There are nine short stories in this collection. I always rate a short story collection by my thoughts if I want to read more of one story or more and wish that at least a few of them were full length novels. I felt that way with some of the stories in this collection. There were at least three that I didn't want to end and wanted so much more from the characters and the plot. I would love to read more from this author in the near future.

an unflinchingly honest view into love, what it means to most of us, why we are so desperate to find it and how it can end -endlessly happy or utterly heartbroken... - this book covers it all in its stories. I enjoyed it very much! Highly recommend!

What Counts as Loves definitely held my attention with the nine, wonderful stories packed into this short read. Each of the characters was searching for "something" and I found myself actually hoping they would find what they were looking for!

As with any short story collection, WHAT COUNTS AS LOVE is a bit of a mixed bag, though this one does feel more cohesive, more thematically realized than many contemporary collections. The stories here are all about the things we substitute for love, the things that make desire seem like both lack and excess energy.

The standouts here are the first two stories, and I'm tempted to say that the book is worth checking out for those alone. The first, "Crazy for You," is a thrilling tale of adolescent female desire; the second, "The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch," is a crushing queer romance, with an emphasis on the "crushing" rather than the "romance." Other stories are okay, but none quite reach the emotional heights of these.

“To sum up, I learned that 1. Knowing the future can’t always change it. 2. Tragedy looks inevitable when enough people refuse to help.”

Sharp, salty, always entertaining, shot through with the search for love and its meaning, is one way to sum up the nine stories in Marian Crotty’s debut collection, What Counts as Love.

Here’s a sampling of a few:

‘The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch’ – an account of the residents of a home for eating disorders – whose lives are spent spinning when a new woman, Jessa, a model and actress who has gained weight, is admitted. The story, while carrying the narrator’s smart, yet almost sarcastic voice, imbues the story with pathos and an understanding of what it means to have an eating disorder. The following words are heart-breaking, yet resonant, “For the anorexics it’s different. When a new girl shivers under her paper gown at weigh-in, her spine jotting out like a rocky garden house, they are quiet out of respect. The new girl is a memory of what’s been lost – a mirage of what it means to be skinny and empty and good.” What develops between Jessa and the narrator is both poignant, and telling, the low self-esteem of a young woman with an eating disorder perfectly wrapped up in this portrait.

The format of ‘Common Applications with Supplement’ takes the form of a questionnaire given to a university or college applicant, together with clever, amusing answers given by the applicant.

Meanwhile ‘A Real Marriage’ is a brilliantly acid take on the union of Amir and Abigail, the ‘real’ in the title alluding to an arranged marriage of sorts and the search for the beginning of love within the constraints of such a union.

‘A New Life’ also takes a look at a marriage, this time between Nathan and Rebecca. Nathan accepts a job in Aby Dhabi, and enjoys this new world, while Rebecca, in turn, in Abu Dhabi and struggling to fill her days, feels loneliness and a tragic death of a child weighing her down. A sharply observed portrait of a marriage crumbling under its own weight.

Other stories highlight themes of lesbianism, drug addiction and always the search for love and connection run through Crotty’s stories. Highly recommended.

“One night, when the room is still blurry from sex, and we are lying beside each other, holding hands under the covers, woozy and warm, but clothed now in case the nurses come inside, I tell Jessa I am falling in love with her. She sighs. “You’re not in love with me.” “Yes,” I say. “I feel giddy all the time. I feel like I’m on drugs.” “What you feel,” she says, “is that you are a lesbian and have just figured it out, but I am not a lesbian, okay? Please don’t try to make me a girlfriend.”

What Counts as Love is a nine story anthology that unflinchingly looks at love and the knots we tie ourselves into as we look for it. These stories take place in locations as familiar as Arizona and exotic as the Persian Gulf. Some of the stories are funny, some are absurd, several have traces of tragedy. All of them have characters who want to be taken seriously as they navigate love.
I enjoyed dipping into each of the stories. Thank you Netgalley and University of Iowa Press for the introduction to Marian Crotty, whose work I look forward to exploring further.

Didnt really enjoy this book. Felt each story just lacked substance. Had such high hopes when I read the description, but sadly the book didnt live up to that

Jenny was divorced with two kids. She had many theories about relationships, most of which came from the Oprah Network that she watched on small monitors at the dental office while she cleaned teeth. “I couldn’t tell you his love language, but I’d guess it’s not words of affirmation. Does he buy you gifts?”

Love, all we think we know and all we guess at, the insecurities, regrets, longings. Love as friendships, physical love, broken love, rough love, love as a haven- Marian Crotty has written stories about love in all it’s faces, ugly, beautiful, tortured- you name it. “Crazy For You” was fantastic, girls on the verge of sexual awakening, the dawning of awareness of their effect on grown men (welcome or not), witness to the ugly truth of love before they’ve even scratched the surface of their sexuality, while spying on a beautiful neighbor’s sexual exploits. In “A New Life” the tragedy of loss consuming a woman, her husband’s seeming ease with getting over it, moving on. Love spent, broken, and bled dry- terrified of her marriage ending at any moment, instead moving to Abu Dhabi and discovering betrayal. Some characters are fledglings, others battered veterans of love leaving abuse, recovering from loss, but each are trying to find something solid to anchor them. Sometimes the reader will laugh at their characters, other times feel their crushing defeat. There are so many stories about love, not all of them happy and safe. Some take whatever they can get and others discard the garbage they never should have let in! An insightful collection!

Publication Date: October 15, 2017

University of Iowa Press

John Simmons Short Fiction Award

A collection of short stories which makes it easy to read you can put the book down and come back to it without losing the thread.
Makes for a light read but some stories are better than others,some are more difficult to understand but all in all makes for a light read.