Out Of The Girls Room And Into The Night
I just finished Out Of The Girls Room And Into The Night. Thisbe Nissen’s collection of short stories had me from the very beginning. After reading the first story, I set the book down on the bed and thought to myself, “I’m really gonna enjoy this book”. And I did, right through to the last page.
The novel consists of each character recounting love’s triumphs, failures, deceptions, delicacy, destruction, unpredictability, and enormity. Most of these stories concerned themselves with situations in which the heart is acting and the head is watching, thinking to itself, “I hope you know what you’re doing heart.” Although mostly young women, the characters span all types of demographics from dead-heads to anorexics to lesbians to college students to upper-class boarding school girls to a couple on their 25th anniversary. Most of the stories hang in those moments when we are feeling uncomfortable in our own skin, or are realizing that the skin we thought we had on is not what we had thought it was originally.
The majority of the stories that the author offers in this collection are easily consumed and have underdeveloped or uncomplicated plot lines. But it was their ability to engage me emotionally and my ability to relate to them that has made the novel so successful with me. I found myself only reading a couple of stories at a time because a wanted them to sink in and marinate them for a while before they were discarded for the next set of stories. I would have given it five stars if the characters and plot lines were a little more developed. However, I highly recommend this collection.
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