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The Bed Moved
The Bed Moved
Stories
The audacious, savagely funny debut of a writer of razor-sharp wit and surprising tenderness: a collection of stories that gives us a fresh take on adolescence, death, sex; on being Jewish-ish; and on finding one's way as a young woman in the world.
A New Yorker, trying not to be jaded, accompanies a cash-strapped pot grower to a "clothing optional resort" in California. A nerdy high-schooler has her first sexual experience at Geology Camp. A college student, on the night of her father's funeral, watches a video of her bat mitzvah, hypnotized by the image of the girl she used to be . . .
Frank and irreverent, Rebecca Schiff's stories offer a singular view of growing up (or not) and finding love (or not) in today's ever-uncertain landscape. In its bone-dry humor, its pithy observations, and its thrilling ability to unmask the most revealing moments of human interaction—no matter how fleeting—The Bed Moved announces a new talent to be reckoned with.
From the Hardcover edition.
A New Yorker, trying not to be jaded, accompanies a cash-strapped pot grower to a "clothing optional resort" in California. A nerdy high-schooler has her first sexual experience at Geology Camp. A college student, on the night of her father's funeral, watches a video of her bat mitzvah, hypnotized by the image of the girl she used to be . . .
Frank and irreverent, Rebecca Schiff's stories offer a singular view of growing up (or not) and finding love (or not) in today's ever-uncertain landscape. In its bone-dry humor, its pithy observations, and its thrilling ability to unmask the most revealing moments of human interaction—no matter how fleeting—The Bed Moved announces a new talent to be reckoned with.
From the Hardcover edition.
The audacious, savagely funny debut of a writer of razor-sharp wit and surprising tenderness: a collection of stories that gives us a fresh take on adolescence, death, sex; on being Jewish-ish; and on finding one's way as a young woman in the world.
A New Yorker, trying not to be jaded, accompanies a cash-strapped pot grower to a "clothing optional resort" in California. A nerdy high-schooler has her first sexual experience at Geology Camp. A college student, on the night of her father's funeral, watches a video of her bat mitzvah, hypnotized by the image of the girl she used to be . . .
Frank and irreverent, Rebecca Schiff's stories offer a singular view of growing up (or not) and finding love (or not) in today's ever-uncertain landscape. In its bone-dry humor, its pithy observations, and its thrilling ability to unmask the most revealing moments of human interaction—no matter how fleeting—The Bed Moved announces a new talent to be reckoned with.
From the Hardcover edition.
A New Yorker, trying not to be jaded, accompanies a cash-strapped pot grower to a "clothing optional resort" in California. A nerdy high-schooler has her first sexual experience at Geology Camp. A college student, on the night of her father's funeral, watches a video of her bat mitzvah, hypnotized by the image of the girl she used to be . . .
Frank and irreverent, Rebecca Schiff's stories offer a singular view of growing up (or not) and finding love (or not) in today's ever-uncertain landscape. In its bone-dry humor, its pithy observations, and its thrilling ability to unmask the most revealing moments of human interaction—no matter how fleeting—The Bed Moved announces a new talent to be reckoned with.
From the Hardcover edition.
Reviews-
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February 22, 2016
Young women mourn, date, and equivocate in Schiff’s lively debut story collection. Her narrators are in their teens and 20s, underemployed, and thwarted in their search for intimacy: “she forgot all the sex she had as soon as she had it, she didn’t really have it when she had it, and she hadn’t for a long time.” “Another Cake,” along with several other stories, deals with a father’s death, the narrator returning home to New Jersey to find her old books full of “promising girls... girls looking forward to the kind of loss that only hurts a little.” “Welcome Lilah” and “It Doesn’t Have to Be a Big Deal” take on a reluctance to commit to boyfriends who seem less than ideal. More experimental pieces include “Rate Me,” in which body parts are sent off to be rated and improved. “Communication Arts” documents, via increasingly frantic emails, the trials of an adjunct professor whose students range from confused to confrontational; the narrator of “World Trade Date” keeps seeing men who had worked in the World Trade Center on 9/11 and had “escaped, and claimed to be humbled.” Consistently and darkly funny, Schiff makes light of her characters’ dilemmas, but never belittles their genuine distress, resulting in a fresh, varied collection that will resonate with readers. - Sloane Crosley, author of The Clasp, How Did You Get This Number, and I Was Told There'd Be Cake "People will say The Bed Moved is a collection of droll stories about love and youth and those people will be correct. But that's not the thing. The thing that makes this book so special is the punch-packing depth of these meticulously crafted pieces. Rebecca Schiff is a human spotlight and I will look wherever she points from now on."
- Adam Wilson, author of What's Important is Feeling "If you see a bald man running through the streets of Brooklyn screaming Rebecca Schiff's name, do not fear for her life--it's just me, after one too many, singing the gospel of Schiff! I am in awe of this book, in awe of its sentences, in awe of the unapologetically horny and intelligent young women who populate these stories. I'm in awe of its author's bullshit-free exploration of everything from death to dating apps, in awe of her ability to capture so precisely what it's like to be alive in America during this weird-ass moment. Mostly I'm in awe of the way these compact stories are so spring-loaded with humor and pathos and soul. This is my favorite book that I've read in a long time, and I expect it will be another while yet before anything even close to as good comes along again."
- Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask "Rebecca Schiff's spiky prose white-knuckles your heart while making you laugh. And that's not easy. A remarkable debut."--Patricia Volk, author of Stuffed, Shocked, and To My Dearest Friends "Rebecca Schiff packs more genuine human feeling into these pages than most books triple its size do. Also slyly unforced humor. And strange, cracked observations about death. And casual sex--or, rather, not-really-casual sex posing as casual sex. And sadness in high school. And in college. And in adulthood while still living like you're in college and having the same emotional responses you did in high school. The Bed Moved is a superbly written reminder of the greatest pleasure fiction has to offer: profound access to the mind of someone else who is unlike anyone else."--Teddy Wayne, author of The Love Song of Jonny Valentine "Rebecca Schiff is one of the best young writers out there. Her stories are sharp, subtle, funny and incredibly moving."
- Kirstin Valdez Quade, author of Night at the Fiestas "The stories in The Bed Moved are tart, sexy, powerful, and very, very funny. Under Schiff's unsparing eye, uncomfortable, hilarious truths are laid bare. A terrific debut."
- Ben Marcus, author of Leaving the Sea and The Flame Alphabet "Bow down to Rebecca Schiff. In The Bed Moved this brilliant young writer serves up stories that are tough, funny, fearless, weird, and loaded with heartache and desire."
