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Big World
The characters in Mary Miller's debut short story collection BIG WORLD are at once autonomous and lonesome, possessing both a longing to connect with those around them and a cynicism regarding their ability to do so, whether they're holed up in a motel room in Pigeon Forge with an air gun shooting boyfriend as in "Fast Trains" or navigating the rooms of their house with their dad after their mother's death as in "Leak." Mary Miller's writing is unapologetically honest and efficient and the gut-wrenching directness of her prose is reminiscent of Mary Gaitskill and Courtney Eldridge, if Gaitskill's and Eldridge's stories were set in the south and reeked of spilt beer and cigarette smoke.
230 pages, Paperback
First published February 17, 2009
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1400 people want to read
About the author
Mary Miller
14 books420 followersBiloxi, Always Happy Hour, The Last Days of California, Big World
Stories in Paris Review, McSweeney's Quarterly, American Short Fiction, New Stories from the South, Oxford American, Mid-American Review, Ninth Letter, Indiana Review, and Mississippi Review.
Nonfiction in the NYTBR, American Book Review, The Rumpus, and The Writer.
Stories in Paris Review, McSweeney's Quarterly, American Short Fiction, New Stories from the South, Oxford American, Mid-American Review, Ninth Letter, Indiana Review, and Mississippi Review.
Nonfiction in the NYTBR, American Book Review, The Rumpus, and The Writer.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews
June 5, 2009
I've been a fan of Mary Miller's work since an essay I wrote appeared alongside her short story "Leak" in Oxford American. That story opens Big World and introduces the reader to the funny-if-it-weren't-so-sad situations that her characters always seem to find themselves in. I wrote a short review which you can check out in
The Believer. Here's a taste of the review:
"Miller’s characters tend to be introverted women whose appetite for alcohol and/or desire for sex make them extroverted, but only for a little while. They get involved with men who aren’t available, emotionally or otherwise, and are invariably treated like kitchen appliances: 'convenient, yet out of the way.'"
The Believer. Here's a taste of the review:
"Miller’s characters tend to be introverted women whose appetite for alcohol and/or desire for sex make them extroverted, but only for a little while. They get involved with men who aren’t available, emotionally or otherwise, and are invariably treated like kitchen appliances: 'convenient, yet out of the way.'"
September 20, 2013
hobart's short flight/long drive books is producing enduring important works. they could shutter tomorrow and their first two works would be passed down from generation to generation through dusty used bookstores or from clicks on the internet, a paypal payment, and an addressed bubblewrap mailer. the tininess of this book compared to the modern paperback makes it stand out while quietly evoking the old dell mapback paperbacks with it's colored endpapers. you run your hand over the thing and turn it over. and then you open it up and let it destroy you.
i want to read these stories slowly but i can't stop turning the page. i have to know that these characters are going to be okay. these are some beautiful girls in this book, even the women. they move through the big grown up world of cheap motels and alcohol and t-shirts with homer simpson. They look out windows at a boarded up, dilapidated america. It is a beautiful sight miller sees, this heaviness and feeling of being lost while acting like you know exactly where you are going. these are my people. people who state "it's something about an easy job that makes it hard." i'm reminded of buffalo, new york. all faded glory but continuing on.
in story after story, there is this huge overtone, almost, to the book that says this big world wasn't supposed to be like this but this is what it is. this is what it is. i don't know but the underlying feeling is of little girls sitting on hardwood floors watching dust in a sliver of sunlight through a dirty window feeling safe and somehow in a moment that ended and they have become the caretakers to the boys who populate their lives. at the end of the story, temp, miller writes "i put him in the bathtub and kneel beside it like he's a child." characters are putting their heads in each others laps, and stroking their lovers hair like the missing parents should have been doing to these characters. these girls. they carry on. strong and confident even when deep inside their confidence is gone and they wander the house at night. waiting. you can almost make out what they are thinking. they are thinking about dust in shafts of light. or why there were never pancakes on plates, put there by a mother who loves them and wondering why their life never comes out like a movie.
i want to read these stories slowly but i can't stop turning the page. i have to know that these characters are going to be okay. these are some beautiful girls in this book, even the women. they move through the big grown up world of cheap motels and alcohol and t-shirts with homer simpson. They look out windows at a boarded up, dilapidated america. It is a beautiful sight miller sees, this heaviness and feeling of being lost while acting like you know exactly where you are going. these are my people. people who state "it's something about an easy job that makes it hard." i'm reminded of buffalo, new york. all faded glory but continuing on.
in story after story, there is this huge overtone, almost, to the book that says this big world wasn't supposed to be like this but this is what it is. this is what it is. i don't know but the underlying feeling is of little girls sitting on hardwood floors watching dust in a sliver of sunlight through a dirty window feeling safe and somehow in a moment that ended and they have become the caretakers to the boys who populate their lives. at the end of the story, temp, miller writes "i put him in the bathtub and kneel beside it like he's a child." characters are putting their heads in each others laps, and stroking their lovers hair like the missing parents should have been doing to these characters. these girls. they carry on. strong and confident even when deep inside their confidence is gone and they wander the house at night. waiting. you can almost make out what they are thinking. they are thinking about dust in shafts of light. or why there were never pancakes on plates, put there by a mother who loves them and wondering why their life never comes out like a movie.
