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A Guide to Being Born
Reminiscent of Aimee Bender and Karen Russell—an enthralling collection that uses the world of the imagination to explore the heart of the human condition.
Major literary talent Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty , coming Summer 2016, combines the otherworldly wisdom of her much-loved debut novel, No One Is Here Except All of Us , with the precision of the short-story form. A Guide toBeing Born is organized around the stages of life—love, conception, gestation, birth—and the transformations that happen as people experience deeply altering life events, falling in love, becoming parents, looking toward the end of life. In each of these eleven stories Ausubel’s stunning imagination and humor are moving, entertaining, and provocative, leading readers to see the familiar world in a new way.
In “Atria” a pregnant teenager believes she will give birth to any number of strange animals rather than a human baby; in “Catch and Release” a girl discovers the ghost of a Civil War hero living in the woods behind her house; and in “Tributaries” people grow a new arm each time they fall in love. Funny, surprising, and delightfully strange—all the stories have a strong emotional core; Ausubel’s primary concern is always love, in all its manifestations.
Major literary talent Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty , coming Summer 2016, combines the otherworldly wisdom of her much-loved debut novel, No One Is Here Except All of Us , with the precision of the short-story form. A Guide toBeing Born is organized around the stages of life—love, conception, gestation, birth—and the transformations that happen as people experience deeply altering life events, falling in love, becoming parents, looking toward the end of life. In each of these eleven stories Ausubel’s stunning imagination and humor are moving, entertaining, and provocative, leading readers to see the familiar world in a new way.
In “Atria” a pregnant teenager believes she will give birth to any number of strange animals rather than a human baby; in “Catch and Release” a girl discovers the ghost of a Civil War hero living in the woods behind her house; and in “Tributaries” people grow a new arm each time they fall in love. Funny, surprising, and delightfully strange—all the stories have a strong emotional core; Ausubel’s primary concern is always love, in all its manifestations.
198 pages, Hardcover
First published May 2, 2013
109 people are currently reading
7453 people want to read
About the author
Ramona Ausubel
11 books427 followersRamona Ausubel is the author of a new novel, Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty (on sale 6/14/2016) as well as No One is Here Except All of Us, winner of the PEN Center USA Literary Award for Fiction, the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award and Finalist for the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award. Her collection of stories, A Guide to Being Born, was a New York Times’ Notable Book. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Tin House, The Paris Review Daily, One Story, Ploughshares, The Oxford American and The Best American Fantasy. She is a faculty member of the low-residency MFA program at the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 367 reviews
October 20, 2018
I have lamented before how difficult I find reviews for short story collections, even the ones I love. And it is a shame because I want to do this justice: I loved this. Ramona Ausubel has written the best short story collection I have read this year and I want to convince as many people as possible to pick it up.
This collection is pretty much custom-made for me: it combines lyrical language and stark imagery with themes of family, lost and found; the stories are weird and poetic and in parts disturbing, but they are also so very beautiful and profound. The stories center families in such a wonderful way while also being incredibly unique, I am just so in awe.
My favourite stories (in a collection where there was not a single story that I did not enjoy) were the very first story, “Safe Passage” about the end of a life which I found heartbreaking and heartwarming (First sentences: “The grandmothers – dozens of them – find themselves at sea. They do not know how they got there.”), and “The Ages” about young love which I found incredibly moving (First sentences: “When the girl and the boy moved in together, they had sex in the bed and everyone could probably hear it. Houses were pretty close together and there were a lot of open windows.”). But like I said, the stories are all very strong and if you can stomach a little weirdness (well, ok, a lot of weirdness) I would absolutely recommend these stories.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.
This collection is pretty much custom-made for me: it combines lyrical language and stark imagery with themes of family, lost and found; the stories are weird and poetic and in parts disturbing, but they are also so very beautiful and profound. The stories center families in such a wonderful way while also being incredibly unique, I am just so in awe.
My favourite stories (in a collection where there was not a single story that I did not enjoy) were the very first story, “Safe Passage” about the end of a life which I found heartbreaking and heartwarming (First sentences: “The grandmothers – dozens of them – find themselves at sea. They do not know how they got there.”), and “The Ages” about young love which I found incredibly moving (First sentences: “When the girl and the boy moved in together, they had sex in the bed and everyone could probably hear it. Houses were pretty close together and there were a lot of open windows.”). But like I said, the stories are all very strong and if you can stomach a little weirdness (well, ok, a lot of weirdness) I would absolutely recommend these stories.
You can find this review and other thoughts on books on my blog.
June 22, 2016
I'd give this 6 stars if I could.
December 3, 2014
Beautifully written, lush stories that are sobering, heart-breaking, mesmerizing, shocking. Two of my favorite things: 1) I was full of admiration for the author's ability to connect micro and macro. A small detail lingers and becomes its own moment, but without being overdone. (Often, the sentences are perfect.) You feel the whole world of the story contained in a moment between two characters or in an observation, but the "big picture," the macro, is never neglected. Each story feels perfectly balanced. 2) Everything Ramona Ausubel writes manages to be fantastical yet utterly real. How does she do this? I have no idea. These stories take huge risks, often taking us to unimaginable places--but always in a grounded way. They are the perfect mix of magic and grit.
April 17, 2014
I have given myself several days to digest this collection of short fiction by Ramona Ausubel. I'm not one for reviews but I wanted to say something because this book made me do something I've never done before when reading a story.
