", Tamar welcomes her husband's young stepcousin into their home, imagining they are saving this young woman from Somalia by way of Stockholm, only to find their cool suburban life of potlucks and air-conditioning knocked askew in ways they cannot quite understand.
Populated with imperfect families, burned potential, and inescapable old flames, the 13 stories in We Want What We Want are, each one, diamond-sharp - sparkling with pain, humor, and beauty.
©2021 Alix Ohlin (P)2021 Random House AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Overall
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Performance
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
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Good read!
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Friends and Strangers
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly 20 years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit.
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thought provoking story
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Ask Again, Yes
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In Mary Beth Keane's extraordinary novel, a lifelong friendship and love blossoms between Kate Gleeson and Peter Stanhope, born six months apart. One shocking night their loyalties are divided, and their bond will be tested again and again over the next 30 years. Heartbreaking and redemptive, Ask Again, Yes is a gorgeous and generous portrait of the daily intimacies of marriage and the power of forgiveness....
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Grabs Hold of Your Heart and Doesn't Let Go
- By Amazon Customer on 09-05-19
By: Mary Beth Keane
Critic reviews
"Another rich collection full of insights and sticky contradictions.... Ohlin reveals the depth of her characters with empathy and precision.... More than worth the price of admission." (Publishers Weekly)
"Ohlin’s slyly humorous and devastatingly sensuous collection of short fiction shines a brilliant light on women’s inchoate desires." (O Magazine)
"Alix Ohlin is a sensitive writer, alert to the look and feel of things, and to the comedies and contradictions of her characters’ obsessions." (The New York Times Book Review)