Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Aug 2016
240 pages
Genre: Short Stories
Publication Information
A sly, provocative, and psychologically astute debut story collection from a 2015 Whiting Award winner.
In Leopoldine Core's stories, you never know where you are going to end up. Populated by sex workers and artists, lovers and friends, her characters are endlessly striving to understand each other. And while they may seem to operate at the margins, there is something eminently relatable, even elemental about their romantic relationships, their personal demons, and the strange shapes their joy can take.
Refreshing, witty, and absolutely close to the heart, Core's twenty stories, set in and around New York City, have an other-worldly quality along with a deep seriousness—even a moral seriousness. What we know of identity is smashed and in its place, true individuals emerge, each bristling with a unique sexuality, a belief-system all their own. Reminiscent of Jane Bowles, William Burroughs, and Colette, her writing glows with an authenticity that is intoxicating and rare.
Dirty and squalid, poetic and pure, Core bravely tunnels straight to the center of human suffering and longing. This collection announces a daring and deeply sensitive new voice.
"Starred Review. Entrancing, subtle, and tragically poetic, this collection is an important contribution to queer literature." - Kirkus
"This debut short story collection reveals Core's wisdom and deep understanding of the limits of human connection... Core's dialogue is by turns searching and revelatory in this accomplished and singular new voice." - Publishers Weekly
"While there is an undeniable headiness to Core's collection, her writing is never heavy-handed: It's refreshing - even bright - and full of heart. This new voice fills a void that, until finishing the final pages, we didn't know was sorely missing." - Refinery 29
"Leopoldine Core is one of the most original new writers I've come across. Reading her carefully laid out sentences is like following a trail of white pebbles through a dark forest of strange insights and passion. Her ardent wanderers exist in the ever-churning flux of their moods and minds, in a haunted, desperate, and bejewelled New York. I get so much from being in her worlds." - Sheila Heti, author of How Should a Person Be?
"Leopoldine Core writes deceptively poetic prose - there's a delicacy to it, without being precious at all, and it leaves you with a feeling that resonates long after." - Molly Ringwald, author of When It Happens to You
"Intent on both wasting and appreciating their youth, Leopoldine Core's distinct and fascinating characters know they're being watched but seldom fully seen. But every now and then, they see each other. And they don't just meticulously observe the sweetly gritty East Village of the recent past; they bring it absolutely to life." - Sarah Manguso, author of Ongoingness
"Powerful and lucid, these stories are full of pain and sex and the cutting things people say to one another." - Marie Calloway, author of what purpose did i serve in your life
"Fast, lucid, and beautifully blunt, these stories cut and swoop to the conversations and meditations that, of an afternoon, can define an epoch in your life." - Benjamin Lytal, author of A Map of Tulsa
This information about When Watched was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Leopoldine Core was born and raised in New York's East Village and graduated from Hunter College. Her fiction and poetry have appeared in Joyland, Open City, PEN America and Apology Magazine, among others. She is the recipient of a 2015 Whiting Award for fiction, as well as fellowships from The Center for Fiction and The Fine Arts Work Center. Author of the poetry collection Veronica Bench, Core lives in New York.
The House on Biscayne Bay
by Chanel Cleeton
As death stalks a gothic mansion in Miami, the lives of two women intertwine as the past and present collide.
The Flower Sisters
by Michelle Collins Anderson
From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.
The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu
Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
