Daddy

Daddy

Emma Cline

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

The stories in Emma Cline’s stunning first collection consider the dark corners of human experience, exploring the fault lines of power between men and women, parents and children, past and present. A man travels to his son’s school to deal with the fallout of a violent attack and to make sure his son will not lose his college place. But what exactly has his son done? And who is to blame? A young woman trying to make it in LA, working in a clothes shop while taking acting classes, turns to a riskier way of making money but will be forced to confront the danger of the game she’s playing. And a family coming together for Christmas struggle to skate over the lingering darkness caused by the very ordinary brutality of a troubled husband and father. These outstanding stories examine masculinity, male power and broken relationships, while revealing – with astonishing insight and clarity – those moments of misunderstanding that can have life-changing consequences. And there is an unexpected violence, ever-present but unseen, in the depiction of the complicated interactions between men and women, and families. Subtle, sophisticated and displaying an extraordinary understanding of human behaviour, these stories are unforgettable.


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  • Sarybeth77
    Jan 30, 2025
    Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

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  • Acelli
    Apr 06, 2025
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    Actual Rating: 3.5

    My past enjoyment of Emma Cline's debut novel and the title of this short story collection drew me in, but I was left with the same feeling of enjoyment that The Girls left me and made me question the choice of title.. My main issue is that while so many of these stories had the potential to something great, covering many different micro-cultures and events in our human experince, the build up & thrill was cut off far too soon by the ending of each of the stories. While when executed right, leaving a reader with questions can create a sense of mystery, this felt like watching a season of a show that got canceled before the finale could be shot.

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  • voids
    Jan 02, 2025
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    when is it going to be the day that i really say to myself that short story collections are not for me. it wasnt today as we can see

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