The Blurry Years

The Blurry Years is a powerful and unorthodox coming-of-age story from an assured new literary voice, featuring a stirringly twisted mother-daughter relationship, set against the sleazy, vividly-drawn backdrop of late-seventies and early-eighties Florida.

Callie—who ages from six to eighteen over the course of the book—leads a scattered childhood, moving from cars to strangers’ houses to the sand-dusted apartments of the tourist towns that litter the Florida coastline.

Callie’s is a story about what it’s like to grow up too fast and absorb too much, to watch adults behaving badly; what it’s like to be simultaneously in thrall to and terrified of the mother who is the only family you've ever known, who moves you from town to town to leave her own mistakes behind.

With precision and poetry, Kriseman's moving tale of a young girl struggling to find her way in the world is potent, and, ultimately, triumphant.

"The painful pleasure of this slim work is that it treats Callie’s various leaps toward adulthood—whether via the faintly sweet doldrums of everyday life or the extreme episodes that will forever stick with her—with equal care."
—Jane Yong Kim, The Atlantic

"A languorous, melancholy slip of a novel, Eleanor Kriseman's The Blurry Years recalls the equally composed and sharply incisive works of authors like Ann Nietzke and Laurie Colwin... her debut reveals a wealth of depth and keen observations."
—Imran Khan, PopMatters

“The Blurry Years is skillfully unsettling in its unfiltered look at a girl simmering in ongoing crises over which she has no control... Kriseman packs a perfect punch in a small package."
—Shelf Awareness

“The novel’s complicated mother/daughter relationship is provocative and richly developed, and Jeanie is an unforgettable, complex character... Kriseman’s is a new voice to celebrate.”
—Publishers WeeklyEleanor Kriseman is a social worker in New York City. She was born and raised in Florida.