There is a moment in one of the stories (I won't name it, you'll have to read for yourself) where I audibly gasped. The air in my lungs vanished. My heart sank. It sounds hyperbolic but I was literally heartbroken for a split second. Then the story resolved in a way where I felt my heart rise back into my chest. I could breathe again. I've never reacted to a book this way. Normally fiction has no emotional stranglehold over me; I may like or hate a character but I never really feel sad or happy about anything that happens to them. This may be a malfunction on my part.
But Ramona Ausubel did something - in beautiful, flowing prose - that twisted a knife in me and left it only long enough to be painful but not kill me. She knows when to stab and when to patch you up. I kept referring to the stories in A Guide to Being Born days after I'd finished because they resonated with thoughts and feelings that I have everyday. They aren't little fictions that melt away when you've closed the book. Like gum they stick to you, get tangled up in your hair, don't wash out, leave stains. Ausubel strikes a balance between plot (and character and the conventional wisdoms of fiction) and gorgeous prose that I sometimes find lacking in modern fiction. We can end up in a this-or-that sphere where experimentation ditches "storytelling" and leaves you with something beautiful but fragile. Like a painted egg. It can fall apart so easily because it's built on the edifice of the "story as art" and relies too much on words without context. Not that stories or novels like that have no place but they can become trials in patience. Ausubel finds no trouble dazzling while entertaining. No sentence feels superfluous and the storytelling is vibrant. I can't recommend this collection enough. Will be hard to find another release this year (in short fiction) to top this. Excellent.
There is a moment in one of the stories (I won't name it, you'll have to read for yourself) where I audibly gasped. The air in my lungs vanished. My heart sank. It sounds hyperbolic but I was literally heartbroken for a split second. Then the story resolved in a way where I felt my heart rise back into my chest. I could breathe again. I've never reacted to a book this way. Normally fiction has no emotional stranglehold over me; I may like or hate a character but I never really feel sad or happy about anything that happens to them. This may be a malfunction on my part.
But Ramona Ausubel did something - in beautiful, flowing prose - that twisted a knife in me and left it only long enough to be painful but not kill me. She knows when to stab and when to patch you up. I kept referring to the stories in A Guide to Being Born days after I'd finished because they resonated with thoughts and feelings that I have everyday. They aren't little fictions that melt away when you've closed the book. Like gum they stick to you, get tangled up in your hair, don't wash out, leave stains. Ausubel strikes a balance between plot (and character and the conventional wisdoms of fiction) and gorgeous prose that I sometimes find lacking in modern fiction. We can end up in a this-or-that sphere where experimentation ditches "storytelling" and leaves you with something beautiful but fragile. Like a painted egg. It can fall apart so easily because it's built on the edifice of the "story as art" and relies too much on words without context. Not that stories or novels like that have no place but they can become trials in patience. Ausubel finds no trouble dazzling while entertaining. No sentence feels superfluous and the storytelling is vibrant. I can't recommend this collection enough. Will be hard to find another release this year (in short fiction) to top this. Excellent.
May 10, 2013
I am not a huge fan of short stories but I actually enjoyed these. The one that really hooked me was Poppyseed, it touched my heart. It was written in such a way that readers can feel empathy for the parents, such a sad sad story but heartwarming too, which is odd. Atria was disturbing, and I don't want to go into detail and give anything away. Chest of Drawers I just cannot get out of my head, the idea of a man having drawers as his wife's pregnancy progresses just made my skin crawl and it's not that it's meant to, but it did... Romana Ausubel's writing is beautiful and I can't wait to read a novel by her. I really enjoyed these short stories and I love the book cover even though it's not vital to any writing inside, it really has to be mentioned! I enjoy literature that bends reality, and this book certainly does...
August 6, 2015
4.5 stars. A bizarre, magical twist on stories about life, family and love. All but two stories had my full attention. The two that didn't just fell flat for me, they were not bad, just couldn't hold my attention.
I highly recommend if your looking for stories on life issues you can connect with, even if they have a fantasy twist that leaves you happy but confused that you understand the magical twist on a personal, emotional level.
I highly recommend if your looking for stories on life issues you can connect with, even if they have a fantasy twist that leaves you happy but confused that you understand the magical twist on a personal, emotional level.
July 14, 2015
I finally liked short stories!
June 25, 2013
This was a collection of short stories which makes it hard to assign a star rating. Some stories were 4 stars, some were 2, and one I would give a 5. So, three stars seemed the most fair. Warning - these stories are very odd. Few of them were completely grounded in reality, and some were so strange, I felt like I was constantly saying, "What?!" For example, in one story, a man who is a little obsessed with and overwhelmed by his wife's pregnancy wakes up to find he has grown a set of small drawers made out of bone in his chest. (Get it? Chest of drawers?) His wife keeps her lipstick in one of them so she doesn't have to carry a purse to a party. Strange, right? But also probably really profound. I loved the first story in the book called "Safe Passage" in which a bunch of grandmothers find themselves aboard a huge ship in the middle of the ocean. Is it the afterlife? Purgatory? Not entirely sure, but the story is beautifully told.
The second story in the book - "Poppyseed" is about a couple with a developmentally disabled daughter. This story was so stark and real that I felt like I was invading the characters' privacy. In the story, the father tells his part as a first person narrator and the mom tells hers in the form of letters to her daughter. This format was incredibly effective and interesting.
