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Reviews

'This excellent novel - strange and artful, full of texture and feeling - reads like a Sentimental Education for our time; and I am so glad that a talented woman has written it.' -- Vivian Gornick, author of Unfinished Business 'Girls They Write Songs About is the instant feminist classic our generation has been waiting for - a profound and perfect book about girls raised to believe they can be anything but who as women learn the truth: every choice requires sacrifice, and freedom isn't free. Carlene Bauer - a Kate Chopin for the 21st century - brings a fiercely funny, exquisitely brave, vibratingly intellectual voice to a world of bar flirtations, I-love-this-song enthusiasms, envy, ambition, and regret. I'm giving it to all my friends because I love them and I love this book.' -- Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can't Sleep Praise for Frances and Bernard: 'Evocative...witty...sparky' * Stylist * 'The characters' charm and intelligence make them irresistible company.' * Daily Mail * 'Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity... Exquisite.' * Washington Post * 'A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th-century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy... Bauer is a distinctive stylist who can write about Simone Weil or Kierkegaard with wit and charm.' * New York Times Book Review * 'Warm, intelligent and addictive.' * The Simple Things *

Praise for Frances and Bernard: 'Evocative...witty...sparky' * Stylist * 'The characters' charm and intelligence make them irresistible company.' * Daily Mail * 'Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity... Exquisite.' * Washington Post * 'A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th-century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy... Bauer is a distinctive stylist who can write about Simone Weil or Kierkegaard with wit and charm.' * New York Times Book Review * 'Warm, intelligent and addictive.' * The Simple Things *

'Wise, witty, atmospheric and layered. I absolutely loved this book and I am desperate for my friends to read it.' -- Katie Allen, author of Everything Happens for a Reason 'The conundrums Bauer's characters must address as they juggle freedom, feminism, love and art are involving, and it's easy to imagine a Greta Gerwig-esque big-screen take.' -- Daily Mail 'The instant feminist classic our generation has been waiting for.' -- Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can't Sleep 'Excellent - strange and artful, full of texture and feeling - reads like a Sentimental Education for our time.' -- Vivian Gornick, author of Unfinished Business 'Bauer's third book reveals a sharpened eye for social detail and a Laurie Colwin-esque ear for dialogue.' -- New York Times 'Charlotte's narration rings true for the discerning writer and editor she is; the prose is razor-sharp and utterly devoid of clutter... With deftness and candor, Bauer tells a moving and thoughtful story of how desire and ambition change over time and how to make sense of the messiness of carving out a path and life of one's own. A smart and beautifully rendered portrait of two women's lives.' -- Kirkus (starred review) 'The current crush of '90s nostalgia finds novel form in Carlene Bauer's heady, intimate tale of two young women who meet in the halcyon days of a New York music-magazine career circa 1997 - then turns its focus to all that follows when the coming-of-age glow gives way, inevitably, to the deeper shades and complications of grown adulthood.' -- Entertainment Weekly 'Finally, a book that stirs up the fire, hilarity, heartache and powerplant energy of female friendships. Remember how it felt to be young and invincible in New York City? Remember the friends who showed up at your gorgeously gritty apartment bearing new and sparkling worlds? Girls They Write Songs About carries the giddy, smart, shouted exuberance of free, young women right up and into the questions that haunt us as we grow: how, oh how, did I get here?' -- Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book 'A fantastically vivid story about feminism and friendship.' -- People Magazine 'Humour and feminist passion power Girls They Write Songs About. Charlotte, the book's narrator, a 'self-questioning mystic trapped in a late capitalist body,' damaged by her mother's unhappiness, forges a new family of intense female friendships and kinships with beloved dead female authors. A riot grrrl anthem of a novel, one that celebrates female longing, accomplishment and sisterhood while never forgetting the high stakes of our internal struggle to respect ourselves.' -- Darcey Steinke, author of Flash Count Diary 'A tender and honest novel about the friendships-and friendship breakups-that shape people just as much as their romantic counterparts.' -- Nylon, 'Must-Read Books of the Month' Praise for Frances and Bernard: 'Evocative...witty...sparky' * Stylist * 'The characters' charm and intelligence make them irresistible company.' * Daily Mail * 'Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity... Exquisite.' * Washington Post * 'A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th-century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy... Bauer is a distinctive stylist who can write about Simone Weil or Kierkegaard with wit and charm.' * New York Times Book Review * 'Warm, intelligent and addictive.' * The Simple Things *

'I lost myself in this exquisitely written story of two women finding their place in New York, in publishing and in the wider world. Carlene Bauer has created characters so authentic, so honest and so complex that you will feel you've known them for decades. Girls They Write Songs About is wise, witty, atmospheric and layered. I absolutely loved this book and I am desperate for my friends to read it.' -- Katie Allen, author of Everything Happens for a Reason 'Excellent - strange and artful, full of texture and feeling - reads like a Sentimental Education for our time.' -- Vivian Gornick, author of Unfinished Business 'The instant feminist classic our generation has been waiting for.' -- Ada Calhoun, author of Why We Can't Sleep 'Charlotte's narration rings true for the discerning writer and editor she is; the prose is razor-sharp and utterly devoid of clutter... With deftness and candor, Bauer tells a moving and thoughtful story of how desire and ambition change over time and how to make sense of the messiness of carving out a path and life of one's own. A smart and beautifully rendered portrait of two women's lives.' -- Kirkus (starred review) 'Finally, a book that stirs up the fire, hilarity, heartache and powerplant energy of female friendships. Remember how it felt to be young and invincible in New York City? Remember the friends who showed up at your gorgeously gritty apartment bearing new and sparkling worlds? Girls They Write Songs About carries the giddy, smart, shouted exuberance of free, young women right up and into the questions that haunt us as we grow: how, oh how, did I get here?' -- Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book 'Humour and feminist passion power Girls They Write Songs About. Charlotte, the book's narrator, a 'self-questioning mystic trapped in a late capitalist body,' damaged by her mother's unhappiness, forges a new family of intense female friendships and kinships with beloved dead female authors. A riot grrrl anthem of a novel, one that celebrates female longing, accomplishment and sisterhood while never forgetting the high stakes of our internal struggle to respect ourselves.' -- Darcey Steinke, author of Flash Count Diary Praise for Frances and Bernard: 'Evocative...witty...sparky' * Stylist * 'The characters' charm and intelligence make them irresistible company.' * Daily Mail * 'Bauer captures the style and language of the period with gleeful dexterity... Exquisite.' * Washington Post * 'A story of conversion, shattered love and the loss of faith, recalling 20th-century masters like Graham Greene and Walker Percy... Bauer is a distinctive stylist who can write about Simone Weil or Kierkegaard with wit and charm.' * New York Times Book Review * 'Warm, intelligent and addictive.' * The Simple Things *

Author Information

Carlene Bauer is the author of the memoir Not That Kind of Girl and the novel Frances and Bernard. Her work has been published in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Virginia Quarterly Review, n+1, The New York Times Book Review, and Elle. She lives in Brooklyn.

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