Gay's writing encompasses so much-simultaneously direct, funny, whipsmart, sometimes painful, and always thought-provoking . . . Difficult Women [is] wonderful.
Chicago Review of Books
Gay brings the powerful voice that flows through her work as a novelist and cultural critic to the 21 short stories in her first collection . . . Gay's difficult women are ... Read moreunforgettable.
BBC.com
Gay's signature dry wit and piercing psychological depth make every story mermerisingly unusual and simply unforgettable.
Harper's Bazaar
Dark, yes, difficult, yes, but also luminous, transporting, and totally worth the effort.
Vogue.com
The women here are complex, but not in the typical way of fiction. Much like Mireille, the protagonist of Gay's profound and violent novel, An Untamed State, the women here reveal themselves in how their minds adjust to a world that seems bent on violating their bodies . . . This collection begs for a slow, serious reading.
Star Tribune
The great James Baldwin once said, You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal. In Difficult Women, Gay achieves that goal. Her writing is unfussy, well matched to the women and men she's created, and she finds a distinct rhythm both elegant and plainspoken . . . In Difficult Women, Gay gives these often-overlooked lives color and meaning. From a ramshackle Michigan trailer park to the affluence and ennui of a gated community in Florida - and myriad points in between - Gay writes of chances missed and unexpected joy, love gone awry or resurrected, and the slivers of hope that keep these fascinating women alive.
The Boston Globe
Gut-wrenching . . .They aren't just characters. They are our mothers, sisters and partners. They are human. They are us . . . Difficult Women is not a collection of happy stories, but these are real stories about real experiences and women seeking, deserving happy endings. They aren't victims but survivors . . . Gay makes mosaics out of these women, seeing them as perfectly imperfect wholes in a world that routinely tries to break them down to pieces.
USA Today
Gay has fun with these ladies. Her narrative games aren't rulesy. She plays with structure and pacing . . . She moves easily from first to third person, sometimes within a single story. She creates worlds that are firmly realist and worlds that are fantastically far-fetched
New York Times
Astonishing, arresting, and staggering
Book Riot
Unified in theme ? the struggles of women claiming independence for themselves ? but wide-ranging in conception and form . . . Gay is an admirable risk-taker in her exploration of women's lives and new ways to tell their stories
Kirkus Reviews
Gay expands her writing prowess with this collection featuring colorful women protagonists . . . Refreshing yet intricate . . . This work will appeal to lovers of literary and feminist fiction
Library Journal (starred review)
Gay tells intimate, deep, wry tales of jaggedly dimensional women. . . . Be they writer, scientist, or stripper, Gay's women suffer grave abuses, mourn unfathomable losses, love hard, and work harder
Booklist
A writer of prodigious, arresting talent
Guardian
A powerful, two-fisted collection with heart under its surface.
Sunday Times
Different to anything I've read before . . . Be warned, it can get a little dark at times, but the collection is worth it
Stylist
Powerful . . . Gay's fantastic collection is challenging, quirky, and memorable.
Publishers Weekly
Roxane is a powerhouse of a writer.
Lena Dunham
The stories, phenomenally powerful and beautifully written, demonstrate the threats so many women in reality face, but also how, whatever their situation, they have agency, resilience and identities away from stereotypes created and reinforced by men.
The Guardian
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