The middle stories were kind of a blur and none really stood out for me and then I got to the last story called "Tributaries" which I read twice because it kind of blew my mind. In this story, all people have "born-on hands" but then as life goes on, they can grow "love arms" when they truly fall in love with someone - so there is this physical evidence of their emotion. Young girls check their bodies for love arm growth and couples have to deal with the tension when one of them doesn't grow a love arm for the other. It sounds so completely strange, but it is brilliant. I think I want to read it one more time.
Wow, that was a long review -- thanks, if you read all the way to the end!
The second story in the book - "Poppyseed" is about a couple with a developmentally disabled daughter. This story was so stark and real that I felt like I was invading the characters' privacy. In the story, the father tells his part as a first person narrator and the mom tells hers in the form of letters to her daughter. This format was incredibly effective and interesting.
The middle stories were kind of a blur and none really stood out for me and then I got to the last story called "Tributaries" which I read twice because it kind of blew my mind. In this story, all people have "born-on hands" but then as life goes on, they can grow "love arms" when they truly fall in love with someone - so there is this physical evidence of their emotion. Young girls check their bodies for love arm growth and couples have to deal with the tension when one of them doesn't grow a love arm for the other. It sounds so completely strange, but it is brilliant. I think I want to read it one more time.
Wow, that was a long review -- thanks, if you read all the way to the end!
November 17, 2013
I liked this, but it never tipped over into love. Not quite sure why. It had everything I liked - poetic prose, just enough magic realism to thrill me, beautiful language. It just didn't move me like I wanted it to. (I think this might be because I'm still under the spell of Safe as Houses and for a while nothing will be able to live up.)
The stories were, for the most part, quite lovely, however. The grandmothers crowded on the boat in "Safe Passage." The parents longing for their child to both grow and stay the same in "Poppyseed." Hazel's dreams of her furred or feathered baby in "Atria." People growing a new arm to designate when they've truly fallen in love in "Tributaries." The urn of false ashes in "Snow Remote." Mabel and Booker's desperate need to connect in "Saver." Ben's bodily transformation in "Chest of Drawers."
A lovely book; a good book. Just not one of those I-need-desperately-to-be-reading-this-at-all-times-to-make-it-a-part-of-me books; I suppose not every book needs to be one of those, but life's so much lovelier when I find one.
The stories were, for the most part, quite lovely, however. The grandmothers crowded on the boat in "Safe Passage." The parents longing for their child to both grow and stay the same in "Poppyseed." Hazel's dreams of her furred or feathered baby in "Atria." People growing a new arm to designate when they've truly fallen in love in "Tributaries." The urn of false ashes in "Snow Remote." Mabel and Booker's desperate need to connect in "Saver." Ben's bodily transformation in "Chest of Drawers."
A lovely book; a good book. Just not one of those I-need-desperately-to-be-reading-this-at-all-times-to-make-it-a-part-of-me books; I suppose not every book needs to be one of those, but life's so much lovelier when I find one.
August 4, 2014
At the flick of a page these stories can morph from the weird and wondrous to truths, raw and unflinching. I was moved to near tears more than once. Ausubel's prose is beautifully balanced as drops of magical realism are distilled into emotionally gripping tales. I readily suspended disbelief at the growth of love-arms in the evocative 'Tributaries' or other anatomical oddities in the devastating 'Poppyseed'. Only a couple of stories failed to affect me in the same way- hence the four stars- but this may be inevitable in any collection. And I might up my rating to the five marvelous stars that most stories in this (beautifully designed) volume most definitely deserve.
June 11, 2015
One of the best short story collections I’ve read in a long time, this has just the right amount of whimsy and seriousness. It is a brilliant collection of short stories with the themes of birth, life and death. Ausubel combines powerful emotional storytelling with strange magical realism. One of the highlights for me was a story about a man who wakes up one morning to find a set of draws in his chest. His pregnant wife gets jealous because he is paying more attention to this development than to his unborn child. For those who were wondering, the beauty of this book does indeed match the beauty of its cover.
February 14, 2017
Not sure what to think of this one. I didn't hate any of the stories, and I certainly liked some of them, but I have to say a lot of them completely went over my head. It's not a good sign when the biggest impression you have of a short story after finishing it is what was the point of that???. That being said, my absolute favourite story was "Chest of Drawers." It's about this man with a literal chest of drawers and it really surprised me with how clever and thought-provoking it was. That was the only story I truly loved though, and excepting it, I can't say that any of these stories will stick with me in the long run...
(Kinda sad that I didn't love this enough to buy it because THAT COVER IS GORGEOUS and I wanted to own it so I could marvel at how glorious it is)
(Kinda sad that I didn't love this enough to buy it because THAT COVER IS GORGEOUS and I wanted to own it so I could marvel at how glorious it is)
May 7, 2020
There is a quiet beauty in Ausubel's writing where even the simplest events or descriptions take on an almost austere tone. She puts to words complex human emotions all of us have felt or will feel, but can never really explain. It's very rare for every story in a short story collection to be strong and powerful throughout, but every single story in this collection made my heart clench. Each of her stories are beautiful, nostalgic, and mysterious. I will definitely be keeping a close watch on her work in the future.
February 6, 2016
I'll start with the positive. The cover is divine.
End.
I don't often say I hate a book but I really did these short stories. I found them extremely convoluted, dark for the utter sake of it and completely lifeless.
Sad when I expected so much more!
End.
