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The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress
Four sisters, many lovers, and a series of settings both familiar and exotic delineate the nineteen linked stories in this award-winning debut collection. Whether leaving, returning, or staying put, the women who narrate these stories are bound to Alabama by history and habit, their voices informed by the landscape and lore of the New South. Michelle Richmond introduces us to a memorable extended family, in which lies come more easily than forgiveness, and parents and siblings conceal the truth as often as they reveal it. In many cases, the women are forced to choose -- between family and lovers, safety and self-sufficiency, the religion they grew up with and the reality of the world they have found for themselves. In "Down the Shore Everything's All Right," twenty-eight-year-old Grace abandons wide Southern beaches for New York sidewalks, only to discover that the Gulf Coast still has a hold on her. In "Intermittent Waves of Unusual Size and Force," a wayward father is called home from California by a massive hurricane that threatens the lives of his family. In "The World's Greatest Pants," three younger sisters watch in awe as Darlene, the eldest and bravest, defies her parents and heads for Texas in a battered El Camino. An undercurrent of eroticism runs through the collection. "Propaganda" finds the youngest sister alone in an old house in Knoxville, where she forms a symbiotic relationship with a mysterious upstairs neighbor during her husband's lengthy absence. In "Fifth A Criminal History," adolescence and sexuality merge with explosive consequences. A woman dancing naked on a bridge in San Francisco is the central figure of the title story. The divine and the absurd are uneasy but frequent bedfellows in this volume. "O-lama-lama" portrays the scene of a religious free-for-all at a beachside church in Fairhope, Alabama, while "Slacabamorinico" celebrates the holy commotion of Mardi Gras at a Mobile cemetery. In "The Last Bad Thing," a love-struck young woman in the Bible Belt is haunted by visions of Ramadan.
- GenresShort StoriesFiction
184 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2001
About the author
Michelle Richmond
33 books1,123 followersMichelle Richmond is The New York Times bestselling author of literary mysteries, psychological thrillers, and award-winning story collections. Her new novel, ANIMALS OF THE FRENCH SPECIES, an espionage thriller inspired by her expat years in Paris, is forthcoming from Grove Atlantic.
Her eight previous books include The Wonder Test, the first novel in a series featuring FBI Agent Lina Connerly; The Year of Fog, The New York Times bestseller about one woman's search for a missing child; and the Sunday Times bestseller The Marriage Pact, which has been published in 31 languages.
Michelle was born and raised on Alabama's Gulf Coast. She studied journalism at The University of Alabama and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami, where she was a James Michener Fellow. For behind-the-scenes stories behind Animals of the French Species, subscribe to her author newsletter on Substack: michellerichmond.substack.com
Her eight previous books include The Wonder Test, the first novel in a series featuring FBI Agent Lina Connerly; The Year of Fog, The New York Times bestseller about one woman's search for a missing child; and the Sunday Times bestseller The Marriage Pact, which has been published in 31 languages.
Michelle was born and raised on Alabama's Gulf Coast. She studied journalism at The University of Alabama and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Miami, where she was a James Michener Fellow. For behind-the-scenes stories behind Animals of the French Species, subscribe to her author newsletter on Substack: michellerichmond.substack.com
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
December 11, 2013
Michelle Richmond, lives in California...(not 'too' far from me). I knew she was from Alabama,
but until now...all the other novels I've read by her have taken place in
Northern California ( written so well...a reader would think she was a Bay Area native)....
so, it was a treat to read the collection of these short stories...all linked to
Alabama --( coming or going).
Michelle gives us a 'Southern - historical flavor of the what's driving the community ...
in particular, one extended family from the 'natives' from Alabama...
and in particular....'woman'.
We witness woman breaking free...( dancing naked in San Francisco)...
All woman who leave the south - who come to San Francisco...dance naked in public at least once in their lives....didn't you know it's an initiation to the city? Ha! :)
Many themes that run through these stories are about finding freedom, strength,
dependable souls to trust...and one's own voice.
In one of the stories Grace is talking with her boyfriend Ivan. She has had it with his
stories, his lies, and is trying to tell him she wants to break up. We can see Grace feels
pretty down on 'all men ' at the moment, too. From 'her' shoes we almost can't blame
her. I got the impression the poor girl has never experienced a healthy male/female
relationship...
