"Daddy" by Emma Cline

An audio book. Stories from Paris Review, New Yorker, etc.

• What Can You Do With a General - Here's the start: "Linda was inside on her phone. To who this early? From the hot tub John watched her pace in her robe and old swimsuit in a faded tropical print that probably belonged to one of the girls. It was nice to drift a little in the water, to glide to the other side of the tub holding his coffee above the water line, the jets turning away. The fig trees were bare, had been for a month now, but the persimmon trees were full. The kids should bake cookies when they get here, he thought. Persimmon cookies.". Note the densely textured detail. Backstory and foreshadowing is dribbled in John and Linda are awaiting the arrival of most of their kids for an Xmas reunion. Zero, their dog, has just had a pacemaker put in. John maybe had anger management issues when he was a yong father. Linda went away for a week. With the kids they look through old family videos. One of the daughters watches a film in town. John recalls the kids illnesses and injuries. He recalls one of the kids watching a Wizard of Oz video so often that the tape snapped, but misremembers which kid it was.
• Los Angeles - A clothes shop where all the assistants are young females attracts older male customers. The main character starts selling her used underwear to them for up to $65. Who's being exploited? While walking to a meeting with a buyer she thinks - "It was a pleasure to see inside those night-time houses, each one like a primer on being human, and what choices you might make. As if life might follow the course of your wishes - the piano lessons she once watched, the repeated scales, a girl with a meaty braid down her back"
• Menlo Park - Ben's under investigation about work. He's married to Eleanor. Meanwhile he's visiting a celeb, helping him edit his ghosted bio. He thinks he's lost a contact lens behind his eye and asks the celeb's pretty assistant to help. The assistant seems to be chatting him up, but Ben resists because he doesn't feel in control. When she's gone, he realises he hadn't lost his contact lens after all. Next day the assistant calls to say that the celeb's sacked him. A minor story.
• Son of Friedman - George (71) is meeting old film-making partner William before going to the premier of Benji's film. Benji is George's son and William's godson. William's still famous. George is a has-been. Benji's useless, never able to hold down a job. So is the film, made with money donated by the few people turning up to the showing. George is embarrassed, wondering how much of the donations went into the film.
• The Nanny - Kayla (24) is staying with a Mary, a college friend of her mother. She seems to be hiding away from a recent calamity. She goes to a little party with Mary, plays with the host's little girl. She'd had an affair with Rafe, a famous actor. She was looking after his little son. The media are after her. She isn't as pretty as Rafe's wife. She has a good Arts degree. She wonders why she wasted it. As they leave the party, she smartens up in case the media's outside.
• Arcadia - Otto and younger sister Hetty (18) run an organic farm. Hetty's pregnant. Her partner Peter (20) has moved in. There are 5 trailers for the casual labour. One of the students there sets up a web site for the farm. Hetty starts college. Peter's a little jealous. One night he catches Otto drunk in a clearing with 2 mostly naked woman, one of them a worker - a mother who Peter tries to help. An incriminating photos of him is taken. Next day he suggests to Hetty that they move away. Otto tries to involve him more in the running of the farm.
• North-East regional - Richard's been divorced for 14 years. He thinks married mistresses are best. His weekend with one (who "had sensed some shift in his attention and was now wilfully cheerful") is interrupted by a call from his son's school. He has to leave in a hurry for a disciplinary interview. On the journey and at the school he keeps checking his mail. No reply from his mistress. His son is expelled. In the evening he goes to a restaurant with his son and son's girlfriend, the latter couple walking "at a distance typical of bodyguards and teenagers". He sees his son in a new way. He's angry with both of them.
• Maryanne - The narrator (11?) has an ill mother, so she stays with a friend, Maryanne, who's older and who takes the lead. The farm's a relaxed household, into hippy magic. They grow weed. The girls take nude pictures of each other, browse though Playboys and lingerie. Maryanne wants to impress Jack, a worker, using charms, and tells the narrator to knock her (Maryanne's) loose tooth out. Her mother finds out and the narrator's taken back home by Maryanne's apologetic father.
• Mac-the-knife - Jonathon (recently divorced and clinically depressed but off meds now, with Julia, 32, and an 11 year old daughter), Paul (50, friend of Jonathon since they were toddlers, with a teen son who has has cancer) and Hertwell (who happily lends Jonathon money) are having a meal and a few drinks. The evening fades out. On his way home, Jonathon recalls various memories, comparing his youth with that of others - dates, college days, etc. Jonathon and Julia had separated 6 months before because Jonathon wouldn't get a divorce, but he's divorced now. He goes to Julia's apartment. She's got some ketamine. She's a mess - anxiety, prescription drugs, etc. She's no longer getting auditions. He's beginning to think he should act his age.
• ASL - The narrator, married to James, is in a rehab centre (not quite a clinic) in the mountains. She had become obsessed with a chatroom where she'd pretended to be a naive 16 y.o. girl wantint to learn about sex. At the centre there's G, a male minor celeb known for sex-related problems. She gets him into trouble.

When a man and woman meet, the possibility of sex hovers, along with who's in control, who wins. The role of fathers (absent and otherwise) is examined. The stories don't always have strong "plots" (though Son of Friedman has a good set-up). I liked the stories - undramatic, with an accumulation of detail that the reader needs to assemble and order.

Other reviews

• Holly Williams (neglectful or narcissistic parents are everywhere, especially, as the title suggests, fathers. ... I found Cline’s insights persuasive, even if the territory does become repetitive.)
• Clare Marie Schneider (Her stories never reveal the dark underbelly of the wrongdoings; she is less concerned with the traumatic details than what happens in the aftermath of the unspeakable.)
• Zakia Uddin (Cline’s ability to establish atmosphere and character with a few deft details is perfectly suited to short stories, her often measured pace reflecting the total confidence of her storytelling. This control, however, can make for a frictionless reading experience which never fully evokes the messy and contentious nature of the subjects that she is exploring. ... There are repeated moments where characters try to see themselves through their sons’ girlfriends’ eyes, but the role-play implied in the provocative title only goes this far. While absorbingly crafted, these stories are often too familiar in their rendering of middle-aged ennui. In contrast, the tales with young women at the centre are often tightly wound; the narratives seem to be designed to demonstrate complexity rather than making us feel that complexity. ... ‘Marion’ and ‘Arcadia’ are more affecting, in part because Cline uses her masterful narratorial skills to ramp up the complexity and ambiguity of the power relations she depicts. ... Many of Cline’s characters seem startled by the lack of reward for simply surviving, because they’re so used to recognition in some form or other. It’s an understandable feeling, although in most of the other stories, the low stakes mean that we struggle to care. In ‘Mack the Knife’ Jonathan realises that a sense of possibility is the most valuable thing he can have—and that it’s contingent on other people. In a sometimes detached and astringent collection, this story feels unusually generous and pushes out into new emotional territory.)
• goodreads