I don't often say I hate a book but I really did these short stories. I found them extremely convoluted, dark for the utter sake of it and completely lifeless.
Sad when I expected so much more!
January 19, 2022
Read: Jan 2022
Safe Passage - 5/5 stars
Poppyseed - 1/5 stars
Atria - 1/5 stars
Chest of Drawers - 3/5 stars
Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations - 2/5 stars
This gets 2 stars purely for the first story which was excellent. The next two stories were vile. I've just had a baby so maybe I'm being over sensitive but both stories have themes of child abuse that were hard to read. The final two stories were basically forgettable. I gave up at this point so the rest of the stories in this collection (listed below) are unrated:
Catch and Release
Saver
Snow Remote
The Ages
Magniloquence
Tributaries
Safe Passage - 5/5 stars
Poppyseed - 1/5 stars
Atria - 1/5 stars
Chest of Drawers - 3/5 stars
Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations - 2/5 stars
This gets 2 stars purely for the first story which was excellent. The next two stories were vile. I've just had a baby so maybe I'm being over sensitive but both stories have themes of child abuse that were hard to read. The final two stories were basically forgettable. I gave up at this point so the rest of the stories in this collection (listed below) are unrated:
Catch and Release
Saver
Snow Remote
The Ages
Magniloquence
Tributaries
April 26, 2020
Ten dang years ago when I was in grad school for writing, "magical realism" was the Buzz Phrase of all workshops. As a stuck-up arrogant MFA student, I was vehemently against it (though in my defense it was never actually used well in any draft I saw). Then I went to Clarion and became deeply enamored and equally confused as to how I could maintain all my lofty "literary" standards (interior drama! language for its own sake!) when trying to write the unreal.
Ausubel's stories do both. These are weird as fuck but accessible, familiar, and deeply human. Am I squicked out still by "Poppyseed" and breast-bud consumption? Yes. Am I also wondering if I would be like Claribel in "Tributaries" with a dozens of love hands sprouting from my chest? Yes. Did "Chest of Drawers" have me reconsidering my own sternum for the better part of a day? Of course.
After this, I picked up a book of fabulist retold fairytales, read a little, and ditched it. Then I picked up a book of interconnected literary short stories and read the first one to the end, thinking there would at least be one of those expansive, door-busting last lines that made me say "Damn!"--and while the story was perfectly well-written, it was also boring as all get out and ended on such a non-action that I could hear all the ghosts of my MFA past applauding the nuance and quiet epiphany and blah blah blah.
In short: A Guide to Being Born cast a long, dark shadow on my reading, attesting to this book's power and Ausubel's ability. I'm happy to add her to my coven of weird witch writers. I'm really excited to see how Ausubel handles her novels.
Ausubel's stories do both. These are weird as fuck but accessible, familiar, and deeply human. Am I squicked out still by "Poppyseed" and breast-bud consumption? Yes. Am I also wondering if I would be like Claribel in "Tributaries" with a dozens of love hands sprouting from my chest? Yes. Did "Chest of Drawers" have me reconsidering my own sternum for the better part of a day? Of course.
After this, I picked up a book of fabulist retold fairytales, read a little, and ditched it. Then I picked up a book of interconnected literary short stories and read the first one to the end, thinking there would at least be one of those expansive, door-busting last lines that made me say "Damn!"--and while the story was perfectly well-written, it was also boring as all get out and ended on such a non-action that I could hear all the ghosts of my MFA past applauding the nuance and quiet epiphany and blah blah blah.
In short: A Guide to Being Born cast a long, dark shadow on my reading, attesting to this book's power and Ausubel's ability. I'm happy to add her to my coven of weird witch writers. I'm really excited to see how Ausubel handles her novels.
April 4, 2016
This collection of short stories made me ugly cry twice, then tear up another time. Right out of the gate, Ausubel hits hard with her surreal, but emotionally direct, creations. Some stories are stranger than others. There's a ghost, there's a man who grows a cabinet of drawers in his chest, a ship with only confused grandmas on it, and a world where people grow arms only when they love someone (and there's no limit as to how many that could be). You're thrown immediately into these less than normal scenarios, or you watch them grow over time and share the fright of the characters as they change.
No matter what outlandish method is used to explore life in these stories, they're all about how our bodies and our selves are not entirely our own. How we belong to others, and how the loss of others affects us. Unafraid, Ausubel visits all different sorts of humanity and graciously takes us with her. Her writing is absolutely stunning, where her stories go will surprise you, and she will give you all sorts of feelings.
Warning: In the story Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations, one of the main topics is the loss of a pet cat in an accident. It gets minorly borderline gory. If this is a topic that you'd find upsetting, skip it. It's one of the weaker stories anyhow.
FAVORITE STORIES: Poppyseed, Chest of Drawers, Safe Passage, Magniloquence
Full review: Outlandish Lit - 3 Startling Short Story Collections
No matter what outlandish method is used to explore life in these stories, they're all about how our bodies and our selves are not entirely our own. How we belong to others, and how the loss of others affects us. Unafraid, Ausubel visits all different sorts of humanity and graciously takes us with her. Her writing is absolutely stunning, where her stories go will surprise you, and she will give you all sorts of feelings.
Warning: In the story Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations, one of the main topics is the loss of a pet cat in an accident. It gets minorly borderline gory. If this is a topic that you'd find upsetting, skip it. It's one of the weaker stories anyhow.