Then,...to top things off, Howard Stern comes on the radio.
"He's interviewing a leading child psychologists, quizzing her on the size of her breasts. He wants to know if her breasts get in the way of her social work. She wants to know if his stupidity gets in the way of his career. She postulates that Howard Stern was breast-fed until the age of 10 or so and thus his fascination with the
mammary glad. She suggests that he wants to sleep with his mother".
"Whoa-ho!, he says. "Easy Baby. I'll tell you who I want to sleep with. I want to sleep with your mother!"
"Howard's sidekick, Robin, tells him to behave."
Ivan and Grace continue on their car drive....( in silence)
"A couple of minutes later we exit the turnpike, then drive for a long time toward
the shore. It begins to rain. The windshield wipers of our plastic Rent-A-Car keep sticking, and every couple of minutes I have to lean out the window and lift the wipers from the glass to get them moving again."
"Our route takes us through broken-down towns that all look pretty much the same:
old factories with soot-scarred windows, bent cars parked permanently in driveways, filthy little grocery stores with big white banners in the windows, advertising pork roast and pampers. Ivan watches the slick road while I watch the odometer. It clicks off
the miles with a slowness that reminds me of Alabama, Sunday drives with my
parents and sisters through green empty places that inevitably ended at some
abandoned length of railroad, crossing signals long defunct."
While Michelle Richmond explored the growth of several family members..be it religion, sexuality, parenting, education, birth, guilt, fears, grief, laughter, love, ...
she has our emotions in the palm of her hands...and
from rain - to sunshine- to low white hills -to
chilly nights..and muddy tracks from tires on a car in untouched snow, Michelle's
writing is quite beautiful.
but until now...all the other novels I've read by her have taken place in
Northern California ( written so well...a reader would think she was a Bay Area native)....
so, it was a treat to read the collection of these short stories...all linked to
Alabama --( coming or going).
Michelle gives us a 'Southern - historical flavor of the what's driving the community ...
in particular, one extended family from the 'natives' from Alabama...
and in particular....'woman'.
We witness woman breaking free...( dancing naked in San Francisco)...
All woman who leave the south - who come to San Francisco...dance naked in public at least once in their lives....didn't you know it's an initiation to the city? Ha! :)
Many themes that run through these stories are about finding freedom, strength,
dependable souls to trust...and one's own voice.
In one of the stories Grace is talking with her boyfriend Ivan. She has had it with his
stories, his lies, and is trying to tell him she wants to break up. We can see Grace feels
pretty down on 'all men ' at the moment, too. From 'her' shoes we almost can't blame
her. I got the impression the poor girl has never experienced a healthy male/female
relationship...
Then,...to top things off, Howard Stern comes on the radio.
"He's interviewing a leading child psychologists, quizzing her on the size of her breasts. He wants to know if her breasts get in the way of her social work. She wants to know if his stupidity gets in the way of his career. She postulates that Howard Stern was breast-fed until the age of 10 or so and thus his fascination with the
mammary glad. She suggests that he wants to sleep with his mother".
"Whoa-ho!, he says. "Easy Baby. I'll tell you who I want to sleep with. I want to sleep with your mother!"
"Howard's sidekick, Robin, tells him to behave."
Ivan and Grace continue on their car drive....( in silence)
"A couple of minutes later we exit the turnpike, then drive for a long time toward
the shore. It begins to rain. The windshield wipers of our plastic Rent-A-Car keep sticking, and every couple of minutes I have to lean out the window and lift the wipers from the glass to get them moving again."
"Our route takes us through broken-down towns that all look pretty much the same:
old factories with soot-scarred windows, bent cars parked permanently in driveways, filthy little grocery stores with big white banners in the windows, advertising pork roast and pampers. Ivan watches the slick road while I watch the odometer. It clicks off
the miles with a slowness that reminds me of Alabama, Sunday drives with my
parents and sisters through green empty places that inevitably ended at some
abandoned length of railroad, crossing signals long defunct."
