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The Babysitter at Rest
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“I had to judge a story contest of 600+ anonymous stories and I read each one and without hesitation Jen George’s story was my favourite. I’m so happy this collection exists. I feel drunk with love for these stories. They’re so funny and weird and true.”—Sheila Heti
“With a weird, beautiful energy, George explores the challenges of woman-being: singlehood, self-doubt, mothe ...more
“With a weird, beautiful energy, George explores the challenges of woman-being: singlehood, self-doubt, mothe ...more
Paperback, First Edition, 168 pages
Published
October 17th 2016
by Dorothy, a publishing project
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Sara G
If it's not about the Sims I will eat my hat.
Community Reviews
Showing 1-30
I would compare Jen George's stories to remembering a dream, or being inside a surrealist painting. Her characters feel to me like ordinary people who, when dropped into bizarre situations, adapt accordingly, just carrying on as if everything's normal. The result is a disconcerting yet beguiling blend of the mundane and the ludicrous.
Guidance / The Party
Guidance / The Party
Q: What takes the place of looks?A 33-year-old woman i ...more
A: Invisibility, irrelevance, debt, and unsuccessful stabs at saving to buy real estate.
Another one from my Dorothy Publishing Project pile (which I purchased, so not a product placement). I had put this one aside but decided to finish it during the 24in48 readathon.
Suffice to say, this was not really the book for me. Uncomfortable sexuality combined with the surreal. I can see how that would appeal to some readers. The four stories in the collection are made up of much shorter snippets and blurbs that make for a disjointed reading experience, which seems to be the point.
Suffice to say, this was not really the book for me. Uncomfortable sexuality combined with the surreal. I can see how that would appeal to some readers. The four stories in the collection are made up of much shorter snippets and blurbs that make for a disjointed reading experience, which seems to be the point.
One of the weirdest books I've read this year. Its five stories feel like their own perverse little worlds. Like Ben Marcus if he was re-writing Georges Bataille. The dialogue is bonkers, frequently jarring in its sexual torque. Not sure who Jen George is, but she'll be legendary if she keeps making books (though I could also picture her as a filmmaker or conceptual artist).
May 19, 2017
Nate D
rated it
really liked it
Recommends it for:
babysitters in (r/d)ecline
Recommended to Nate D by:
the present millenium
An awkward familiarity, a dismally accurate assessment of contemporary moments, surrealized into the generality and iconic signs of a dream. There's a kind of oneiric illogic to the actual synopsis at times as well, but George integrates these moments into total naturalness. I get a bit of that nagging 'Is this how my era will be remembered?' sensation, to which the answers may be 'Yes' and 'It is deserved'.
As a debut work, this is an extremely impressive one. (It would be impressive as a work ...more
As a debut work, this is an extremely impressive one. (It would be impressive as a work ...more
This book grabbed me right away with its strange little hands and did not let go. The combinations of darkness and light, high-brow art stuff and scatology, horror and humor were just the right fit for me. Reminded me of Miranda July and David Lynch and Tim Heidecker/Eric Wareheim.
Brilliant sentence by sentence; provocative story by story; and repetitive and one-note as a collection.
Jen George's characters are mired in depravity and dissolution disguised as desire. Impossible situations, gallows humor and fondness for catalogs bring Stanley Crawford's Log of the S.S. Mrs. Unguentine to mind. I kept seeing the scenes as they might appear in a painting by John Terahteeff where beautiful figures languish as violence lurks.
Such surreal, weird and wonderful short stories. If you're a fan of Heti, Ball, Kleeman, July, Kang and Schiff then you need to encounter Jen George. I only wish the first story, Guidance / The Party, appeared later in the collection.
Bravo to Jen George who writes with irreverent freedom and does what she wants! At times, these stories reminded me of Jane Bowles and Lucinella by Lore Segal, but mostly George writes like herself, exploring the bizarre, the erotic, the tragic--the random human mess. These stories aren't for everyone, and there are gratuitous moments, and sometimes a feeling of being stuck in a beautiful, deadly lagoon, but I found this book inspiring, especially the first story, and can't wait to read more fro
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This is ok. I don't know, I think we go into every piece of contemporary fiction expecting each book to be a) a modern classic and b) completely different to anything we've ever read before. This book in particular grates because it's lauded for being so different to everything else that's out there when you can't turn round at the minute without hitting a book that has the same style and themes. It’s been done before. It reads like a McSweeney's piece that drags on for too long. Although I'm no
...more
In these evil and weird times I am sometimes at a loss to know what sort of art / film / literature can even really talk back and comment upon the very weird and the so evil. Some of the stories here show a way forward with it. Surreal in places, always disorienting, frequently crass in ways that are not mere shock but rather communicate the deeper emptiness of America Now. Often really funny, too.
Jen George is a talent with something to say.
Jen George is a talent with something to say.
May 30, 2019
Alexandrea Jarvis
added it
I’m no where near smart enough for this... gave up on page 81
4.5 stars
Each story felt like being inside someone else’s dream, but I could feel the hints of reality that the author was analyzing, commenting on, being cynical/sarcastic/humorous about, and I think that was the best part.
Each story felt like being inside someone else’s dream, but I could feel the hints of reality that the author was analyzing, commenting on, being cynical/sarcastic/humorous about, and I think that was the best part.
first two stories were too amazing that the rest can't keep up
A phenomenon of short fiction.
★★★★☆ (4/5)
Another surreal read, Jen George’s “The Babysitter at Rest” is my fourth book from the Dorothy Project. This short collection of stories is bizarre to say the least - narrative threaded from streams-of-dream-like-state.
