"Stark and cutting . The book''s power comes from Barrodale''s ability to distort and project the familiar into something new, like a visual artist playing with shadows cast on a gallery wall." --Nicholas Mancusi, The New York Times Book Review "Each of the 10 stories in Barrodale''s collection is a gem: elegant, subversive, and surprising. Barrodale depicts an impressive breadth of settings and characters. At the heart of each story is a tenuous relationship: in one, an actress explores her attraction to an abusive director; in another, a psychologist navigates a mother-daughter relationship; in a third, a man who eats the same meal every night pursues a mysterious woman." -- Travel and Leisure "These short tales from Vice fiction editor Amie Barrodale focus on precarious relationships: moments with psychiatrists, actresses, and misfits--people who make us nervous. For fans of Lydia Davis and David Foster Wallace, her debut is incisive, risky, and a little irreverent, and a real writer''s book." -- Elle "There is a fascinating grotesqueness here, from the mean, broken, oblivious characters to the funny, ugly scenarios they''re placed into.

Even the structures of the stories are disconcerting: They always open so deep midscene -- so breathlessly ready to go, so breathlessly already going -- it''s disorienting, like a film that starts with a character in midfall off a cliff. But the grotesqueness is also cut with moments of beauty, moments when we zoom in to the gold-and-white luminosity of a hand-thrown clay bowl or a psychiatrist treating his patient''s expensive boots with Vaseline or a wife''s way of telling her husband he has a sharp nail (''There''s a wolverine'') and searching for it with her tongue. The result is somewhere at the intersection of discomfort and pleasure. So is the world of You Are Having a Good Time beautiful with grotesque details, or grotesque with a little bit of beauty? The answer seems to be, ''Yes.''" --Carmen Maria Machado, NPR.org "Stunning . It is Barrodale''s extraordinary gift to get so right in tone and voice characters who never get it right. Many writers can hold up a polished mirror in front of a reader and ask, Look familiar? Barrodale brilliantly manages the far trickier task of holding up a broken mirror and allowing us to find ourselves in the shards .

Self-consciousness might be Barrodale''s theme, but the writing itself is wily, razor sharp, at times hilarious, and occasionally feels like the fast rip of a Band-Aid. One story, ''Catholic,'' about a young woman stumbling through a hazy romantnd a real writer''s book." -- Elle "There is a fascinating grotesqueness here, from the mean, broken, oblivious characters to the funny, ugly scenarios they''re placed into. Even the structures of the stories are disconcerting: They always open so deep midscene -- so breathlessly ready to go, so breathlessly already going -- it''s disorienting, like a film that starts with a character in midfall off a cliff. But the grotesqueness is also cut with moments of beauty, moments when we zoom in to the gold-and-white luminosity of a hand-thrown clay bowl or a psychiatrist treating his patient''s expensive boots with Vaseline or a wife''s way of telling her husband he has a sharp nail (''There''s a wolverine'') and searching for it with her tongue. The result is somewhere at the intersection of discomfort and pleasure. So is the world of You Are Having a Good Time beautiful with grotesque details, or grotesque with a little bit of beauty? The answer seems to be, ''Yes.''" --Carmen Maria Machado, NPR.

org "Stunning . It is Barrodale''s extraordinary gift to get so right in tone and voice characters who never get it right. Many writers can hold up a polished mirror in front of a reader and ask, Look familiar? Barrodale brilliantly manages the far trickier task of holding up a broken mirror and allowing us to find ourselves in the shards . Self-consciousness might be Barrodale''s theme, but the writing itself is wily, razor sharp, at times hilarious, and occasionally feels like the fast rip of a Band-Aid. One story, ''Catholic,'' about a young woman stumbling through a hazy romant/i> "Stunning . It is Barrodale''s extraordinary gift to get so right in tone and voice characters who never get it right. Many writers can hold up a polished mirror in front of a reader and ask, Look familiar? Barrodale brilliantly manages the far trickier task of holding up a broken mirror and allowing us to find ourselves in the shards . Self-consciousness might be Barrodale''s theme, but the writing itself is wily, razor sharp, at times hilarious, and occasionally feels like the fast rip of a Band-Aid.