February 5, 2020
I enjoyed this short story collection. The author puts you into the head of a number of characters. Most, if not all, were women. Most, if not all, had thoughts that were a mix of bizarre, petty, and humorous. Do people really think this way?
I listened to the audiobook version. The multiple narrators were excellent. I only wish I had a good way to capture some of the many pithy lines Miller wrote. Quite fun. I would read more by Miller.
I listened to the audiobook version. The multiple narrators were excellent. I only wish I had a good way to capture some of the many pithy lines Miller wrote. Quite fun. I would read more by Miller.
May 21, 2009
Fantastic short stories; very sad and moving and lovely stuff. I thought Pearl was extraordinary.
March 24, 2014
I could say that Mary Miller’s Big World is a wonderful collection, which it is, and that the stories in it remind me of how I feel when reading stories by Charles Baxter (or Bobbie Ann Mason), and they are all excellent because Baxter (and Mason) seems to ONLY write excellent stories. I could say that if I taught a writing class, which is a wildly hilarious idea (the thought of me teaching anything!), I would add stories from Big World into the curriculum because they encompass everything one should want a short story to have, which is to say they are truthful, funny and sad, and many other things also. I could say a lot about this book, really, but I won’t. What I WILL say is that I recommend Big World to people who like reading strong writing about flawed (yet remarkably interesting) characters, and I recommend it highly because that’s how this book rolls.
January 3, 2016
An outstanding collection that strikes the perfect balance between humor and hard truth. The stories in this collection are each examples of Mary Miller's acute observation of both human behavior and emotion, and the liminal void that often wells between. This lacuna is where Miller excels, beautifully capturing the ways in which our intentions so often fail to align with actions, our desires with reality. My only complaint is that thematically these stories felt redundant, though every sentence is so original I never once considered setting the collection aside—which perhaps was the problem; it might be best to take a break between stories, to fully appreciate each for the masterpiece that it is. Off to read Miller's novel.
August 28, 2013
Read this book now. Drop everything else. Miller's hopeless characters and bleak settings will make your nervously smile and crave cigarettes, whiskey, and cheap hotel rooms. The hilarious indifference of the narrator shines a light down on the darkness of the subject matter which deals a lot with death and bad/mediocre/awkward relationships. "I tried not to hold it against God. It wasn't God's fault that all the sick people in the world latched onto him." This is just one of the many brilliant lines from her collection. I'm going to start reading it again.
March 2, 2009
Reviewed here: http://myfanwy.blogspot.com/2009/02/b...
May 28, 2017
review to come
June 24, 2015
Grim and decadent, funny and dirty. I love it.
February 10, 2021
This collection is delightful and brutal. The delight starts right upon opening the mailer from the bookstore. The brutal lingers with you. Mary Miller makes me feel not so alone sometimes.
March 11, 2017
Much like 'Always Happy Hour,' I thoroughly enjoyed this group of stories. Although thematically the two books are the same, it never feels redundant or the theme overused. I think that is because each story stands on its own, and feels 'authentic' and original.
The thing I noticed in this book (and loved) was the way each story ended (which I'm sure is the same as 'Always Happy Hour'). In particular, when you look at the title story and 'Not all who wander are lost,' the final sentence drives home the story so well. They are a synthesis and make the story, in my opinion, more powerful.
Highly recommended.
The thing I noticed in this book (and loved) was the way each story ended (which I'm sure is the same as 'Always Happy Hour'). In particular, when you look at the title story and 'Not all who wander are lost,' the final sentence drives home the story so well. They are a synthesis and make the story, in my opinion, more powerful.
Highly recommended.
October 15, 2020
Mary Miller has a deft mastery of plot and characters, unsentimental and sometimes hilariously brutal. Her sentences are, though, mainly what I love. If there is such craft, such genius, in the big world, for all its gorgeous cruelty, this world demands our attention.