FAVORITE STORIES: Poppyseed, Chest of Drawers, Safe Passage, Magniloquence
Full review: Outlandish Lit - 3 Startling Short Story Collections
March 2, 2013
You CAN judge a book by its cover. Perhaps that's not fair to Ausubel, whose book stands on merits far beyond its colorful, fantastic cover. But that's what first attracted me to this book, and happily, the contents within proved to be every bit as fantastic and engaging.
I was enchanted by the opening tale of a ship carrying a cargo of puzzled grandmothers. Where were they? How had they gotten there? Where were they going? The dream haze of the story slowly clears as one of the grandmothers recognizes and embraces her journey.
I also loved Magniloquence, which features an auditorium of professors waiting for a speaker to arrive. They wait and wait, and as they wait, inhibitions are shed and speeches are improvised and many cookies are surreptitiously eaten.
Love is at the core of each of these stories, and in most cases, that love is sure and calm and gentle. And sometimes it is odd, and sometimes oddly compelling, as in Poppyseed, when two parents employ unorthodox means to honor their disabled daughter.
Ausubel's writing is exquisite. Enter this book with an open mind and enjoy the strange and moving beauty.
I received a copy of this book through GoodReads First Reads.
I was enchanted by the opening tale of a ship carrying a cargo of puzzled grandmothers. Where were they? How had they gotten there? Where were they going? The dream haze of the story slowly clears as one of the grandmothers recognizes and embraces her journey.
I also loved Magniloquence, which features an auditorium of professors waiting for a speaker to arrive. They wait and wait, and as they wait, inhibitions are shed and speeches are improvised and many cookies are surreptitiously eaten.
Love is at the core of each of these stories, and in most cases, that love is sure and calm and gentle. And sometimes it is odd, and sometimes oddly compelling, as in Poppyseed, when two parents employ unorthodox means to honor their disabled daughter.
Ausubel's writing is exquisite. Enter this book with an open mind and enjoy the strange and moving beauty.
I received a copy of this book through GoodReads First Reads.
March 20, 2017
Lovely, poignant stories about the essentials of living.
April 9, 2018
I adore what I have read so far of American author Ramona Ausubel's work, and was so excited to read her short story collection, A Guide to Being Born. I have been continually impressed and startled with her writing, and my experience with these tales, which I read whilst in France over Easter, was no different.
Another author whom I admire, Aimee Bender, writes 'These stories reminded me of branches full of cherry blossoms: fresh, delicate, beautiful, expressive, otherworldly.' The Boston Globe calls the collection 'Galvanising and almost uplifting... To call these stories ambitious is wholly accurate; Ausubel is constantly pushing for her characters to be more, to feel more, to experience more.' A Guide to Being Born is a New York Times notable book by an author who has won the PEN Center USA Fiction Award.
A Guide to Being Born collects together eleven stories, all of which have been published in various magazines. I am in agreement with the volume's blurb, which says that Ausubel 'uses her inimitable style, her fantastical ambition, and her gift for the imaginative to expose the fundamentals of the human condition as she charts the cycle of love from conception to gestation to birth... As we read A Guide to Being Born, we travel through the stages of life and all the transformations that occur. These stories about the moments when we pass from one part of life into another, about the love that finds us in the dark, and pulls us, finally, through.'
Ausubel is such an exciting writer, with a fresh and dynamic voice and imagination. Every single one of her stories here, which are separated into four sections - 'Birth', Gestation', 'Conception', and 'Love' - feel energised, and electrically charged. Her prose throughout is beautiful, and has such a strength to it. As a conceptual work, A Guide to Being Born shocks and astonishes. Every single tale here is a miniature masterpiece; all are vivid, unusual, and memorable, and for the most part, they throw up a lot of surprises. A Guide to Being Born is such a polished collection, which feels nothing less than sumptuous to read.
I shall end my review with an extract from 'Safe Passage', as it perfectly illustrates the beauty and depth of Ausubel's prose: 'The grandmothers have wet eyes. They are all picturing themselves lying there with many pairs of hands covering them, more hands than possible, their bodies hidden. It is just the backs of hands, familiar and radiating and with very faint pulses. In their minds, the grandmothers dissolve under those palms. They go gaseous. It is no longer necessary to maintain any particular shapes.'
Another author whom I admire, Aimee Bender, writes 'These stories reminded me of branches full of cherry blossoms: fresh, delicate, beautiful, expressive, otherworldly.' The Boston Globe calls the collection 'Galvanising and almost uplifting... To call these stories ambitious is wholly accurate; Ausubel is constantly pushing for her characters to be more, to feel more, to experience more.' A Guide to Being Born is a New York Times notable book by an author who has won the PEN Center USA Fiction Award.
A Guide to Being Born collects together eleven stories, all of which have been published in various magazines. I am in agreement with the volume's blurb, which says that Ausubel 'uses her inimitable style, her fantastical ambition, and her gift for the imaginative to expose the fundamentals of the human condition as she charts the cycle of love from conception to gestation to birth... As we read A Guide to Being Born, we travel through the stages of life and all the transformations that occur. These stories about the moments when we pass from one part of life into another, about the love that finds us in the dark, and pulls us, finally, through.'
