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Alissa Nutting
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Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls: Stories (Art of the Story) Kindle Edition

by Alissa Nutting (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 212 ratings
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In this darkly comic and surreal collection from celebrated author Alissa Nutting, misfit women scramble for agency in a series of uncanny circumstances

Throughout these breathtakingly creative seventeen stories spread across time, space, and differing planes of reality, we encounter a host of women and girls in a wide range of unusual jobs. A space cargo deliverywoman enlists the help of her cybersex partner to release her mother from cryogenic prison.  Desperate for affection and a more lavish lifestyle, a young woman falls under the corrosive spell of the fashion model for whom she’s given up everything to assist. A woman submits to a procedure that will turn her body into a futuristic ant farm, only to discover the sinister plans of her doctor.

Though the settings these women find themselves in are as shocking and unique as they come, the emotional battles they face are searing and real. Some are trying to fight their way out of the cycle of abuse, while others must cope with the anguish brought on by infertility or the aftershocks of an abortion. Still others confront and embrace their most depraved desires, carving out power for themselves in worlds that relentlessly ask for conformity.

Wickedly funny yet ringing with deep truths about gender, authority and the ways we inhabit and restrict the female body, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls is a brilliant commentary on the kaleidoscope of human behavior and a remarkably nuanced satire for our times.

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  1. Part of series
    Art of the Story
  2. Print length
    192 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  5. Publisher
    Ecco
  6. Publication date
    July 3, 2018
  7. File size
    921 KB
  8. Page Flip
    Enabled
  9. Word Wise
    Enabled
  10. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  11. See all details
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From the Publisher

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Nutting's outrageous and excruciating writing makes my face split with laughter, often in public. She's glorious chaos and utterly original-read her with joy.

-- "Lydia Millet, author of Sweet Lamb of Heaven"

Alissa Nutting writes the most moving and uncanny prose. I want to be her avatar. Her future is great.

-- "Kate Bernheimer, author of Horse, Flower, Bird"

These fine stories...illuminate how people hide behind their pursuits, concealing what matters most to them while striving, and usually failing, to be loved.

-- "Ben Marcus, author of Notable American Women"

From the Back Cover

In this darkly comic and surreal collection from celebrated author Alissa Nutting, misfit women scramble for agency in a series of uncanny circumstances: A space cargo deliverywoman enlists the help of her cybersex partner to release her mother from cryogenic prison. Desperate for affection and a more lavish lifestyle, a young woman falls under the corrosive spell of the fashion model for whom she’s given up everything to assist. A woman submits to a procedure that will turn her body into a futuristic ant farm, only to discover the sinister plans of her doctor.

Though the settings these women find themselves in are as shocking and unique as they come, the emotional battles they face are searing and real. Some are trying to fight their way out of the cycle of abuse, while others must cope with the anguish brought on by infertility or the aftershocks of an abortion. Still others confront and embrace their most depraved desires, carving out power for themselves in worlds that relentlessly ask for conformity.

Wickedly funny yet ringing with deep truths about gender, authority, and the ways we inhabit and restrict the female body, Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls is a brilliant commentary on the kaleidoscope of human behavior and a remarkably nuanced satire for our times.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B072VGCR99
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ecco (July 3, 2018)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ July 3, 2018
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 921 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 212 ratings

About the author

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Alissa Nutting

Alissa Nutting

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Alissa Nutting's debut novel, Tampa, will be published by Ecco/HarperCollins in 2013. She is author of the short story collection Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls (Starcherone/Dzanc 2010), which won the Starcherone Prize for Innovative Fiction judged by Ben Marcus. Her fiction has or will appear in publications such as The Norton Introduction to Literature, Tin House, Bomb, and Conduit; her essays have appeared in Fence, the New York Times, O: The Oprah Magazine, and other venues. An assistant professor of creative writing and English literature at John Carroll University, she lives in Ohio with her husband, her daughter, and two spoiled tiny dogs.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
4.1 out of 5
212 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Chance Lee
5.0 out of 5 stars A Desert Island Book
Reviewed in the United States on January 22, 2014
Verified Purchase
That's it. I'm done reading. Like, forever. I don't know if I'll ever read another set of stories so dark, so twisted, so funny, so romantic, so tragic, so gut-wrenchingly sad as the tales in this collection. If I had to choose one book to read over and over again forever, in some sort of book-reading purgatory, it would be this one.

There are eighteen stories in this collection, all told by a first-person female narrator, whom I believe is always nameless (except in "Bandleader's Girlfriend", although she doesn't go by Claudia anymore, she goes by "Sorcerella van Crystal")

Here are just a few of the story concepts:

A woman and four men are boiled alive for dinner, and have one last conversation before they die.
A woman kidnaps a panda from a zoo.
A woman has holes drilled into her bones so that she can host an ant colony inside her body.
A woman buys her mother's cryogenically frozen body at auction.
A woman falls in love with the devil.
A woman falls in love with a garden gnome.
A woman in a rat costume wants to have children.
A woman, who was born a man, gets blackmailed by her pimp.

And that's less than half of them!

There are true masterpieces in here. I will think of "Ant Colony", "Hellion", "She-Man", and "Porn Star" for years. Years. Together, these stories run the gamut from horror, manipulation, romance, love, tragedy, fear, shame, ennui, and disgust, although if you tried to match those themes and feelings to the stories based on title alone, you'd probably be completely wrong. "Hellion", in which a woman with acid-spewing boobs (like Fem-bots have bred with Alien) falls in love with Satan might just be one of the most romantic stories I've read. Seriously. I love it.

The ones I mentioned are all longer stories that can be read again and again and really dug into... although I'm not sure if I want to go deeper into "Ant Colony" than I already have. Sometimes I feel like I have ants inside me...