While Michelle Richmond explored the growth of several family members..be it religion, sexuality, parenting, education, birth, guilt, fears, grief, laughter, love, ...
she has our emotions in the palm of her hands...and
from rain - to sunshine- to low white hills -to
chilly nights..and muddy tracks from tires on a car in untouched snow, Michelle's
writing is quite beautiful.
March 2, 2019
Short stories can be a hit or miss. This definitely feel into the in-between.
The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress was sort of recommended to me by a group member in a challenge. She said it was good and short.. so I decided to take a gamble on it. Now this is filled with some short stories, which I took with a grain of salt. Sometimes I like them and other times I don't. Since I have never read a book by this author before, I went in with zero expectations.
Each story in this book is focused on one family. They are told by four sisters and they are quite unique in their own way. I liked them but I felt like something was a bit off. Whether it was the length to each story or what it was actually about. Then there are the actual characters and some were also likable or relatable but then other's were just weird or crazy.
Other than that, the overall flow of the book was a bit off as well. Again, I just think it was the way the stories changed from short, to a big longer, to one page, and all over again. I probably would've liked it a bit more if they were all the same length.
The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress was sort of recommended to me by a group member in a challenge. She said it was good and short.. so I decided to take a gamble on it. Now this is filled with some short stories, which I took with a grain of salt. Sometimes I like them and other times I don't. Since I have never read a book by this author before, I went in with zero expectations.
Each story in this book is focused on one family. They are told by four sisters and they are quite unique in their own way. I liked them but I felt like something was a bit off. Whether it was the length to each story or what it was actually about. Then there are the actual characters and some were also likable or relatable but then other's were just weird or crazy.
Other than that, the overall flow of the book was a bit off as well. Again, I just think it was the way the stories changed from short, to a big longer, to one page, and all over again. I probably would've liked it a bit more if they were all the same length.
November 14, 2017
I love most of Michelle Richmond's books but I am not a fan of short stories. Some of the stories are nice but not for me, I prefer longer length novellas or novels.
October 19, 2008
I have read Michelle Richmond's novels and I had hopes for a good read with the stories. I really had the hardest time trying to figure out how all of the stories fit together especially considering how crazy the characters were. It just wasn't for me, and I'll be reading the next novel Richmond puts out. One book I didn't enjoy isn't enough to give up an author.
May 9, 2018
I am usually not a reader of short stories as I don't feel there is adequate time to develop the story and characters. However, having loved all of Michelle Richmond's books, I decided to try this collection of her short stories. Focused mainly on a family of 4 sisters and not told in chronological order, these stories are heartfelt, poignant, and unique. Impressive and a real treat to read!
February 21, 2025
I had mixed feelings… this book was a compilation of short stories centered on 4 sisters… branching out a bit.
Interesting premise, but I couldn’t tell/feel if they were supposed to be linked… or that was a device. Each ‘chapter’ was almost a standalone short story - but they worked better when you knew the backstories and such.
So… conflicted, the stories were well written. Almost a ‘4’.
Interesting premise, but I couldn’t tell/feel if they were supposed to be linked… or that was a device. Each ‘chapter’ was almost a standalone short story - but they worked better when you knew the backstories and such.
So… conflicted, the stories were well written. Almost a ‘4’.
March 15, 2017
I think Ms. Richmond is an amazing writer. This book is of short stories, and I thought they were all interesting and imaginative. They were all tied together. Ms. Richmond is great at painting pictures of places, and describing characters. I've read all her books and recommend you read them too. I struggled a bit with the short stories; I guess I prefer full-length novels, but her writing is just as good as her novels have been.
April 27, 2010
My review published in the San Francisco Chronicle in 2002:
The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress
By Michelle Richmond
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS; 169 Pages; $24.95
Remember this name: Michelle Richmond. It takes impressive talent and emotional range to trump the disappointments of "The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress," an at times mesmerizing, at times maddening collection of stories. This is a young writer whose future progression should be exhilarating to watch.
Richmond writes with grace and calm and a refreshing sense of playfulness, even in the midst of dreary material. Her characters live and breathe; we feel them, and feel them feeling each other, especially when she's writing about the four sisters who pop up throughout this collection, often facing girlhood together in the South under what are usually uneasy circumstances.