Ausubel is such an exciting writer, with a fresh and dynamic voice and imagination. Every single one of her stories here, which are separated into four sections - 'Birth', Gestation', 'Conception', and 'Love' - feel energised, and electrically charged. Her prose throughout is beautiful, and has such a strength to it. As a conceptual work, A Guide to Being Born shocks and astonishes. Every single tale here is a miniature masterpiece; all are vivid, unusual, and memorable, and for the most part, they throw up a lot of surprises. A Guide to Being Born is such a polished collection, which feels nothing less than sumptuous to read.
I shall end my review with an extract from 'Safe Passage', as it perfectly illustrates the beauty and depth of Ausubel's prose: 'The grandmothers have wet eyes. They are all picturing themselves lying there with many pairs of hands covering them, more hands than possible, their bodies hidden. It is just the backs of hands, familiar and radiating and with very faint pulses. In their minds, the grandmothers dissolve under those palms. They go gaseous. It is no longer necessary to maintain any particular shapes.'
March 6, 2021
This is no ordinary short story collection. These are works of fabulism, imagination, and quite a few well-placed disturbing elements. The writing is reminiscent of Helen Oyeyemi, Karen Russell, and most especially: Samanta Schweblin. The off-balance effects are furthered by a backwards birthing process, divided into sections of Birth, Gestation, Conception, and finally Love. There are equal parts creepiness, trepidation, and humor throughout. Two particular standouts for me are "Saver" which describes a hysterically funny dinner, and "Tributaries" which is uncommonly intimate.
My only complaint with short story collections is a tendency towards unevenness. IMHO, the weakest story here appears as the first in the set. For other authors, the strongest work comes first. I'm not sure which scenario I prefer. With that caveat, however, this is a worthwhile read.
My only complaint with short story collections is a tendency towards unevenness. IMHO, the weakest story here appears as the first in the set. For other authors, the strongest work comes first. I'm not sure which scenario I prefer. With that caveat, however, this is a worthwhile read.
December 18, 2014
What a book, WHAT A BOOK.
As soon as I read the first story in this anthology, I knew I'd love it. It was rich in symbols and interesting ideas.
And can I just say that I want to be Miss C?
This book gets really out there sometimes like the pregnancy story that has a giraffe peek out of the girl's womb. I hated that story, by the way. But it makes you really think about what's going on, what it all means in the story and in your life -- at least I did.
It's only 200 pages, but it's so thick with ideas that nearly after every story, I had to write a response to it because I had so much to think about.
My two favorite stories are the bookends of the piece -- the first and the last.
I can't wait to discuss this at my book club's next meeting.
As soon as I read the first story in this anthology, I knew I'd love it. It was rich in symbols and interesting ideas.
And can I just say that I want to be Miss C?
This book gets really out there sometimes like the pregnancy story that has a giraffe peek out of the girl's womb. I hated that story, by the way. But it makes you really think about what's going on, what it all means in the story and in your life -- at least I did.
It's only 200 pages, but it's so thick with ideas that nearly after every story, I had to write a response to it because I had so much to think about.
My two favorite stories are the bookends of the piece -- the first and the last.
I can't wait to discuss this at my book club's next meeting.
June 25, 2016
I used to collect paperbacks with the allowance my parents gave me when I was younger - way before goodreads - and I'm looking at my shelves right now and making note of everything on them. This is a copy given to me by a friend on my birthday two years back. While I can't remember the stories, I remember the crisp writing style and tone and the stories in perfect bite-size for the reader to munch on. Probably was good.
May 1, 2013
Quite a mixed bag of stories. Some I thought were brilliant, some I liked, some I actually understood the symbolism and some were just very strange. All the stories contained some element of strangeness and all were very well written. They were all very unique and totally different.
September 4, 2019
The first couple stories were great. They had these super uncomfortable, disturbing moments when the author was very successful at tapping into humanity? human-ness? things that make us uncomfortable about ourselves? I don't know, you have to feel it I guess. The later stories didn't have the same zing.
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January 24, 2021I don't think magical realism is my genre, because I didn't connect with this book at all. Not rating because I don't think it would be fair to the book or the author, because based on other reviews - if you like magical realism, then you should enjoy this one. Just not my jam!
April 27, 2016
These stories are bizarre. That’s the best word to describe them. Even the stories that aren’t magical realism have that strange “people behaving weirdly” thing going on. The author definitely has a talent for making the realistic feel fantastical.
As soon as I finished this collection, I put Ramona Ausubel’s other books on my wish list because A Guide to being Born contains some of the best writing I’ve seen in a long time. The author takes small details and makes them hugely meaningful, but not in a melodramatic way. Every word feels significant and carefully chosen. The stories are both darkly hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.
Like all short story collections, I like some of the stories a lot more than others. A few of the stories lack tension, and I struggled to stay interested in them, but, fortunately, most of the book was captivating.
I'll summarize my favorite stories. (Actually, I have a lot of favorites, so I’m only going to talk about my favorite-favorites):
In “Safe Passage,” a group of grandmothers wakes up on a ship in the middle of an unknown ocean. The grandmothers aren’t sure if they’re alive, dead, or somewhere in between.
“Poppyseed” alternates points-of-view between a father and a mother. The father gives ghost tours of a “haunted” ship while the mother takes care of their disabled daughter. The structure of this story is slightly confusing at first, but I like how it discusses the rights of severely disabled people. This one turned out to be the most thought-provoking story in the collection.
“Atria” is the most heartbreaking story. It’s about a pregnant teenage girl who is convinced that she will not give birth to a human baby. Over the course of the story, she stresses about what type of animal she will give birth to and how to take care of it.