April 6, 2013
Tropic of Cancer and Big World, this month's two book club books. It's funny how neither really appealed to me initially. Henry Miller's book began aggressively with semen and spit splashed across each page. At the book's end, however, you could tell he had grown older. He had matured, but not in the conventional sense. Miller became reflective and a bit morose, which appealed to me more than the flippant discourse related to whores and prostitutes.
Big World struck me in a different way. I enjoyed the first few stories but then felt that each one felt a bit too similar to the last. Could Mary Miller write anything other than this, could she delve into any other theme? I couldn't help comparing this short story collection to that which I had recently read by Ray Bradbury, whose stories each felt original and unique. But I felt that comparison to be unfair so I returned to Mary Miller determined to be more observant. That helped a bit. Forcing myself to look beyond the similarities, I sought the unique. By the end, I had rectified my first reaction to Big World with a feeling of contentment.
Mary Miller's collection was nice in one other respect: I now feel inclined to write some short stories of my own. Sure, people need to read more about the North East.
Big World struck me in a different way. I enjoyed the first few stories but then felt that each one felt a bit too similar to the last. Could Mary Miller write anything other than this, could she delve into any other theme? I couldn't help comparing this short story collection to that which I had recently read by Ray Bradbury, whose stories each felt original and unique. But I felt that comparison to be unfair so I returned to Mary Miller determined to be more observant. That helped a bit. Forcing myself to look beyond the similarities, I sought the unique. By the end, I had rectified my first reaction to Big World with a feeling of contentment.
Mary Miller's collection was nice in one other respect: I now feel inclined to write some short stories of my own. Sure, people need to read more about the North East.
March 21, 2010
i devoured this in one sitting, couldn't put it down. i know everyone is sick to death of ray carver comparisons, but she's the first i've read who has traces of his greatness while still doing her own amazing thing. these are dark, almost gothic tales -- don't pick it up if you want a pick-me-up. do pick it up if you want some quality short stories. the cover/format is great -- like a pulp novel and so tiny you can slip it in your pocket.
March 14, 2013
A collection of short stories set mostly in the south about young women and teenage girls who are lost and trying to figure out if they even want to be found. Spare, unadorned, yet evocative prose that reads a bit like the stuff Carver wouldn't let Lish touch, but tempered with the big-eyed view of youth. In case you can't tell, I really dug it. Mary Miller can fucking write. Also I met her at a bar at AWP and she's hot and I kinda have a crush on her and uh oh I better stop writing now...
July 16, 2015
A couple of these stories are phenomenal. Most of the stories in this collection involve women making bad decisions out of boredom or loneliness. A few of them were interesting for the way they relate moments that don't have typical story arcs, and yet they were still interesting and compelling. Really enjoyed Miller's style, though I did feel about half of the stories were forgettable. Still, would rank this as a very strong collection.
Read
July 3, 2020As I read these stories, or more accurately, as I vacuumed them down, I was initially thinking, Faulkneresque, well, maybe, how about Carveresque, for sure, but then I thought, whatever, this collection is just fucking great, and quite Milleresque, a descriptor I expect we will be hearing more and more as time goes by.*
*Proven correct I was.
*Proven correct I was.
September 28, 2024
A book wih a big, bleeding heart. Filled with pellet shooting drunks wearing Homer Simpson T-shirts, waitresses, trailer park residents, women who populate their lives with boys who they become caretakers to. All painted with deeply empathetic brushstrokes landing somewhere between humor and hard truth.
July 23, 2014
Mary Miller is one of the best writers out there right now, and Big World is all the proof needed. I read this collection four times in a row when I first bought it, and I've forced it on anyone and everyone who will listen. Not one story in Big World is anything less than remarkable.
September 24, 2014
Damn, this is a great collection. One of the best I've read in a while.
June 29, 2016
well this book is extremely perfect and made me cry
November 9, 2021
One of the best collections I have ever read. Kept it in my back pocket for probably two years to hand to friends.
June 4, 2022
“Some people don’t like pleasure, he tells me later, over omelets. You’re talking about me, I say, and he says, yeah. The boyfriend who moved out said I was a machine, that if he ripped me open I’d look like the inside of a wall, but then he was something that wasn’t lost, so I couldn’t believe anything he said. I like pleasure, I say. I’ve just developed this whole detachment thing because I’ve been protecting myself for so long. I watch my hands pretend they’re birds and then I take a sip of my coffee, and he takes a sip of his and we’re sort of pleased with ourselves, with what feels like a revelation but isn’t.” — “Not All Who Wander Are Lost”
December 18, 2024
Mary Miller writes a series of short stories, all featuring different women from different walks of life. I felt like each story was a snippet of the inside of a real persons head. You don't know about her life before the story begins and you don't know where her life is going afterwards. All the stories seemed a little depressing and I definitely could see myself in some of these women's thought processes. I think I liked the last story best, "Not All Who Wander Are Lost." I felt like that story pointed out the most clearly the differences between men and women's sexual dynamics.
