I received a free ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I’m not generally a fan of short story collections, but I do like Groff. The only think that I could tell that connected these stories was Florida. They were all very different. Some I really enjoyed and some were just so-so.

I really like Lauren Groff's work. I've read everything except Delicate Edible Birds (which I will definitely be reading soon after seeing what Groff can do with a short story) and Florida is my favorite so far. These stories are so true and honest. The themes of motherhood, the enviroment, the climate all paint an eerie but beautiful picture. This is a book I know I will read again and again.

I read this because I enjoyed "Fates and Furies" very much, but this was not the book for me. While I generally enjoy short stories, the disconnect with these made it hard for me to care about anything happening. This felt very meandering and disconnected and I didn't find it compelling enough to pick up and keep reading. Often when I put it down to do something, I'd completely forget I had been reading it. Nothing really stuck with me. I also am unsure as to who I would recommend it too because gosh it's so depressing and dark. I rarely get patrons coming to me asking for something emotionally devastating, but I supposed if I did this would be a good one. The writing was nice in a very "literary fiction" sort of way, by which I mean some with adore it and some will hate the pretentiousness of it. I didn't feel any joy reading it, so I would never pick it up again and I find it to be a book good for those who love short stories and quick fiction, but not for anyone looking for a pick me up read.

I have been a fan of Laurens work for a while now. This collection of stories is excellent. It connects with the reader in multiple ways. Something as superficial as the title; see Ghosts and Empties, to the substance of the stories. At the beginning of my career, I spent a good amount of time in Florida so reading these stories was a bit like returning to the scene of the crime. Groff's language is sublime she is a true artist and a joy to read.

Lauren Groff is a master of language. Her dense, rich writing style comes alive in short story form. "Florida" is a symphony of prose.

Lauren Groff’s latest, Florida, is a lyrical short story collection with Florida being a central theme. Other themes running throughout are abandonment, family, nature and loss. I love Groff’s writing and particularly enjoyed the first few stories. Some of the stories had an international setting, where the characters were from Florida but the story is told from abroad. I kind of wish that all the stories had been set in Florida or that Groff could have come up with a different title because I felt like these stories, though well-written, did not really belong in a collection entitled “Florida.” I do not usually choose to read short stories, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this and look forward to reading more.

Many thanks to Netgalley, Riverhead Books and Lauren Groff for my complimentary e-copy ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

The writing style is suberrb but the stories just weren’t my cup of tea. Too many snakes and animals that I don’t enjoy reading about. Others will find her stories quite enjoyable.

I am typically not a fan of short stories, but I was engrossed from the start. Groff nails parenting, motherhood, and so much more. I'll be recommending this to as many readers as possible.

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Thursday, May 10, 2018




Lauren Groff's Florida Stories




Lauren Groff became the reviewers' darling after her successful novels "The Monsters of Templeton," and "Fates and Furies," came out. I read them both and I'm here to tell you that her collection of short stories, which will be published the first week of June, rise above her previous work. And I don't even like short stories! I reviewed this collection for my radio program at my local NPR station http://news.wgcu.org/programs/florida-book-page but it won't likely be aired until the fall. I can't let you wait that long to be made aware of these powerful stories. Here's a reduced version of my opinion.




FloridaLauren Groff’s Florida is not the world of Disney princesses or performing whales that most folks associate with the sunshine state. No, Groff’s Florida is a borderline dangerous place where racial tensions run high, homelessness is rampant, and women and children are often imperiled. Humidity seeps into everything. Snakes, gators, and ants populate old cracker homes in the north Florida swamps where air conditioning is only for the wealthy. The atmosphere in these stories is as heavy and dank as the air.




But this is not a criticism. In fact, Groff’s words are luminous. Her characters are complex, often lonely, like Jude whose mother deserted him and his father in order to save her sanity. Back in Boston she owns a bookstore but by the time Jude finds her, his mother’s smothering need to atone for her absence drives him away.




Then there are the two sisters left alone during a storm in an old fishing camp. Before long the generator dies. Without food they resort to eating a chap stick they find in a drawer. They brave the saw palmetto scrub until they find a pond from which they draw water for boiling. The older sister is resourceful and clever. She reads to the little one, keeping her safe for as long as she can.





Most powerful of all are the personal essays that bookend this collection, each reflecting the stream of consciousness ruminations of the author, a wife who eschews the traditional role, and mother of two boys who fill her with love but also with the desire for escape. At night she runs through her neighborhood, burning off her anger at the present state of the world, fearful of the future her boys will face, and resentful of the partner who sleeps undisturbed through her nocturnal wanderings.

