Dating Silky Maxwell
by TJ Butler
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Pub Date Oct 20 2023 | Archive Date Dec 07 2024
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Description
An office worker, whose wealthy fiancée just canceled their engagement over text, lingers in a truck stop trying to decide what to do next. A motel clerk is mailed a box containing the ashes of her musician father who gave her nothing in life. A pig farmer whose husband is serving time discovers their new potential neighbor is a menacing preacher with ill intentions. The characters in TJ Butler’s short-story collection, Dating Silky Maxwell, have definitely seen some shit. Her stories are gritty, realistic, often unnerving, and far from glamorous. Protagonists make some bad choices, some desperate ones, and no easy ones. Yet they all find a way to become the hero in their own story, despite what has been expected of them in life.
In an era in which mainstream fiction all-too-often focuses on characters who are pampered, urbane, and a little bougie, it’s refreshing to read about working women wrestling with and breaking free of cycles of poverty and abuse. Each story in this collection marks that moment of liberation, however messy, and they all leave readers wanting to know what happens next.
A Note From the Publisher
All the tales in this set feature female central characters, from a woman who falls in love with a controlling man in “Bird Girl” to a tender of livestock in rural Virginia whose husband is locked away in “Black Dog.” In “A Flame on the Ocean,” there’s a bartender who caters to burly sailors, jilted by a lover who voyages to the Faroe Islands, and, in “South of the Border,” a wife recovering in an intensive-care unit following an assault on a cross-country road trip; the latter story is told from the perspective of the woman’s remorseful husband. Butler communicates the stories of these women in clear, unadorned prose, which allows her to focus on potent symbols of resistance and resilience. These are deceptively simple tales, told in accessible and insightful ways. In “Bird Girl,” for example, the main character—nicknamed “Bird”—becomes caged when her boyfriend gives her a surprising piece of jewelry: a padlock on her wrist. The plot is sparse, but final line reveals a lot going on beneath the simple surface: “She looked at the keyhole for a moment and realized she'd never thought to ask for the key.” In “Black Dog,” by contrast, the title creature effectively comes to represent liberation, when a woman’s pet helps guard her home from a Bible-wielding intruder. Later, in the title story, a pie comes to symbolize an influencer’s humanity outside her public persona. These are stories that are interested in women’s agency, and the ways they make choices (or not). Silky Maxwell finds herself limited in the dating world by her own online presence; it’s a topical story that explores drag artistry, skillfully woven into a collection that intriguingly ends with a character exploring their androgyny.
Timely tales that speak to a variety of women’s experiences."
~Kirkus Review
Advance Praise
“There’s so much to love about these stories, but it’s the characters who’ve been haunting me, vivid and flawed and human and as beautifully written as any I’ve met in life.”
~Amber Sparks, author of And I Do Not Forgive You, named Best Book of 2020 by The Washington Post, NPR, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, and Tor.com.
“Dating Silky Maxwell introduces readers to an important new voice. TJ Butler’s poignant collection about uneasy lives will be well-remembered long after you close this exquisite volume that hauntingly touches both the heart and mind.”
~Pete Earley, Pulitzer Prize finalist author of Crazy: A Father’s Search Through America’s Mental Health Madness
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9781942004622 |
| PRICE | $22.00 (USD) |
| PAGES | 208 |
Links
Available on NetGalley
Featured Reviews
Sam K, Reviewer
A collection of short stories mainly following women as their lives change, often abruptly, often violently. Two of the stories follow men after they have lost important women in their lives. Many of the stories explore dark topics, such as dangerous men, death and violence, but also more common tragedies such as a breakup or loneliness. The stories are mostly in depth character studies of how one might react, diving deep into the internal lives of the characters and painting a very vivid picture. Some of the stories gave me a bit of a Stephen King feeling (haunting and very descriptive, but without drifting off too far into the lyrical) and if you enjoy his writing, I can just recommend you check this short story collection out. All in all this is a really interesting collection and I’m very glad I got to pick up a copy.
The Wings That Follow Fear: A woman waiting for her husband to return gets an unexpected visit from a delinquent she knew in her youth, short and tense and with many flashbacks to other moments of violence, I enjoyed it, the end was also really good, tw: rape, murder, domestic abuse, 4/5
The Numbers Man: A town caught up in a gambling fever, ready to spend their savings for the hope of making it big and a waitress with a decision to make, interesting and I liked the ending, tw: animal death, 4/5
Bird Girl: A date that ends with a statue stolen soon develops into a smothering relationship that the woman really does not want to leave, really unsettling and messy, I enjoyed it and the end especially made me want to scream, but it was really good, tw: abusive relationship, isolation, controlling behavior, stalking, 4/5
Black Girl: A woman is left to take care of her home alone after her husband is sentenced to prison, when two years in her solitude a man shows interest in the land next to hers and develops a dangerous fixation on her dog, really interesting and tense, tw: animal cruelty, murder, 5/5
Bunny Man Bridge: A brother trying to understand his sister’s death has to deal with their childhood and grapple with guilt, heartbreaking, but with a hopeful ending, tw: child abuse, domestic abuse, suicide 4/5
Dating Silky Maxwell: A woman with a secret influencer persona and her struggles when it comes to her love life (or rather the lack thereof), it was interesting and heartbreaking, but not my favorite story, 3/5
A Flame on the Ocean: A barmaid waits for a sailor to appear at the beginning of the fishing season, nostalgic and an intriguing character study with a great ending, tw: past death 5/5
The Geography of Flight: A young woman raised by a mother, who relied on her beauty to survive, attempted to live the same way until a violent attack took her good looks from her, a heartbreaking character study of coming into yourself, really well written and with an interesting ending, tw: domestic abuse, sexual assault, murder 5/5
The Box: A young woman receives unexpected mail from her sister, who has been taking care of their dying father. Once more this story manages to build a lot of character in just a few pages, examining grief and childhood trauma in a beautiful and heartbreaking way, tw: past csa, domestic abuse, death, grief 5/5
Truck Stop: A woman has to make the most of her honeymoon after being left only days before the wedding and finds herself stopping at a truck stop unsure of where to go next, really interesting examination of class and heartbreak, tw: childhood poverty, 4/5
South of the Border: A heartbreaking story following a man trying to deal with guilt over an attack that left his wife in the hospital by blaming all the things that led to the violent event, heartbreaking and a fascinating deep dive into grief and the feelings that accompany losing a loved one, there is also another darker secret for why he feels to blame for her death and reading that part made me feel sick, really well written and really heartbreaking, but UFFF, I am not entirely sure how I feel about the ending, but this story shows how far a parent can be willing to go to protect their kid after they’ve experienced trauma, tw: murder, grief, rape, 4/5
Eight Story Ideas That Didn’t Make It Into This Collection: A few short story ideas seemingly exploring the authorial reality behind them a little bit, interesting and heartbreaking and with a really interesting narrative voice included, tw: death 5/5