Not all the stories are lengthy. Some of the stories are only a few pages long. It takes three minutes to read "Zookeeper" but, man, that story sticks with you for days.

Some favorite quotes, in no particular order:

"Whatever you do," I thought, "don't pee inside the devil."

I'll go home and wait for her to call me and turn me into something special for however long she wants, and this time I won't forget to be grateful.

Feeling cold after being hot for so long hurt somewhat. It made me realize that it probably was painful to breathe for the first time when I was born.

The sad thing is, everybody is always somebody, even when he's nobody. And I used to be a nobody's somebody.

"There is no purpose. Purpose is a concept someone made up to feel better about how weird everything is."

"That's the thing about symbols. They mean different things to different people."
20 people found this helpful
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Ceci
4.0 out of 5 stars Some of the stories drag horribly, while others are engaging and a few are ...
Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2014
Verified Purchase
Not as open and perverse as "Tampa," but certainly an interesting read. Some of the stories drag horribly, while others are engaging and a few are heartbreaking. Nutting provides very little exposition in most cases, so some of the pieces are harder to understand right off the bat, and pretty much everything is left confused at the end of every piece.

If you like Nutting's other work though, you will like this, if for nothing else than the easy to read style she employs.
One person found this helpful
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Don Munsil
5.0 out of 5 stars Forecast: disturbing with intermittent zaniness
Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2013
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This is a strange and wonderful book, filled with bizarre, broken, weird, and occasionally beautiful people. It's hilarious, surreal, and often disturbing. A common theme, perhaps, is people who are not aware that they are in a terrible situation, or are terrible people. Lack of self-awareness is a big thing for Alissa Nutting's characters, and luckily for us their bizarre lives make entertaining reading. Nutting has a way with an understated line like, "I took a baby panda home from the zoo. Technically I wasn't supposed to." Technically? You think? That entire story, titled "Zookeeper," is hilarious from start to finish.

Not all the stories are laugh-out-loud funny, but there is a constant thread of humor in each narrator's obsession with the banal details of everyday life that serve to contrast with the terrible things that are going on. One of the characters is trapped in Hell for all eternity, and finds the place mildly annoying, what with the lava pools and the acid she occasionally shoots out of her breasts when she gets angry. It's really quite the trial.

If you like dark, dark humor and strange, elliptical stories that are more like fever dreams than slices of real life, then this book is for you.
5 people found this helpful
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Kiki Loccisano
3.0 out of 5 stars extremely creative
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2012
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Unusual scenarios, fairy tales for adults, wonderfully unique phrases and creative plots. A light fun and short book of tales that will keep you laughing while you read them, then thoughtful about the human psyche once done.
3 people found this helpful
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Jordan D. King
5.0 out of 5 stars Absurdism at its finest
Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2022
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I love everything about this book, from the introduction on. An incredible collection of strange and often horrifying stories but one thing is for certain when you read Alissa’s work, you’re going to laugh. A lot. In public, in private, you won’t care. One of the few authors I recommend to absolutely everyone.
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D. E. Dickerson
4.0 out of 5 stars Totally Original, Albeit Uneven
Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2013
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Firmly in the tradition of strange-fiction women authors like Aimee Bender and Karen Russell, Alissaa Nutting's short stories are funnier than either of those authors, and significantly more earthy. (Alissa seems fascinated with body horror.) Some pieces are whisper-thin, single-idea one-offs, but most of the pieces are surreal, funny, and incredibly refreshing in a literary landscape that seems too often filled with stories about women who are too well-behaved or too girly. A whip-smart satirical voice, overflowing with wild creativity, and not a whiff of chick-lit. Highly recommended.
4 people found this helpful
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Blue Braun
5.0 out of 5 stars Charming, Eclectic, Weird
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2022
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These are great short stories, leaving you feeling excited, repulsed, intrigued and more! Wonderful writing!
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Retired line cook
1.0 out of 5 stars Missed the mark
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2011
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This seemed like a good idea or a lot of good ideas, on paper, but in fact reads more like a collection of creative workshop
drafts. Several themes seem to dominate: guys into tanning, showing of breasts,psuedo-spiritual speak and nerds who are
lonely. Granted, a lot could be done with this but in fact;not much was and it was quite a let-down. Maybe the next book
will deliver but it's hard to have faith in the Author's promise after this collection.
15 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

SS
4.0 out of 5 stars Good
Reviewed in Canada on January 30, 2019
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Other than the horrendous cut job on the edge of each page. It is good book!
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Toby Wallis
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant collection of themed shorts
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2014
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Highly recommended for people who enjoy challenging, innovative, experimental fiction. The stories swing successfully from the comic to the tragic. Frequently bleak but manages to be emotive and tender in places. A brilliant collection of dark and inventive shorts.
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r_duke
4.0 out of 5 stars Tampa is one of the best books I read in 2013
Reviewed in Canada on December 22, 2015
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Tampa is one of the best books I read in 2013. I picked up this collection of short stories afterward and was lukewarm to many of them.
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samma
3.0 out of 5 stars Bad quality paper
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2020
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Haven't started reading yet but I'm sure it's good. It the quality of the book itself that has surprised me. The pages seem to not be cut properly and are harsh. It seems like they've ripped the paper for the pages rather than cut them.
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samma
3.0 out of 5 stars Bad quality paper
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2020
Haven't started reading yet but I'm sure it's good. It the quality of the book itself that has surprised me. The pages seem to not be cut properly and are harsh. It seems like they've ripped the paper for the pages rather than cut them.
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Graham Waters
2.0 out of 5 stars Poor
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 29, 2013
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Impenetrable. Not easy to read. Not enjoyable. Only bought it because Tampa had reasonable reviews. Not easy to get what it was all about.
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