In the final story this same woman flees Florida’s summer steam and storms for the Normandy beach town of Yport, ostensibly to research Guy de Maupassant, but hoping to rekindle her collegiate love of all things French and instill it in her boys.

Painfully honest, deeply disturbing, sometimes redemptive, this collection of stories should be savored slowly, allowing Groff’s painterly language to awaken all your senses. You will be able to see, smell, hear, and almost taste the Florida she evokes with her words.

Goff's writing is some of the most unique and beautiful writing I've read. She has a knack for describing the mundane in a new fresh and slightly depressing way but still pointing out the beauty in everyday life. Florida is a collection of short stories hell bent on depicting the multiple layers of Florida life. From a couple of young girls abandoned in the swamp to an upper class family dynamics, Florida highlights a sequence of the most depressing and beautiful depictions of humanity. The stories will stick with you and haunt your memories.

I have not finished reading this book yet so I will post an updated review once I have. I am loving it so far. I read "Fates and Furies" and am enjoying this short stories collection so much more.

I received an ARC of this collection from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I love Lauren Groff's writing--poetic, yet brutally frank. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and highly recommend it.

In Lauren Groff's short story collection Florida, lush, lyrical writing conveys a strong sense of place as sympathetic characters search for love amidst loneliness and face the consequences of their choices

Maybe since I’m a Floridian this books makes me defensive, but damn I swear Florida is not as scary and depressing as Groff makes it out to be!

Lauren Groff has delivered a collection of absolutely gorgeous prose in the form of short stories all tied to Florida. Strung through with common threads of family, women, and children, each story is an exquisite vignette showcasing the often ugly underbelly of life in the Sunshine State. From children abandoned on a deserted island, to a temporarily failed scholar-turned-homeless, to a common character who seems to be Groff herself, these stories resonate and amplify the real possibility that your life, no matter how idyllic, can be fucked up at any time by circumstance and chance.

I met Groff at a literary event shortly after Trump was elected, and boy was she pissed. I sense much of that anger in these stories and have to assume writing these was somewhat of a catharsis for her. We often produce our best work while under stress, and I think that’s happened here. This one should appear on all the “Best of 2018” lists because it’s that good. Highly recommended.

The stories in this collection span characters, towns, decades, even centuries, but all about various areas of Florida. This is an enjoyable read and fascinating.

I lived in Florida for sixteen years. There is no place quite like it: the smells, the weight of the air, the ferocity of the storms. It's being is a presence all it's own. Lauren Goff's collection of short stories captures the essence of Florida brilliantly. Because it is a collection of separate works, small windows into a larger untold story, I didn't love each individual story (though I certainly enjoyed more than not). But as a collection, I find this book dark and brilliant, filled with foreboding but also with sparks of joy and hope. There is definitely a sense of looming danger, generally environmental, that flows through each story. In fact, nearly every story uses a literal weather storm as a plot element.

This is actually my first Lauren Groff, but it left me running to the library to pull the rest of them off the shelves and into my hands.

I chose to read this collection of short stories mainly out of curiousity. Lauren Groff is an amazing writer, but I think of her as a very lengthy, descriptive novelist. Her novel Fates and Furies was an incredibly detailed portrait of a marriage - although it is very good, it is incredibly long. I couldn't imagine how this writer could condense her words into a short story format. Well, she can - and she does so brilliantly. I am not usually a huge fan of short story collections, and I think that it's harder for a writer to tell a satisfying story in a more limited number of pages, but Lauren Groff may have found her niche here. I actually think these are her best works yet.

The stories bring Florida, and its characters, to life, in a realistic and heartfelt way. The characters, settings, and situations are all come together fluidly, so much so that the two stories that are not set in Florida (but feature Floridians traveling abroad) both left me with a strong sense of displacement (one that I think was intended, given the stories themselves). However, you don't have to be from Florida to appreciate any of these stories (I'm not). They are just great stories about life, love, and how humans relate to one another.

Groff is a gifted author of short stories, some of which have appeared elsewhere and which I was delighted to revisit in this collection. Her protagonists are frequently thoughtful and reflective women with whom it is a pleasure to visit briefly. The richness of her writing reflects the lushness of a Florida landscape, which for Groff is no paradise, teeming as it is with with dangerous wildlife. I couldn't help but be reminded somewhat of Karen Russell's _Swamplandia_, which I similarly enjoyed. Unlike Russell, however, Groff's characters remain distinctly separate from the wilderness, as well as from each other, forever captured in their own habitats, mental and physical.

Exquisite stories, brilliant imagery -- Lauren Groff explores the Sunshine State from every unexpected angle.