Take Me With You Next Time: Stories

by Janis Hubschman

Janis Hubschman's debut collection Take Me With You Next Time runs the gamut of emotion with characters who confront crises of infidelity, addiction, death, and dementia. These stories feature women held captive by heartbreak, misguided desire, and bewildering grief, who grapple with past choices and must make new ones. They search for answers from psychics, hypnotists, old lovers, Charles Darwin, and the stars-- until, at last, they discover they already possess the courage and insight they seek. With impeccable sentences and unerring, exquisite details, Hubschman's fearless, lucid writing unlocks the worlds of her characters to reveal the human needs and longings we recognize as our own. In "Wild Quaker Parrot" a sneaky green parrot who may or may not be a reincarnated old boyfriend forces a painter to confront her reckless teenage self. In "After the Party" a fired golf pro unable to reconcile her husband's infidelity, follows in Ted Kennedy's scandalous footsteps on Chappaquiddick. Morally complex and often wryly funny, Take Me With You Next Time showcases the unpredictable ways smart, resilient women persevere to transcend troublesome events and difficult emotions.

242 pages, Paperback

Published October 15, 2024

Reviews

[Marianne Villanueva]

Hubschman is one of a rare breed who write women's lives with precision and irony. These stories don't have easy resolutions: her women have to negotiate situations a writer like Jane Austen could only have imagined. And yet they are resilient, and strong, and they have wit. They are characters you want to spend time with.

Read her stories slowly: they will plunge you into a particular milieu. You may have seen women like these as you go about your daily errands. You may even think you know their "type." No, you don't. Hubschman traces each woman's particular heartaches and triumphs with careful, exhilarating precision. You may like these characters and feel they deserve a happy ending. Some do, but that seems to have more to do with luck than planning. In the end, all we can do, the author seems to be saying, is hope, and move on.

This is a lovely collection.

[Brian O'Hare]

What a terrific book. Smart and funny and moving, Janis Hubschman's characters crackle with eccentric life. And though these stories are ostensibly about women—the wives, moms, daughters and friends we know and love—they are for everyone, brimming with humanity and compassion. Hubschman's prose is bold, possessing an 'athleticism' that lives and breathes and sweats, yet she writes with delicacy and grace, laying open stories from everyday life like a skilled neurosurgeon. These are very human stories—full of the secrets, doubts and fears that cloud our daily existence—yet always hinting at the dizzying mystery of being alive. I cannot recommend this book enough.

[Anastasia Stacy Rubis]

The best short stories I've read in years. Illuminating, human, and just plain funny.
Highly recommend for inspiration about being a woman and being alive.