George’s characters assume the perversion of their world and play along the fantasies. A woman on the verge of adulthood is chastised by a Guide and coerced into self-improvement. Another woman is deathly sick, consecrated to a death bed, dedicated to her deep fantasies ...more
Another surreal read, Jen George’s “The Babysitter at Rest” is my fourth book from the Dorothy Project. This short collection of stories is bizarre to say the least - narrative threaded from streams-of-dream-like-state.
George’s characters assume the perversion of their world and play along the fantasies. A woman on the verge of adulthood is chastised by a Guide and coerced into self-improvement. Another woman is deathly sick, consecrated to a death bed, dedicated to her deep fantasies ...more
This book maintains a tone of total absurdity and anxiety stemming from being a woman. Here's a passage that I found particularly hilarious, and unfortunately very close to the truth:
Confidences
"I'm not sure how I should act," The Host confides to a guest's child as they wait for the bathroom. The Host had not anticipated children and has no appropriate activities or distractions for the child, but has hopes the child, a boy, may be able to get her a job in fifteen to twenty years.
"Me either," t ...more
Confidences
"I'm not sure how I should act," The Host confides to a guest's child as they wait for the bathroom. The Host had not anticipated children and has no appropriate activities or distractions for the child, but has hopes the child, a boy, may be able to get her a job in fifteen to twenty years.
"Me either," t ...more
I laughed, but I didn't cry. I did feel despair!
No, I am not sticking my head in the oven to check on dinner.
No, I am not sticking my head in the oven to check on dinner.
I loved this book. Unabashedly and wholeheartedly. The stories fit together seamlessly, the voice and tone are extraordinary and wild, the title story is a freaking lark. I was hooked from the first page, and the only reason I didn't read it start to finish in one go was due to circumstances outside of my control. This has risen high on my list of favorite Dorothy Project books (just below Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead and Fra Keeler, just above Dan and Creature), though each one I have read
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Jen George fucks plot. The Babysitter at Rest articulates the absurdity of the experience of a character who changes hats as we do: she is an artist, a sex object, a babysitter, a party host, a seeker of meaning in a vapid yet comedic society. No topic is safe to George: she writes about credit card debt, the pressure to bear children, fucking in all its ugliness and intimacy, the emptiness of parties, the loneliness of trend. Jen George fucks the concept of the page turner and makes a gorgeous
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"My daughter will be beautiful, though her value will not be determined by her looks. She will look good in clothing and without. She will be adored but respected. She will follow a clear life path, free of too many obstructions, full of loving and successful friends who wear beautiful dresses, have lovely parties in the desert or at the beach, and who have about them an airy lightness. She'll know how to go about getting what she wants. She will be capable. She will not have crying jags. She wi
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"Despite your lack of intuition, you may have become aware of the following changes that signal the onset of adulthood: listening to others, doubting everything you think, health problems, understanding the limitations of time and/or life/living/the individual/experience, failure to believe in the inherent benevolence of the universe, frequent aches--head and otherwise--bad breath (rot and poor digestion), watching someone younger/more attractive be better than you socially and otherwise, crying
...more
So interesting and so un-agentic. Plots are discarded and then reformatted. Characters move in awkward inhuman ways. And this is important. Not unhuman, but inhuman. There is the lack of human qualities, but not the complete absence of humanity. George's stories (if they even are stories, much more like dreams or chants) are perfectly non-productive, valueless, in that there is no moral or lesson to be learned here, but more of an experience to be felt, to be off-kilter, to be not quite right.
An entertainingly offbeat collection of stories seemingly set in some close, but slightly off, parallel universe or near future. Definitely front loaded, as the two best stories are right at the start, but without a doubt a worthwhile read, and I look forward to seeing what Jen George does next.
Guidance/The Party ****1/2
The Babysitter at Rest *****
Take Care of Me Forever ***
Futures in Child Rearing **1/2
Instruction ****
Overall: ****
Guidance/The Party ****1/2
The Babysitter at Rest *****
Take Care of Me Forever ***
Futures in Child Rearing **1/2
Instruction ****
Overall: ****
If "Guidance/The Party" had been the last story in this collection, I probably would have rated this higher. As it is, this delightfully twisted story comes first and nothing that follows comes quite to the same level. This is the third or fourth release I have read from the zany and smart Dorothy Project. They never disappoint. And I often wonder if they have a gas leak based on the intellectual insanity they are publishing.
Surrealist writing is tough for me and I struggled through this one. I never know: am I supposed to "figure it out"? Am I supposed to accept it as "real"? But this writing in this collection is very clever and George creates some amazing worlds. My favorite story by far was "Futures in Child Rearing." I was able to relate to the narrator of that story more than any other.
I am in love in that unhealthy way with these stories - when I first read the eponymous, "the babysitter at rest" story, I was mad I hadn't written it. These are stories that make me awkwardly laugh to fill the silence when I'm reading alone. Part of me wants to recommend this to all of my girlfriends, or anyone who has a B/MFA, and say "look, read this, i know you all feel deeply insecure and awful in this exact brutal way, ha ha" but I have a conscience and generally choose not making people s
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I was immediately sucked in to the immersive world of these stories. George’s fiction is both deeply familiar and strikingly strange. Thus her work makes strange what we might take for granted in our own world.
These stories! Holy smokes. Surreal, absurd, disgusting, poetic, perverted, and as unique as they come. No wonder Jen George's debut collection was published alongside names like Leonora Carrington and Sabrina Orah Mark.
the biggest mistake I made while reading this was to try and read it all in one serving, and it resulted in one of the most horrible burnouts I've ever experienced. more 3.5 stars than a wholesome 4. favorite story was the very last one.
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