RavePloughsharesDuffy-Comparone’s stories are indeed as layered as an elaborate cake, and as incisive as a blade ... Throughout the immersive collection, many stories center on a coming-of-age. Duffy-Comparone deftly tackles the genre, which has been done over and over again in literature, but as Duffy-Comparone shows, there are endless possible variations on the theme ... The protagonists are our best selves and our worst selves and, frequently, something in between. If Duffy-Comparone’s stories are sometimes cringe-inducing, it is only because of the embarrassment of seeing our own qualities reflected in them. With Love Like That, Duffy-Comparone joins the ranks of Claire Messud and Ottessa Moshfegh—writers who, despite relentless criticism, placed unlikable female characters at the center of their stories. She also joins the ranks of Grace Paley and Lorrie Moore with her delightful prose, rich with unexpected, yet pitch-perfect descriptions. Despite the sugary treat that adorns its cover, Duffy-Comparone’s book does not sugarcoat its subjects; these women lead lives that are not glamorous or refined, and the complicated elements of being human are on full display here. Things like pubic hair and mucus and colostomy bags are not played for disgust; they are simply present as normal aspects of life.
Emily Gould
PositiveThe Los Angeles Review... when Laura becomes pregnant, Perfect Tunes diverges from the familiar tropes, becoming a subtle and complex meditation on motherhood and how it can throw all of our choices, and their costs, into sharp relief ... evocative details buoy Gould’s sometimes mundane prose, as do occasional simple but pitch-perfect observations about life, youth, and infatuation that sear with emotional accuracy ... Gould succeeds in representing Laura’s situation evenhandedly. She suggests neither that Laura has sacrificed too much of her ambition to become a mother, nor that Laura’s choice is altruistic in a way that childless young women living selfish, frivolous lives simply cannot comprehend. Nor is it even a simplistic second-wave feminist declaration that a woman can have both a family and a career. In Perfect Tunes, motherhood is not a moralistic weapon to wield against the uninitiated childless masses, but rather a prism through which we might reconsider our choices and who we make them for.
