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What Counts as Love
In these nine stories, Marian Crotty inhabits the lives of people searching for human connection. Her characters, most often young women, are honest, troubled, and filled with longing. In the title story, a young woman begins a job on a construction site after leaving an abusive marriage. In “Crazy for You,” two girls spy on a neighbor’s sex life, while their own sexuality hovers in the distance. In “A Real Marriage,” a college student marries a boyfriend to help him stay in the United States. In “The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch,” the daily life of a residential treatment center for eating disorders is disrupted by the arrival of a celebrity. The stories are set in Arizona, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Persian Gulf, and often touch on themes of addiction, class, sexuality, and gender. What Counts as Love is a poignant, often funny collection that asks us to take it and its characters seriously.
121 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 1, 2021
so many stories in here are just fantastic!!
July 18, 2017
Via my blog: https://bookstalkerblog.wordpress.com/
Jenny was divorced with two kids. She had many theories about relationships, most of which came from the Oprah Network that she watched on small monitors at the dental office while she cleaned teeth. “I couldn’t tell you his love language, but I’d guess it’s not words of affirmation. Does he buy you gifts?”
Love, all we think we know and all we guess at, the insecurities, regrets, longings. Love as friendships, physical love, broken love, rough love, love as a haven- Marian Crotty has written stories about love in all it’s faces, ugly, beautiful, tortured- you name it. “Crazy For You” was fantastic, girls on the verge of sexual awakening, the dawning of awareness of their effect on grown men (welcome or not), witness to the ugly truth of love before they’ve even scratched the surface of their sexuality, while spying on a beautiful neighbor’s sexual exploits. In “A New Life” the tragedy of loss consuming a woman, her husband’s seeming ease with getting over it, moving on. Love spent, broken, and bled dry- terrified of her marriage ending at any moment, instead moving to Abu Dhabi and discovering betrayal. Some characters are fledglings, others battered veterans of love leaving abuse, recovering from loss, but each are trying to find something solid to anchor them. Sometimes the reader will laugh at their characters, other times feel their crushing defeat. There are so many stories about love, not all of them happy and safe. Some take whatever they can get and others discard the garbage they never should have let in! An insightful collection!
Publication Date: October 15, 2017
University of Iowa Press
John Simmons Short Fiction Award
Jenny was divorced with two kids. She had many theories about relationships, most of which came from the Oprah Network that she watched on small monitors at the dental office while she cleaned teeth. “I couldn’t tell you his love language, but I’d guess it’s not words of affirmation. Does he buy you gifts?”
Love, all we think we know and all we guess at, the insecurities, regrets, longings. Love as friendships, physical love, broken love, rough love, love as a haven- Marian Crotty has written stories about love in all it’s faces, ugly, beautiful, tortured- you name it. “Crazy For You” was fantastic, girls on the verge of sexual awakening, the dawning of awareness of their effect on grown men (welcome or not), witness to the ugly truth of love before they’ve even scratched the surface of their sexuality, while spying on a beautiful neighbor’s sexual exploits. In “A New Life” the tragedy of loss consuming a woman, her husband’s seeming ease with getting over it, moving on. Love spent, broken, and bled dry- terrified of her marriage ending at any moment, instead moving to Abu Dhabi and discovering betrayal. Some characters are fledglings, others battered veterans of love leaving abuse, recovering from loss, but each are trying to find something solid to anchor them. Sometimes the reader will laugh at their characters, other times feel their crushing defeat. There are so many stories about love, not all of them happy and safe. Some take whatever they can get and others discard the garbage they never should have let in! An insightful collection!
Publication Date: October 15, 2017
University of Iowa Press
John Simmons Short Fiction Award
July 1, 2017
Readers in need of insight into the lives of young women today - challenges, fears, aspirations, consternations, could do no better than take up "What Counts as Love." Marian Crotty has been awarded the 2017 John Simmons Short Fiction Award for these nine haunting stories, which testifies to their power and their topical nature.
The protagonists here, mostly young women, struggle to cope with the duress they encounter trying to navigate and negotiate their way. They, the stories, remind us of the lasciviousness, callousness, abuse, or plain indifference the world heaps in their path. The author depicts these struggles in an honest yet plaintive way; this leads to a certain sameness in tone and diction. However, after completing this collection, I became impressed rather with the variety and fairness on display. Ms. Crotty spares no one, not the young woman with the eating disorder, nor the violent teen about to be banished to the desert, nor the poor heroine addict on the verge of death. We trespass on these private moments, some of which hold despair, and some what passes for hope, or at least attaining of a plateau of freedom.
The girls and women here emerge with clear character: hope, motivation, delusion, misguided desire, naked aggression. They’re crystal clear. The male characters, even when they lead a story, are less clearly drawn, but that doesn’t matter here. This collection succeeds very well because of the author’s unblinking honesty and very subtle sympathy in the face of the horrifying 21st Century. Congratulations on the award, it’s well deserved.
http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/20...