One story, ''Catholic,'' about a young woman stumbling through a hazy romantic relationship, is an instant classic. As it turns out, the collection''s title is a promise." --Christopher Bollen, Interview Magazine "''Tis the season for debut short-story collections written by women. I recently finished a galley of Amie Barrodale''s You Are Having a Good Time . Just when the detriment of modern technology to contemporary relationships began to feel like a tired subject, Barrodale hit me with a totally bizarre new take. An unorthodox therapist, a mysterious woman named Koko, and an aggressive tailor are just a few of the characters who make this one of the strangest, most colorful, and ultimately unforgettable books I''ve recently read." -- The Nation "It''s almost uncivilized how precisely Barrodale renders life as a banal grotesquerie in which you have the wherewithal to decide nothing . Barrodale elevates anecdotes into art .

[Shend a real writer''s book." -- Elle "There is a fascinating grotesqueness here, from the mean, broken, oblivious characters to the funny, ugly scenarios they''re placed into. Even the structures of the stories are disconcerting: They always open so deep midscene -- so breathlessly ready to go, so breathlessly already going -- it''s disorienting, like a film that starts with a character in midfall off a cliff. But the grotesqueness is also cut with moments of beauty, moments when we zoom in to the gold-and-white luminosity of a hand-thrown clay bowl or a psychiatrist treating his patient''s expensive boots with Vaseline or a wife''s way of telling her husband he has a sharp nail (''There''s a wolverine'') and searching for it with her tongue. The result is somewhere at the intersection of discomfort and pleasure. So is the world of You Are Having a Good Time beautiful with grotesque details, or grotesque with a little bit of beauty? The answer seems to be, ''Yes.''" --Carmen Maria Machado, NPR.org "Stunning .

It is Barrodale''s extraordinary gift to get so right in tone and voice characters who never get it right. Many writers can hold up a polished mirror in front of a reader and ask, Look familiar? Barrodale brilliantly manages the far trickier task of holding up a broken mirror and allowing us to find ourselves in the shards . Self-consciousness might be Barrodale''s theme, but the writing itself is wily, razor sharp, at times hilarious, and occasionally feels like the fast rip of a Band-Aid. One story, ''Catholic,'' about a young woman stumbling through a hazy romantnd a real writer''s book." -- Elle "There is a fascinating grotesqueness here, from the mean, broken, oblivious characters to the funny, ugly scenarios they''re placed into. Even the structures of the stories are disconcerting: They always open so deep midscene -- so breathlessly ready to go, so breathlessly already going -- it''s disorienting, like a film that starts with a character in midfall off a cliff. But the grotesqueness is also cut with moments of beauty, moments when we zoom in to the gold-and-white luminosity of a hand-thrown clay bowl or a psychiatrist treating his patient''s expensive boots with Vaseline or a wife''s way of telling her husband he has a sharp nail (''There''s a wolverine'') and searching for it with her tongue. The result is somewhere at the intersection of discomfort and pleasure.

So is the world of You Are Having a Good Time beautiful with grotesque details, or grotesque with a little bit of beauty? The answer seems to be, ''Yes.''" --Carmen Maria Machado, NPR.org "Stunning . It is Barrodale''s extraordinary gift to get so right in tone and voice characters who never get it right. Many writers can hold up a polished mirror in front of a reader and ask, Look familiar? Barrodale brilliantly manages the far trickier task of holding up a broken mirror and allowing us to find ourselves in the shards . Self-consciousness might be Barrodale''s theme, but the writing itself is wily, razor sharp, at times hilarious, and occasionally feels like the fast rip of a Band-Aid. One story, ''Catholic,'' about a young woman stumbling through a hazy romant/i> "Stunning . It is Barrodale''s extraordinary gift to get so right in tone and voice characters who never get it right.

Many writers can hold up a polished mirror in front of a reader and ask, Look familiar? Barrodale brilliantly manages the far trickier task of holding up a broken mirror and allowing us to find ourselves in the shards . Self-consciousness might be Barrodale''s theme, but the writing itself is wily, razor sharp, at times hilarious, and occasionally feels like the fast rip of a Band-Aid. One story, ''Catholic,'' about a young woman stumbling through a hazy romantic relationship, is an instant classic. As it turns out, the collection''s title is a promise." --Christopher Bollen, Interview Magazine "''Tis the season for debut short-story collections written by women. I.