R.L. MAIZES
R.L. MAIZES was born and raised in Queens, NY. She now lives in Boulder, CO. Maizes’s short stories have aired on National Public Radio and have appeared in the literary magazines Electric Literature, Witness, Bellevue Literary Review, Slice, and Blackbird, among others. Her essays have been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Lilith, and elsewhere. Maizes is an alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference, and the Tin House Summer Writer’s Workshop. Her work has received Honorable Mention in Glimmer Train’s Fiction Open contest, has been a finalist in numerous other national contests, and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.
OTHER PEOPLE’S PETS
Celadon Books - July 14, 2020
La La Fine relates to animals better than she does to other people. Abandoned by a mother who never wanted a family, raised by a locksmith-turned-thief father, La La looks to pets when it feels like the rest of the world conspires against her.
La La’s world stops being whole when her mother, who never wanted a child, abandons her twice. First, when La La falls through thin ice on a skating trip, and again when the accusations of “unfit mother” feel too close to true. Left alone with her father—a locksmith by trade, and a thief in reality—La La is denied a regular life. She becomes her father’s accomplice, calming the watchdog while he strips families of their most precious belongings.
When her father’s luck runs out and he is arrested for burglary, everything La La has painstakingly built unravels. In her fourth year of veterinary school, she is forced to drop out, leaving school to pay for her father’s legal fees the only way she knows how—robbing homes once again.
As an animal empath, she rationalizes her theft by focusing on houses with pets whose maladies only she can sense and caring for them before leaving with the family’s valuables. The news reports a puzzled police force—searching for a thief who left medicine for the dog, water for the parrot, or food for the hamster behind.
Desperate to compensate for new and old losses, La La continues to rob homes, but it’s a strategy that ultimately will fail her.
Other People’s Pets examines the gap between the families we’re born into and those we create, and the danger that holding on to a troubled past may rob us of the future.
praise for other people’s pets
“An uncanny, appealing blend of suspense, irony, tragedy, and how-to for lock-picking, burgling, and ankle monitor removal.”―Kirkus
“A beguiling tale that will make readers want to leap into the pages.”―Library Journal, starred review
“A beguiling twist on the familiar formula of breaking unhealthy bonds with the past.”―Publishers Weekly
"While reading R.L. Maizes' Other People's Pets, I could not stop saying, as La La mouths to herself at one point, remarkable. Every time the novel opened up yet again to reveal some new depth, much like La La and her ability to experience the emotions of the animals around her, I worried how the novel could hold such wonder without bursting, could control the pain and joy of this remarkable story. But Maizes possesses such magic. This examination of family, across all lines and definitions, will open you up in such necessary, beautiful ways."―Kevin Wilson, author of Nothing to See Here and The Family Fang
"Maizes' enjoyable first novel, following the story collection We Love Anderson Cooper (2019), is creative, intriguing, and filled with lively, likeable characters." ―Booklist
“Told with humor, irreverence, and warmth, Other People’s Pets is a story about unconventional choices, great loss, and the dangerous hold the past has over the present.”―Manhattan Book Review
“Other People’s Pets, with its lively voice and unexpected characters, makes a perfect addition to anyone’s summer reading pile, but it is required for those who understand that coming of age has absolutely nothing to do with age.”―The Washington Post
WE LOVE ANDERSON COOPER
Celadon Books - July 23, 2019
In We Love Anderson Cooper, characters are treated as outsiders because of their sexual orientation, racial or religious identity, or simply because they look different. A young man courts the publicity that comes from outing himself at his bar mitzvah. When a painter is shunned because of his appearance, he learns to ink tattoos that come to life. A paranoid Jewish actuary suspects his cat of cheating on him—with his Protestant girlfriend.
In this debut collection, humor complements pathos. Readers will recognize themselves in these stories and in these protagonists, whose backgrounds are vastly different from their own—we’ve all been outsiders at some point.
PRAISE FOR WE LOVE ANDERSON COOPER
"I can’t remember the last time I read an entire book with a smile on my face. But from R.L. Maizes’s title, We Love Anderson Cooper, until the last story here, I grinned. These stories are funny, yes. But they are also so big hearted and honest that I wanted to thrust them into everyone’s hands and make them read this book so we would all be grinning together as we recognized that these oddball characters are really exactly like us."—Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and The Book That Matters Most
"A unique angle of vision―devastating and funny. In her stories, R.L. Maizes probes the fusion of alienation and yearning, the persistence of attachment to animals and to people."―Ursula Hegi, author of The Burgdorf Cycle
“I found myself dazzled, moved, and lost in admiration for these unforgettable stories, each one a gem. Where do I sign up for the R.L. Maizes school of brilliantly depicting off-kilter love and loss with unfailing wit and empathy?”―Elinor Lipman, author of Good Riddance and On Turpentine Lane
"The title story in We Love Anderson Cooper will break your heart in all the best ways and it will also make you laugh; such is the blueprint for all that is ahead in this stunning collection. R.L. Maizes has such a gift for taking us where we’ve never been, yet reminding us of what we know about love, grief, a place of belonging."―Jill McCorkle, author of Life After Life
"Told with humor and wisdom, these charming stories burst with possibility: At any moment, a character might risk all, or the world might tilt on its axis. Here is a wildly entertaining new voice, one to revel in."―Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers
“Maizes’ gently witty and vaguely weird collection is well worth reading.”―Kirkus, starred review
“Maizes’s direct manner of storytelling and her imperfect yet unmistakably human characters are sure to win over readers.”―Publishers Weekly
"Maizes’ admirable achievement in these charmingly offbeat stories is to balance fascination with sympathy and gravitas with humor. The good news: Her debut novel is due next year. But have fun with these first.”―NPR
“Go ahead and add R.L. Maizes to any list of contemporary short story masters―We Love Anderson Cooper marks the debut of a major literary talent on a par with Lorrie Moore or George Saunders.”―Shelf Awareness