August 11, 2009
I just think she's amazing.
You have to trust, sit back, and go where Mary Miller's stories take you. They go all over the place, following weird everyday whims, pushed and pulled by the forces of others and the confusing, often conflicting needs within the people they're about.
But you always get the feeling that the characters feel like they are - or, in fact are - going nowhere. Maybe because they're just living, and when you're living a lot of times there's nowehere to go but where the day takes you.
Miller is amazing at capturing every fleeting, erratic impulse. Each is payed its respect while the characters move about - thoughts leading the actions, actions leading to thoughts - each thought a part of the person living the story. Miller shows how these quirks define us more than we may know, or care to know.
You can't tell if you're in her head, or if at times she's in yours. Either way, you're seeing things in a way you haven't quite done before. And maybe it's time you should.
You have to trust, sit back, and go where Mary Miller's stories take you. They go all over the place, following weird everyday whims, pushed and pulled by the forces of others and the confusing, often conflicting needs within the people they're about.
But you always get the feeling that the characters feel like they are - or, in fact are - going nowhere. Maybe because they're just living, and when you're living a lot of times there's nowehere to go but where the day takes you.
Miller is amazing at capturing every fleeting, erratic impulse. Each is payed its respect while the characters move about - thoughts leading the actions, actions leading to thoughts - each thought a part of the person living the story. Miller shows how these quirks define us more than we may know, or care to know.
You can't tell if you're in her head, or if at times she's in yours. Either way, you're seeing things in a way you haven't quite done before. And maybe it's time you should.
June 30, 2009
From nikperring.blogspot.com
(http://nikperring.blogspot.com/2009/0...)
"... I've been dipping into, and really enjoying, Niki Aguire's 29 Ways to Drown, which is well worth a look. But mostly I've been reading Big World by Mary Miller and, well, it's gone straight onto my Incredibles list (for those reasonably new to the blog that just means books I think are incredibly good). I'm not going to review it because a) I've not finished it (and don't want to!) and b) I'm not very good at them but I will point you to what Tania Hershman said about it on The Short Review, which was what encouraged me to buy it in the first place.
It's a wonderful collection of affecting, realist short stories that are brilliantly written and work perfectly.
Thank you Mary Miller and thank you The Short Review."
(http://nikperring.blogspot.com/2009/0...)
"... I've been dipping into, and really enjoying, Niki Aguire's 29 Ways to Drown, which is well worth a look. But mostly I've been reading Big World by Mary Miller and, well, it's gone straight onto my Incredibles list (for those reasonably new to the blog that just means books I think are incredibly good). I'm not going to review it because a) I've not finished it (and don't want to!) and b) I'm not very good at them but I will point you to what Tania Hershman said about it on The Short Review, which was what encouraged me to buy it in the first place.
It's a wonderful collection of affecting, realist short stories that are brilliantly written and work perfectly.
Thank you Mary Miller and thank you The Short Review."
February 9, 2010
I really liked Mary Miller's story collection Big World. The 14-30 yr. old female protagonists of these pieces are generally pretty screwed up from having bad parenting and/or profound tragedies to deal with and there is much escapist behavior in the form of drinking and casual sex going on but the narrative voice, which is consistent throughout, is witty, sarcastic, funny, a bit cynical but also frequently insightful making for a very engaging reading experience. The writing does raise for me the issue of whether characters who show such a lack wisdom in the poor choices they make in their daily lives can believably display the kind of wit, intelligence and insight these women do to the reader of these stories. This didn't significantly detract from my enjoyment of Miller's fiction, however, due to the charm of that very same drollery.
February 26, 2014
Mary Miller's characters are, for lack of a better word, raw. They put everything, all the ugly thoughts and observations, on the table. These women are fearless in admitting their desires, or as in most cases, their lack of desire. Some stories may be linked, but they stand on their own so effectively there is no need to flip back to find connection. All characters seem to reside in the same region of Tennessee, and have similar insecurities revolving around body image and sex and familial relationships. There is a lot packed into this little, unassuming book. Read it.
March 28, 2013
Excellent short stories. Miller has an excellent touch. My only beef with the book is that every single main character is, essentially, the same. Lost, wandering through life, little, if any, self-esteem, she takes whatever comes her way and doesn't much think of making any effort to get out of whatever sad life she is in. Each individual story is top notch, but an entire book of them is just a little much.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 77 reviews