My Father, Dancing
Bliss Broyard's fathers are charismatic, seductive, brilliant men who loom large in the world, and larger at home. Their daughters, hungry for attention and connection, veer wildly between naiveté and cool indifference. In this powerful collection, Broyard's unsentimental prose captures the passages of daughters as they grow into young women: their struggles with identity, desire, and familial roles. From the early lessons girls absorb through their fathers-their first audience-to the equivocal attachments of marriage to the emotions of love and mourning, the characters in My Father, Dancing chronicle the never-ending dance between fathers and their daughters, and the many awakenings of girls and women.
"A wonderful first collection. In these eight arresting stories, Ms. Broyard proves herself a powerful writer who never looks away. -The New York Times
"Broyard's characters have senses of humor, flashes of insight and brief streaks of cruelty. . . . Achingly beautiful." -San Francisco Chronicle
“Achingly beautiful. Broyard handles [the situations] with freshness, sophistication, sympathy, and humor. She mines the self-consciousness and abandonment of adolescence for all its complexity.” -San Francisco Chronicle
"Among the best new collections. . . . Spare and lovely." -Time
“Short stories which are as beautiful as a hard truth honestly faced . . . The stories are so emotionally vivid that they seem to proclaim their alliance with real life.” -Newsday
“A heartbreaking new volume of stories, full of life with a powerful and artistic past.” -Interview
“Readable, well-crafted, entirely unaffected—and consequently of considerable appeal . . . Stories from a writer showing a steady hand and eye, a large heart, and an admirable aversion to trend, fad, or pose of any sort. All eyes should be open, looking for more.” -Kirkus Reviews
“A laser-sharp collection . . . Acutely sensitive to the inchoate sexuality of young women and the inexplicable power shifts within intimate relationships.” -Booklist
“Sensitively observed, with an assured style that is pleasantly free of the tough, show-off quality common to many younger short story writers.” -Publishers Weekly
“Broyard’s sentences unwind like ribbons until she artfully ties them up into bows, often causing the reader to wince in empathy.” -Boston Herald
“A startling good and enjoyable literary debut from a writer whose ripening talents exist quite apart from, or perhaps even in spite of her father‘s famous name. Rainy day readers and Granta subscribers alike will take enormous pleasure in Bliss Broyard’s laser sharp vision of tortured human relationships.” -The Baltimore Sun
“Skillfully layered and beautifully crafted, [these stories] are remarkably touching . . . Truly terrific. The stories are sophisticated in structure and technique. Plus, they touch your heart.” -The Seattle Times
“Broyard provides no easy answers, no guarantees of perfect love. She has something better in store for readers: the intricate, open-ended dance in which each step is brand new, and which all at once captures complexity, ambivalence, pain, incredible beauty and love.” -San Diego Union Tribune
“An impressive debut collection [led by] a powerful title story . . . Broyard handily demonstrates that the dances we all are called upon to perform in this life cannot be choreographed.” -The Miami Herald
“Broyard has a subtle and beguiling touch in evoking where someone has come from and where they might be going.” -Elle