In this collection, Emma Cline presents us ten short-stories, ten brief moments into the lives of the characters presented in each of them. There is no clear start or ending to any of them. This may be frustrating for some readers. I found myself craving to know more about a story or two. What happened? Where did they go? How did they feel after the event? ...but one doesn't always get that answer. How much do we truly know about the private lives of those around us?

This curiosity is precisely what made the stories work for me. The intriguing sensation of needing to know more about these people. These strangers who crossed my path for a brief moment in time and left me wanting.

When Emma Cline released her debut, THE GIRLS, she was quickly heralded as one of the country’s best young novelists, earning rave reviews for her superb writing and ability to weave violence and coming-of-age themes into a compulsively readable thrill ride. Now she returns with DADDY, a collection of short stories that delve into complicated interactions between men and women, old age and youth, past and present. With stories that linger and characters brewing with malcontent, Cline’s first collection proves that THE GIRLS was no fluke and she is here to stay.

I should start this review by stating that I am not your typical short story reader: I prefer narratives that are lengthy and winding, and I like to spend hours with good characters. That said, I would read a grocery list from Emma Cline, and I am so grateful that I ignored my usual distaste for short stories when I picked up DADDY.

In the same vaguely disconcerting way that she kicked off THE GIRLS, Cline eases us into her book with “What Can You Do with a General,” a seemingly conventional story about a man preparing for his adult children to return home for the holidays. As he considers the ways that they have grown ungrateful and notes how distracted his eldest daughter seems over her new relationship with a much older man, he slips shockingly violent thoughts into very normal ones. Juxtaposing the everyday with the horrifying, Cline hints at a dark past and a sense of rage simmering just beyond the page. And just like that, readers are lulled into a false sense of security that Cline quickly upends.

Each of these stories is interesting enough on its own --- a woman escaping an affair with a celebrity, a middle-aged man traveling to his son’s boarding school to deal with a problem, and even two women in a luxury rehab center --- but what unites them is an overwhelming feeling of discomfort and inadequacy. All of Cline’s characters stand on their own, but each is at a low point. In “Los Angeles,” we meet a young girl who works at a trendy store as she watches her dreams of acting fade away. “Son of Friedman” is about an aging and down-on-his-luck producer who reunites with a more successful friend. And tales of infidelity and divorce dance through the background of nearly every story, with a father figure always leading the way, directly or not.

Cline deftly digs into her characters’ insecurities, laying them bare on the page, and immersing readers into their lives with swiftness and accuracy. This is a talent that always leaves me in awe, but in short stories it is especially necessary, and she wastes no time setting each of her stories straight and getting her audience acclimated.

The pieces in DADDY present a “slice of life” in a unique character, typically one who is at a crossroads and quite often masking some hidden anger or resentment. Cline finds strength in these moments, pushing her characters right to the edge and letting readers put together the pieces of how they got there. This is an intellectual but thrilling collection that thrives on discomfort and plain awkwardness, be it from the tension of a difficult conversation, the pain of losing a loved one, or the subtleties of the relationships between men and women.

Though I cannot say that I found any of the 10 stories here to be weaker than the rest, there are certainly highlights, namely “Los Angeles,” “The Nanny” and “Marion.” While each focuses on reflection and the potential for any interaction to go awry with even the slightest misunderstanding, there is a quiet, violent twist to these tales that made me feel like Cline had lived with her characters for much longer than a single short story. “Marion,” which centers on a young girl coming of age and learning about sexuality with her slightly older friend, has a delicious “Mean Girls” vibe to it, but with the added elements of questionable parents, strange adults and the intoxication of friendship. This entry in particular wowed me --- it had all the same vibrancy and horror of THE GIRLS, but concentrated in a few shocking pages --- and if there is a peak to the book, this is definitely it.

Perfect for fans of Curtis Sittenfeld and Jac Jemc, DADDY is a complex and sharply observed collection of stories from a brilliant young author that will leave readers hungry for her next novel.

I loved Cline's first book, The Girls and I thought I'd like this one just as much even though short stories are not my favorite thing to read. Her characters are always interesting and well thought out, but in this book, the plots were naturally rushed because of the format. However, there were too many instances when the story ended and I was left wondering what just happened.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Random House and NetGalley for the ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Emma Cline is a modern master of the form of the short story, and her new collection Daddy explores a modern world where the anxious feminine character weaves among vulturous men in the literal and anticipated senses to examine what happens when we indulge in our anxieties.