In “Chest of Drawers,” a man is so envious of his wife’s pregnancy that he literally grows a chest of drawers in his body. He fills the drawers with ethnically diverse plastic babies and some other interesting objects.
“Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations” is full of morbid humor. A family’s cat is run over by a car. Getting rid of the body turns out to be harder than they expected.
As the title suggests, these stories are all about being born. Many of them are about pregnancy, but some of them examine birth in more subtle ways. The characters are born into death or into a new way of life. This collection feels more cohesive than a lot of short story collections. I enjoyed seeing the author’s different interpretations of the “birth” topic.
I’m looking forward to reading more of Ramona Ausubel’s work. This collection is impressive.
As soon as I finished this collection, I put Ramona Ausubel’s other books on my wish list because A Guide to being Born contains some of the best writing I’ve seen in a long time. The author takes small details and makes them hugely meaningful, but not in a melodramatic way. Every word feels significant and carefully chosen. The stories are both darkly hilarious and heartbreaking at the same time.
Like all short story collections, I like some of the stories a lot more than others. A few of the stories lack tension, and I struggled to stay interested in them, but, fortunately, most of the book was captivating.
I'll summarize my favorite stories. (Actually, I have a lot of favorites, so I’m only going to talk about my favorite-favorites):
In “Safe Passage,” a group of grandmothers wakes up on a ship in the middle of an unknown ocean. The grandmothers aren’t sure if they’re alive, dead, or somewhere in between.
“Poppyseed” alternates points-of-view between a father and a mother. The father gives ghost tours of a “haunted” ship while the mother takes care of their disabled daughter. The structure of this story is slightly confusing at first, but I like how it discusses the rights of severely disabled people. This one turned out to be the most thought-provoking story in the collection.
“Atria” is the most heartbreaking story. It’s about a pregnant teenage girl who is convinced that she will not give birth to a human baby. Over the course of the story, she stresses about what type of animal she will give birth to and how to take care of it.
In “Chest of Drawers,” a man is so envious of his wife’s pregnancy that he literally grows a chest of drawers in his body. He fills the drawers with ethnically diverse plastic babies and some other interesting objects.
“Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations” is full of morbid humor. A family’s cat is run over by a car. Getting rid of the body turns out to be harder than they expected.
“‘We can do a cremation here, at the house?’ I ask.
‘We built a fire,’ my father says.
‘Obviously. And I put the whole cat in the fire?’
‘There isn't a whole cat,’ my mother says.
‘What is there?’
‘Parts of cat,’ they say together.
‘Bones?’ I ask.
‘Mostly. And some fur. And some face.’” – “Welcome to Your Life and Congratulations,” A Guide to being Born
As the title suggests, these stories are all about being born. Many of them are about pregnancy, but some of them examine birth in more subtle ways. The characters are born into death or into a new way of life. This collection feels more cohesive than a lot of short story collections. I enjoyed seeing the author’s different interpretations of the “birth” topic.
I’m looking forward to reading more of Ramona Ausubel’s work. This collection is impressive.
April 27, 2013
Copy received through Goodreads’ First Reads program.
It must be difficult to be a writer with any sort of a fabulist/surrealist/magical/fantastical bent these days, as reviews of your work are pretty much just countdowns to a lazy reference to Karen Russell. The back of this book saves reviewers that trouble by describing these stories as “[r]eminiscent of Aimee Bender and Karen Russell,” and these stories certainly have a strong fantasy element that should appeal to Russell’s fans. However, for the three of us left who aren’t even comfortable with the word “fantasy,” let alone a genre of books self-identifying as such, there are still several impressive stories in this collection.
Ausubel is certainly unafraid of difficult subjects, as the second story, “Poppyseed,” describes the pains and struggles of two parents raising a severely mentally and physically handicapped child, and manages to balance that sadness with humor and the sweetness of the characters’ humanity and love. It’s that gift for infusing stories with characters with a raw emotional core that makes many of these odd stories surprisingly sweet, even when they’re about, say, burying a recently deceased cat or playing catch with the ghost of a long-dead Civil War general. Ausubel also weaves in some welcome humor throughout the stories. For example, “Chest of Drawers,” a man who develops a series of small drawers in his chest goes to buy some handles for them, as they are difficult to open, and he throws in “a chocolate bar and a bag of cotton candy with a picture of a clown on it, even though he knew that it was gross to buy cotton candy in a bag at the hardware store.” Still, Ausubel is at her best when her stories are unencumbered by fantastical elements, as the compelling characters and painful aches of isolation in “Saver” and “Snow Remote” show.
At points, the fantasy elements and premise overwhelm the stories, particularly in “Atria,” where a pregnant teenager keeps imagining that there are any number of different animals inside her rather than a human child. It may just be my lack of imagination, but I find it nearly impossible to root for/be invested in/pay any attention to a character who imagines that she feels a giraffe growing inside of her, other than to suggest that her biology coursework must have left a great deal to be desired.
Ausubel’s stories are too quirky to be for everyone, but even when her premises made me skeptical, she repeatedly impressed me with her tenderness and gift for depicting interesting, relatable characters, and capturing small moments well.