She has insights that seem like insights worth having and can bring a scene alive economically, as when she describes a character greeting someone in a cafe. She "fidgets with her watchband and looks around the room, as if she might find someone more interesting in the crowd."
Too bad, then, that the stories are a mixed bag. Half are short-shorts, interspersed with the others, which sets an unfortunate tone of disjointedness and effect-for-effect's sake. Like one-night stands, short-shorts tend not to be satisfying: either forgettable or memorable, but only in a way that teases you with its brevity. Some of the longer stories, too, just do not quite fit with the others chosen for the collection.
Maybe a good way to think of this book is like the diaphanous white dress of the title story, which slips off a woman standing on a footbridge over Market St., leaving her exposed to the elements. The story in which the dress soars never does justice to the bold image around which it's built. But hey, it's a great dress, and it takes an alert eye even to see it up there, beautiful and haunting. Maybe that's enough.
-- Steve Kettmann
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress
By Michelle Richmond
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS PRESS; 169 Pages; $24.95
Remember this name: Michelle Richmond. It takes impressive talent and emotional range to trump the disappointments of "The Girl in the Fall-Away Dress," an at times mesmerizing, at times maddening collection of stories. This is a young writer whose future progression should be exhilarating to watch.
Richmond writes with grace and calm and a refreshing sense of playfulness, even in the midst of dreary material. Her characters live and breathe; we feel them, and feel them feeling each other, especially when she's writing about the four sisters who pop up throughout this collection, often facing girlhood together in the South under what are usually uneasy circumstances.
She has insights that seem like insights worth having and can bring a scene alive economically, as when she describes a character greeting someone in a cafe. She "fidgets with her watchband and looks around the room, as if she might find someone more interesting in the crowd."
Too bad, then, that the stories are a mixed bag. Half are short-shorts, interspersed with the others, which sets an unfortunate tone of disjointedness and effect-for-effect's sake. Like one-night stands, short-shorts tend not to be satisfying: either forgettable or memorable, but only in a way that teases you with its brevity. Some of the longer stories, too, just do not quite fit with the others chosen for the collection.
Maybe a good way to think of this book is like the diaphanous white dress of the title story, which slips off a woman standing on a footbridge over Market St., leaving her exposed to the elements. The story in which the dress soars never does justice to the bold image around which it's built. But hey, it's a great dress, and it takes an alert eye even to see it up there, beautiful and haunting. Maybe that's enough.
-- Steve Kettmann
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article...
February 6, 2011
I think it takes great skill to write a short story that tells a complete story. Some authors can do it, others cannot. Richmond manages it in this book of short stories that all come together in the last one. She takes one girl, Grace, and somehow Grace is weaved into each story, even if her name isn't mentioned. Richmond weaves in and out of the people in Grace's life and tells some of their story to compliment Grace's. Richmond uses rich language, descriptives that make you feel as if you are there, and develops characters all with these short stories. And some of them are indeed short, taking up only a scant page in the book. However, while reading the book and upon finishing it I feel rather indifferent to the stories so for me it wasn't successful in grabbing me and making me fall in love with any particular character or even story. But my indifference certainly doesn't negate the talent Richmond shows she has in this novel of shorts.
July 2, 2011
This is a strange and beautiful collection of stories. Normally not a fan of the short story, I loved that Ms. Richmond's book felt like a novel. The stories all spin away from one main character, all related in unexpected ways. The writing is gorgeous and smart but not intrusive and the stories are unique, magical and more than a bit sad. I cannot recommend this book enough. It was like reading life. I thought it was beautiful.
September 16, 2010
This is just a short story in an Alabama comedy book. I had to get the library to search high and low for it and now I'm not sure why. It wasn't comedy. (and its review made it sound like a murder mystery. It wasn't that either). There's a reason I never read short stories. Even though I love Michelle Richmond, this was odd at best and just left me thinking "HUH?"
October 27, 2008
Excellent stories from a wonderful writer!
May 9, 2013
My favourite sort of short story collection, one which has threads and repeated images throughout. Somehow, this also had a distinct Paul Auster flavour....
October 9, 2014
Loved this book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews