Barbara the Slut and Other People

(Paperback)

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Astonishing one of those rare books that manages to be both poignant and hilarious. The last time we had a debut this big was Junot Daz with Drown. Holmes is a major talent. Philipp Meyer

A fresh, honest, and darkly funny debut collection about family, friends, and lovers, and the flaws that make us most human.
One woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. Another realises she much prefers the company of her pit bull and herself to the neurotic foreign fling who wont decamp from her apartment. A daughter hauls a suitcase of lingerie to Mexico for her flighty, estranged mother to resell there, wondering whether her personal mission to come out is worth the same effort. And Barbara, a young woman with an autistic brother, a Princeton acceptance letter, and a love of sex navigates her high schools toxic, slut-shaming culture with open eyes.

Fearless, candid, and incredibly funny, Lauren Holmes is a newcomer who writes like a master. She tackles eros and intimacy with a deceptively light touch, a keen awareness of how their nervous systems tangle and sometimes short-circuit, and a genius for revealing our most vulnerable, spirited selves. With heart, sass, and pitch-perfect characters, BARBARA THE SLUT is a head-turning debut from a writer with a limitless career before her.

Reviews

Feisty artifice-free portraits of modern life Independent

A fresh and darkly funny debut Holmes has an enviable lightness of touch combined with a bracing honesty Sassy and savvy Tatler

Fans of Lena Dunham and Sloane Crossley will find much to love in this darkly funny collection about family and friends, all wrapped up in a hefty dose of millennial angst. With her scalpel-sharp worldview and dry turn of phrase, Holmes is one to watch Irish Independent

Introduces a series of brilliant / bonkers narrators. Girls fans, in particular, will enjoy her riffs on modern love and friendships Glamour

A book I couldnt put down. An outstanding debut, refreshing and exciting, complex and really funny Nathan Englander

A wonderful debut from a profound and sassy new voice. These seemingly effortless stories are uncommonly perceptive, deeply felt, and at the same time exceedingly funny Colum McCann

Barbara the Slut turns our obsession with sex on its head in order to study it, dissect it, weaponize it Empowering, rare, and well, pretty sexy Esquire

Ten precocious stories limn the deep humor, table-turning dualities, and inevitable bouts of screwed-upness that accompany getting through ones twenties and beyond
Elle

Simultaneously hilarious and deeply insightful Buzzfeed

A comic writer of the highest standard. The stories in Barbara the Slut are far too good to keep to yourself you will want to share them with someone immediately so you can talk about how brilliant and funny they are Katherine Heiny

Holmes characters read like everyday people weve loved, hated, crossed the street to avoid and learned from, all described in her no doubt soon-to-be-recognized signature style Ms

The people limned here are people we know. They may even be the people we are. A first-rate first collection from a young writer you'll want to hear more from Kirkus Reviews (starred)

Author Bio

Lauren Holmes grew up in upstate New York. She received a BA from Wellesley College and an MFA from Hunter College, where she was a Hertog Fellow and a teaching fellow. Her work has appeared in Granta, where she was a 2014 New Voice, and in Guernica. Holmes lives in New Yorks Hudson Valley.