It must be difficult to be a writer with any sort of a fabulist/surrealist/magical/fantastical bent these days, as reviews of your work are pretty much just countdowns to a lazy reference to Karen Russell. The back of this book saves reviewers that trouble by describing these stories as “[r]eminiscent of Aimee Bender and Karen Russell,” and these stories certainly have a strong fantasy element that should appeal to Russell’s fans. However, for the three of us left who aren’t even comfortable with the word “fantasy,” let alone a genre of books self-identifying as such, there are still several impressive stories in this collection.
Ausubel is certainly unafraid of difficult subjects, as the second story, “Poppyseed,” describes the pains and struggles of two parents raising a severely mentally and physically handicapped child, and manages to balance that sadness with humor and the sweetness of the characters’ humanity and love. It’s that gift for infusing stories with characters with a raw emotional core that makes many of these odd stories surprisingly sweet, even when they’re about, say, burying a recently deceased cat or playing catch with the ghost of a long-dead Civil War general. Ausubel also weaves in some welcome humor throughout the stories. For example, “Chest of Drawers,” a man who develops a series of small drawers in his chest goes to buy some handles for them, as they are difficult to open, and he throws in “a chocolate bar and a bag of cotton candy with a picture of a clown on it, even though he knew that it was gross to buy cotton candy in a bag at the hardware store.” Still, Ausubel is at her best when her stories are unencumbered by fantastical elements, as the compelling characters and painful aches of isolation in “Saver” and “Snow Remote” show.
At points, the fantasy elements and premise overwhelm the stories, particularly in “Atria,” where a pregnant teenager keeps imagining that there are any number of different animals inside her rather than a human child. It may just be my lack of imagination, but I find it nearly impossible to root for/be invested in/pay any attention to a character who imagines that she feels a giraffe growing inside of her, other than to suggest that her biology coursework must have left a great deal to be desired.
Ausubel’s stories are too quirky to be for everyone, but even when her premises made me skeptical, she repeatedly impressed me with her tenderness and gift for depicting interesting, relatable characters, and capturing small moments well.
August 14, 2016
Goodreads recommended this collection of short stories to me because I had liked "Vampires in the Lemon Grove". A Guide to Being Born was similar to Vampires in the fact that it was a collection of short stories and that it employed the use of some magical elements; but otherwise I found the two books to be completely different from one another.
I was not swept up in Ausubel's mini worlds in the same way that I had been enveloped in Russell's. (Perhaps Ausubel's metaphors were more difficult for me to grasp?) However, I will say that Ausubel has a fearless imagination and a unique, descriptive way of talking about human bodies and human love. The second story in the collection, Poppyseed, (about a couple's decision to tamper with their disabled child's reproductive system) was so strange yet heartfelt, that it managed to repulse and intrigue me at the same time. As did the final story, Tributaries, in which people grow extra arms every time they fall in love.
My favorite stories and passages were the ones related to love -the possibility of love, new love, lost love. For example, "The Ages" was one of my favorites. Here are some other passages I liked:
From "Saver": "And just like that, Mabel saw a crack form on the surface of her life. An opening. She did not know if it was deep or shallow, or where it led, but she did know something that did not exist before had begun to exist now. 'Do you know who you are, without your family? Who only you are?" She asked, without meaning to."
From "Magniloquence": "Petra, people tell me I will 'move on' and I can't believe it. But if it does ever happen, and I forget to feel this pressing absence of you, if I make it through a meaningless party and don't remember to hate everyone for their peaceful lives until the morning, please know that I am already sorry. I am going to try to be brave like you asked me to, but I don't have any idea yet what that means. Is it braver to allow the sadness of your leaving to spread into each of my bones until it is as big as you were to me? Or is it braver to let you drift out into what may very well be a brighter, finer place than this and be happy to think of your joy there? I hope, Petra, that I get it right."
From "Tributaries": "They say they are falling in love, not with the specifics of one boy, but with the idea that such a thing is possible - that they belong to a species built to snap together in everlasting pairs."
I was not swept up in Ausubel's mini worlds in the same way that I had been enveloped in Russell's. (Perhaps Ausubel's metaphors were more difficult for me to grasp?) However, I will say that Ausubel has a fearless imagination and a unique, descriptive way of talking about human bodies and human love. The second story in the collection, Poppyseed, (about a couple's decision to tamper with their disabled child's reproductive system) was so strange yet heartfelt, that it managed to repulse and intrigue me at the same time. As did the final story, Tributaries, in which people grow extra arms every time they fall in love.
My favorite stories and passages were the ones related to love -the possibility of love, new love, lost love. For example, "The Ages" was one of my favorites. Here are some other passages I liked:
From "Saver": "And just like that, Mabel saw a crack form on the surface of her life. An opening. She did not know if it was deep or shallow, or where it led, but she did know something that did not exist before had begun to exist now. 'Do you know who you are, without your family? Who only you are?" She asked, without meaning to."
From "Magniloquence": "Petra, people tell me I will 'move on' and I can't believe it. But if it does ever happen, and I forget to feel this pressing absence of you, if I make it through a meaningless party and don't remember to hate everyone for their peaceful lives until the morning, please know that I am already sorry. I am going to try to be brave like you asked me to, but I don't have any idea yet what that means. Is it braver to allow the sadness of your leaving to spread into each of my bones until it is as big as you were to me? Or is it braver to let you drift out into what may very well be a brighter, finer place than this and be happy to think of your joy there? I hope, Petra, that I get it right."
From "Tributaries": "They say they are falling in love, not with the specifics of one boy, but with the idea that such a thing is possible - that they belong to a species built to snap together in everlasting pairs."
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