The protagonists here, mostly young women, struggle to cope with the duress they encounter trying to navigate and negotiate their way. They, the stories, remind us of the lasciviousness, callousness, abuse, or plain indifference the world heaps in their path. The author depicts these struggles in an honest yet plaintive way; this leads to a certain sameness in tone and diction. However, after completing this collection, I became impressed rather with the variety and fairness on display. Ms. Crotty spares no one, not the young woman with the eating disorder, nor the violent teen about to be banished to the desert, nor the poor heroine addict on the verge of death. We trespass on these private moments, some of which hold despair, and some what passes for hope, or at least attaining of a plateau of freedom.
The girls and women here emerge with clear character: hope, motivation, delusion, misguided desire, naked aggression. They’re crystal clear. The male characters, even when they lead a story, are less clearly drawn, but that doesn’t matter here. This collection succeeds very well because of the author’s unblinking honesty and very subtle sympathy in the face of the horrifying 21st Century. Congratulations on the award, it’s well deserved.
http://bassoprofundo1.blogspot.com/20...
October 21, 2017
As with any short story collection, WHAT COUNTS AS LOVE is a bit of a mixed bag, though this one does feel more cohesive, more thematically realized than many contemporary collections. The stories here are all about the things we substitute for love, the things that make desire seem like both lack and excess energy.
The standouts here are the first two stories, and I'm tempted to say that the book is worth checking out for those alone. The first, "Crazy for You," is a thrilling tale of adolescent female desire; the second, "The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch," is a crushing queer romance, with an emphasis on the "crushing" rather than the "romance." Other stories are okay, but none quite reach the emotional heights of these.
The standouts here are the first two stories, and I'm tempted to say that the book is worth checking out for those alone. The first, "Crazy for You," is a thrilling tale of adolescent female desire; the second, "The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch," is a crushing queer romance, with an emphasis on the "crushing" rather than the "romance." Other stories are okay, but none quite reach the emotional heights of these.
July 26, 2017
I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley for free in exchange for an honest review.
What Counts as Love is a nine story anthology that unflinchingly looks at love and the knots we tie ourselves into as we look for it. These stories take place in locations as familiar as Arizona and exotic as the Persian Gulf. Some of the stories are funny, some are absurd, several have traces of tragedy. All of them have characters who want to be taken seriously as they navigate love.
I enjoyed dipping into each of the stories. Thank you Netgalley and University of Iowa Press for the introduction to Marian Crotty, whose work I look forward to exploring further.
What Counts as Love is a nine story anthology that unflinchingly looks at love and the knots we tie ourselves into as we look for it. These stories take place in locations as familiar as Arizona and exotic as the Persian Gulf. Some of the stories are funny, some are absurd, several have traces of tragedy. All of them have characters who want to be taken seriously as they navigate love.
I enjoyed dipping into each of the stories. Thank you Netgalley and University of Iowa Press for the introduction to Marian Crotty, whose work I look forward to exploring further.
February 18, 2018
In Marian Crotty's WHAT COUNTS AS LOVE (Winner of the Iowa Short Fiction Award), young women struggle with their emerging sexuality and with what the world has in store for them as women. Beautifully written, harsh at times, Crotty elevates subject matter others have at times ignored. A girl witnesses a rape; failing in college, a woman marries a man she hardly knows; a wife accompanies her husband to a foreign country, where as a man he moves about easily, but she is subject to scrutinizing gazes. Crotty forces us to take these women and their distress seriously. Highly recommend.
September 30, 2026
3.75
This was a belated gift from a friend. The first few stories felt like something I’d read in an intro to short story fiction class (complimentary) but also felt very much of the time it was written. As it went on I liked them more and more.
Some of them reminded me of the novel “White Oleander” similar ish at times content wise, but more so the cold indifference most of the main characters felt in each story. This sharp clearheadedness self awareness about their circumstances that are sometimes out of their control.
Overall made me pretty sad and sighed heavily when I finished.
This was a belated gift from a friend. The first few stories felt like something I’d read in an intro to short story fiction class (complimentary) but also felt very much of the time it was written. As it went on I liked them more and more.
Some of them reminded me of the novel “White Oleander” similar ish at times content wise, but more so the cold indifference most of the main characters felt in each story. This sharp clearheadedness self awareness about their circumstances that are sometimes out of their control.
Overall made me pretty sad and sighed heavily when I finished.
April 2, 2019
An incredible collection of short stories that capture what we allow love to look like. Crotty writes with such directness and simplicity that perfectly establishes a situation, making you feel as though you are a part of the story, another piece to the puzzle. I highly recommend reading as much of Crotty's fiction as you can; especially this collection!
August 19, 2018
Very interesting stories, thematically connected but distinct.
September 11, 2018
3.5 stars. A few of these stories shone but a few fell flat.