In these stories, our characters are occasionally well aware of the emotional and physical atrocities they have committed to another, while others are ignorant of the slow-burning impact their actions have all had on those around them until decades later, if at all. In every sense, these pieces are a subtle yet striking window into the inner workings of our characters, oftentimes with some power dynamic that strikes at the foundations of every interaction, be it familial, aged, professional, gendered, or psychological. These stories are wholly about the discovery or lack of discovery of this dynamic, and the anxious vibrations that hum beneath the surface of every interactions and what we use to cope with these anxieties. Every story in this collection is an incredible feat of storytelling engineering, and the true thematic depth of where Cline is going is often not apparent at the beginning of each piece as a structural shift often comes later to reveal the true directions of the piece. While this can often be disorienting when handled by less capable writers, Cline is able to perform a magic of bookends in her stories that open like a butterfly’s wings once you have the perspective of seeing them furl open for the first time.

My favorite pieces in this collection were easily “What Can You Do With A General, Los Angeles, Northeast Regional, Marion, Mack The Knife, and A/S/L. A stunning achievement of the form.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group for providing me with a copy of Emma Cline’s short story collection, Daddy: Stories, in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed Cline’s debut novel, The Girls, and I was thrilled to be given a copy of her latest work, Daddy: Stories. I love a good short story collection and as much as I was impressed by The Girls, Cline truly shines in the short story format. They are all page-turners. I bet you can’t read just one without going to the next. Cline is masterful with tension in the short story format. She grips the reader, ending her stories at the exact perfect moment that leaves a lingering sense of wonder about the character’s next move. This collection is haunting.

Cline’s stories are incredibly uncomfortable. They deal with queasy, taboo topics like adultery, addiction, and the sexualization of children. None of her stories are easy. Reading Daddy: Stories is an experience akin to watching a horror movie, where I physically felt my body curl into a ball and my eyes turning to slits, to protect myself as I continued with the horrific situations that the characters were placed in.

Thank goodness not every story or character was relatable, but those that were, added another level of cringe. I guarantee that you will see some of your own terrible, dark traits reflected back to you in Cline’s characters. I felt it most in Marion, where an innocent preteen girl gets wrapped up in the deceptions of an older teen.

Daddy: Stories is one of my top reads for 2020 and a must if you gravitate towards short stories. Cline is a fearless writer with complex characters. Steady yourself for a bumpy, uncomfortable ride. Also be prepared to have these stories linger in your mind for a good week after finishing.

Emma Kline’s Daddy is written in a crisp fresh style, but I had a difficult time engaging with the characters and stories.

Not having read The Girls, I didn't quite know what to expect from Cline's stories. But after reading her long piece, "White Noise," in the New Yorker, I felt compelled to check out Daddy. It lives up to all the hype--and then some. Her voice, almost always in the 3rd person, is cool, wry, insightful, and a joy to read. Each story in this collection is a gem, though highlights for me included "Son of Friedman" and "Northeast Regional." Highly recommended!

A great collection of short stories. It’s rare I find a collection where I like all of the stories. A quick read that delivers a punch on each page.

First, my thanks to Random House for what was supposed to be an early copy of this book, which I'm just now getting to, in exchange for an honest review.

I read Cline's [book:The Girls|26893819] a few years back because I have a bit of an obsession with cult and sects. While it was not exactly what I wanted (too much introspection, not enough cult), Cline struck me as a real talent, so I was eager to jump into this story collection.

This collection focuses on the micro and macro aggressions done by men to women, to their offspring, and to themselves. Even when the stories only have tangential connection to men, the stories still ooze the presence of the toxically or lazily masculine in the way we are coming to reckon with as a society. While the entire collection is solid, I do prefer the stories where Cline focuses the story on the masculine, mostly because she is so good at rooting out the source of issues. (That being said, I think my favorite story is the final piece, <i>A/S/L</i>, which does not fit this criterion.)

My only issue is that the stories all do that short story thing of ending on a meta line (usually a quote) that you are supposed to ponder and let sit with you.

I will definitely flock to any and all new Cline titles in the future.

Rating: 4.5/5

I liked the variety of perspectives in these short stories, but it felt mostly like an exercise in being clever. Sometimes I like that, sometimes I don’t..

Very enjoyable prose. Unsympathetic men who are unable to fit into contemporary society, including their own families, are the primary focus of each short story, all of which essentially remain unresolved. Would be difficult to recommend, even though I did like reading this title overall.

Unfinished Business

I didn’t read Emma Cline’s debut novel The Girls although I wanted to--book clubs sometimes suck like that. But her book of short stories Daddy is as rich and complicated as I anticipated. Starting with a flawed dad of flawed adult children and a dog kept alive for the holidays to an would-be actress working at an cringe-worthy American Apparel-type shithole whose idea of a side gig is beyond stupid, these characters in LA and New York (hasbeen with troubled girlfriend) make bad decisions like they actually considered the alternative. By the end of each story you are left with a feeling of unsatisfied fullness and needing/wishing for a post-movie drink at Club Charles to discuss.

Wendy Ward
http://wendyrward.tumblr.com/

Four years ago I read and reviewed Cline's debut, The Girls, and was impressed by her writing and remarked that I was looking forward to reading more of her work. So I jumped at the change to read her latest effort; but I'm nearly always torn about short story collections and this one was no exception. As is so often the case, some stories were more interesting than others; and, although there's no doubt that the stories are, for the most part well written, some are certainly better written.

All of the stories are small pieces of the bigger picture. In many of the stories, we soon become aware that we have missed something big and we leave the story still not aware of exactly what has happened. But what has happened isn't exactly the point of the story; how the characters react is a story unto itself. The stories are, to my way of thinking, unceasingly dark, exposing the ugliness of people. Some of the stories focus on the older men looking back on the failures of their lives (What You Can Do With A General, which looks at a father who doesn't under his grown children who have come home); others focus on young women dealing with the seedy side of the world they live in (Los Angeles, about a young woman who decides to take advantage of the sexual perversity of men without understanding the ramifications of her actions).

My takeaways from this collection:

Cline is certainly a talented young author who writes intelligent works and who crafts realistic stories and characters.
From what I've seen so far, Cline is inclined to look at the dark side of life.
Knowing that going in will help set expectations and help me to make sure I'm reading her work in the right frame of mind.
When you're reading books for review, you don't necessarily get the chance to read the book that suits your mood. I don't think this one did that for me and I can't help but wonder if I would actually have enjoyed it more if I had read it at another time. Or, if I so often wonder about short story collections, if I would have enjoyed it more if I had broken it up instead of reading straight through it.

Yeah.... this was not it.

I cannot say there was a stand out story, they all felt underdeveloped. Writing short stories is an art fitting fully developed characters and plot in 10 pages is a gift and I am not sure Cline developed it. The stories felt unfinished and I just was not wowed.

Emma Cline is one heck of a writer. I probably wouldn’t have been interested in this collection had it not been hers, and having now read it, I’ve confirmed that I would probably read this woman’s grocery list if someone published it.

There was only one story in this bunch that didn’t work for me at all, that didn’t really seem like it had anything to say (“Mack the Knife”). The others were uniformly good. Standouts for me included “Arcadia” and “Marion” but it’s hard to choose.
That being said, I do sort of wish that Cline would keep her considerable talents turned towards those characters that are not privileged older dudes who have effed up their lives and the lives around them. The stories that focused on those characters, while obviously well written, sometimes felt less original and slightly more forced, like conscious character studies, while the stories that focused more on younger characters (usually but not always girls) felt more complex and more original. I recall having a related criticism of Cline’s first novel, though in that case there were younger and older versions of the same female main character, with the older one arguably more opaque. In this book, it’s as if the older men are, instead, overly translucent. Then again, with a title like “Daddy” one could assume that that’s part of the point.

Unfortunately, this collection didn't work for me and it's kind of why I don't love short stories - I felt it was a bit unfocused and each story didn't really go anywhere but were more just musings on relationships and life. I can't tell you too much about each story because they were frankly just not that memorable to me. There are some stories I liked better than others - "Los Angeles" and '"a/s/l" were interesting but I just feel like when the stories don't go anywhere, it's more an exercise for the writer than made for the reading audience.
Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for providing this ARC.

I loved Cline's book The Girls. It was the kind of book where after I read it, I went out and bought a copy so I could have it on my shelves whenever I wanted to re read it.

So I had high hopes for her new book, Daddy, a collection of short stories. Unfortunately, my hopes were not exactly met.

I find it hard to say exactly why I didn't love this book more.Cline has a great writing style. She gets you right into her character's heads. She's not afraid to play around in the dark underbelly of humanity-in fact, she purposefully dives right in. Also, Cline brings a unique perspective on the power struggles between men and women, between women and women, between parents and children, between rich and poor, between being famous and being infamous, between adults and children.

I think I just finished the book feeling left unsatisfied. No story really felt completely finished and resolved, and even if that was the point, it just didn't work for me. I read the whole book in less than three hours, and found that I would forget what had happened in one story once I had started another. Some of the stories were definitely more memorable than others, but as a whole the collection didn't really hold together for me.

This was not a bad book by any means. I think I was just expecting so much, maybe too much, because of my love for The Girls.

This book was super good. It was super original and I flew through it. It didn't feel like anything I've read in the past. Can't wait to read more from the author!! This book was unputdownable.

I love Emma Cline's work, and this short story collection was no exception. I will be recommending it on Mashable.

I just finished this one last night and I enjoyed it. It's basically about different experiences as "family" and what life means to different people. It's a pretty quick read. I was able to get it done in about two days.