Verge is one of the best short story collections I've read in a long time, and as an avid story reader, that says a lot. Yuknavitch's stories are quietly haunting with political undertones that feel relevant, but never self-righteous or moralistic. We come upon each character in a moment of crisis--an eight-year-old girl runs black market organs to needy recipients, two sisters from a war-torn country swim their family to shore--but even in this darkness, Yuknavitch gives us slivers of hope. As she says in the dedication, this book is for "everyone anywhere who lives in the in-between of things," which really, is most of us.
Kevin Wilson’s Nothing to See Here has everything you could possibly want in a book about ten-year-old twins who spontaneously burst into flames: humor, empathy, a great storyline, compelling characters, and, you know, twins who spontaneously burst into flames. Wilson has been a master of writing dysfunctional families for a long time now and his latest is the perfect example of his strengths: within a paragraph, if not a sentence, Wilson can go from witty, to devastating, to utterly profound. This is, without a doubt, the decade’s best book on twins who—and I cannot emphasize this enough—spontaneously burst into flames.
If acerbic aristocrats, dead spouses reincarnated as cats, and impromptu cruises to Paris are of any interest to you, then, please, allow me to introduce you to Patrick deWitt’s third novel, French Exit. One of the things I most admire about deWitt’s writing is his ability to translate his signature wry humor and sharp eye to any time period or genre and absolutely nail it—French Exit is no exception. Set in contemporary New York, the novel follows the mother-son duo of Frances and Malcolm Price as they discover that they have run through their once-abundant finances. Hijinks ensue.
