Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down

<p><em>Story after story gave me the uneasy feeling that I'd been outed my secret anxiety and exhaustion laid bare. The emotional computations of the characters are constant a steady drone that directs them to accommodate everyone as much as possible all the time.</em></p><p><em>- Allison Moore from the Introduction</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>Boys Buy Me Drinks to Watch Me Fall Down</em> is the quietly opened vein that every literate woman is hiding with a strategically positioned clutch or behind sleeves not quite right for the weather. These are not your everyday stories of resilience - while the heart may be laid bare the women here don't have time to hit the fainting couch with their trauma.</p><p><br></p><p>No. The women here are too sharp for that. And too busy. They're busy carrying worlds on their shoulders; they're busy with sex (and equally busy when the sex is great and when it's not); they're busy being messy and complicated and generally busy with the business of existence with making sure you don't see that vein.</p><p><br></p><p>As for author Anna Dickson James? She's busy exploring the many delicate and thoroughly original ways to let you see it anyway.</p>