October 23, 2018
Not the book for me, but think there's potential.
December 22, 2022
Stunning.
March 30, 2023
Intimate, heartbreaking and honest. I couldn’t stop reading.
July 10, 2017
“To sum up, I learned that 1. Knowing the future can’t always change it. 2. Tragedy looks inevitable when enough people refuse to help."
Sharp, salty, always entertaining, shot through with the search for love and its meaning, is one way to sum up the nine stories in Marian Crotty’s debut collection, What Counts as Love.
Here’s a sampling of a few:
‘The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch’ – an account of the residents of a home for eating disorders – whose lives are spent spinning when a new woman, Jessa, a model and actress who has gained weight, is admitted. The story, while carrying the narrator’s smart, yet almost sarcastic voice, imbues the story with pathos and an understanding of what it means to have an eating disorder. The following words are heart-breaking, yet resonant, “For the anorexics it’s different. When a new girl shivers under her paper gown at weigh-in, her spine jotting out like a rocky garden house, they are quiet out of respect. The new girl is a memory of what’s been lost – a mirage of what it means to be skinny and empty and good.” What develops between Jessa and the narrator is both poignant, and telling, the low self-esteem of a young woman with an eating disorder perfectly wrapped up in this portrait.
The format of ‘Common Applications with Supplement’ takes the form of a questionnaire given to a university or college applicant, together with clever, amusing answers given by the applicant.
Meanwhile ‘A Real Marriage’ is a brilliantly acid take on the union of Amir and Abigail, the ‘real’ in the title alluding to an arranged marriage of sorts and the search for the beginning of love within the constraints of such a union.
‘A New Life’ also takes a look at a marriage, this time between Nathan and Rebecca. Nathan accepts a job in Aby Dhabi, and enjoys this new world, while Rebecca, in turn, in Abu Dhabi and struggling to fill her days, feels loneliness and a tragic death of a child weighing her down. A sharply observed portrait of a marriage crumbling under its own weight.
Other stories highlight themes of lesbianism, drug addiction and always the search for love and connection run through Crotty’s stories. Highly recommended.
“One night, when the room is still blurry from sex, and we are lying beside each other, holding hands under the covers, woozy and warm, but clothed now in case the nurses come inside, I tell Jessa I am falling in love with her. She sighs. “You’re not in love with me.” “Yes,” I say. “I feel giddy all the time. I feel like I’m on drugs.” “What you feel,” she says, “is that you are a lesbian and have just figured it out, but I am not a lesbian, okay? Please don’t try to make me a girlfriend.”
Sharp, salty, always entertaining, shot through with the search for love and its meaning, is one way to sum up the nine stories in Marian Crotty’s debut collection, What Counts as Love.
Here’s a sampling of a few:
‘The Fourth Fattest Girl at Cutting Horse Ranch’ – an account of the residents of a home for eating disorders – whose lives are spent spinning when a new woman, Jessa, a model and actress who has gained weight, is admitted. The story, while carrying the narrator’s smart, yet almost sarcastic voice, imbues the story with pathos and an understanding of what it means to have an eating disorder. The following words are heart-breaking, yet resonant, “For the anorexics it’s different. When a new girl shivers under her paper gown at weigh-in, her spine jotting out like a rocky garden house, they are quiet out of respect. The new girl is a memory of what’s been lost – a mirage of what it means to be skinny and empty and good.” What develops between Jessa and the narrator is both poignant, and telling, the low self-esteem of a young woman with an eating disorder perfectly wrapped up in this portrait.
The format of ‘Common Applications with Supplement’ takes the form of a questionnaire given to a university or college applicant, together with clever, amusing answers given by the applicant.
Meanwhile ‘A Real Marriage’ is a brilliantly acid take on the union of Amir and Abigail, the ‘real’ in the title alluding to an arranged marriage of sorts and the search for the beginning of love within the constraints of such a union.
‘A New Life’ also takes a look at a marriage, this time between Nathan and Rebecca. Nathan accepts a job in Aby Dhabi, and enjoys this new world, while Rebecca, in turn, in Abu Dhabi and struggling to fill her days, feels loneliness and a tragic death of a child weighing her down. A sharply observed portrait of a marriage crumbling under its own weight.
Other stories highlight themes of lesbianism, drug addiction and always the search for love and connection run through Crotty’s stories. Highly recommended.
“One night, when the room is still blurry from sex, and we are lying beside each other, holding hands under the covers, woozy and warm, but clothed now in case the nurses come inside, I tell Jessa I am falling in love with her. She sighs. “You’re not in love with me.” “Yes,” I say. “I feel giddy all the time. I feel like I’m on drugs.” “What you feel,” she says, “is that you are a lesbian and have just figured it out, but I am not a lesbian, okay? Please don’t try to make me a girlfriend.”
December 27, 2017
Didn't really enjoy this short story collection. Depressing with frustrating characters.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews