Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Martin (Early Work) captures young adults' aimless searches for stability in this bleak, revealing collection. In "The Changed Party," during a rained-out vacation on the Jersey shore, Lisa and Gary, freshly reunited following a separation, discover their eight-year-old daughter Amanda's compulsive habit of picking through the garbage and are troubled by a friend's drinking. In the title story, an unnamed assistant professor spending the summer in Missoula, Mont., wrestles with a powerful attraction to his friend's wife, who helps him recuperate from a broken leg. In "The Boy Vet," a baby-faced veterinarian pressures a softhearted literature PhD dropout to pay for emergency surgery on a stray dog. The protagonist of "Bad Feelings" distracts himself from his mom's surgery by going to "the third sequel to a blockbuster adaptation of a young adult book series" despite having not seen the others, and loses his keys in the empty theater. Moments of cynical humor pop up amid drug use, tumultuous relationships, or other self-defeating outlets for the characters' creative and personal frustrations. Though the people begin to blend together, each story has at least one or two standout, bleakly funny lines. Martin's sardonic tales are decent, if not breathtaking. (July)
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Review by Library Journal Review
Award-winning Métis author Dimaline makes her debut with an American publisher, Empire of Wild, the edgy story of Joan, heard fighting vituperatively with her now missing husband, who believes she spots him posing as a charismatic preacher in a battered revival tent (75,000-copy first printing). The youngest winner ever of Italy's prestigious Premio Strega, Giordano (The Solitude of Prime Numbers) returns with Heaven and Earth to limn the enduring bonds linking Teresa to three young men she meets one summer in Puglia, her father's childhood home. From debuter Mackenzie, a Commonwealth Short Story Prize winner, One Year of Ugly (60,000-copy first printing) takes a humorous approach to recount the travails of a Venezuelan family living illegally in Trinidad. A best-selling author in mass market, McKinlay moves into trade paperback original with Paris Is Always a Good Idea, the story.` of a young woman who revisits her gap year in Ireland, France, and Italy, looking for lost loves but finding something different. In the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Macomber's A Walk Along the Beach, shy Willa--especially close to sister Harper after their mother's death--is ready to follow Harper's advice about risking love until tragedy befalls Harper. Martin returns after his high-flying debut, Early Work, with the story collection Cool for America about the gap between what people want and what they achieve. Winner of the Terry Southern Prize, Nugent shows us all the stumbling antics of near-adults in Fraternity. In Poeppel's Musical Chairs, Bridget and Will hatch a plan to lure shining-star violinist Gavin Glantz back to their Forsyth Trio, which they founded together as Juilliard students, even as Bridget wrestles with multiple family complications (40,000-copy first printing).
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A collection of stories that document suburban angst and the burdens of being too young and too smart for your own good. Martin has emerged as a leading chronicler of millennial ennui in contemporary America; his new collection includes two stories featuring Leslie, a character from his acclaimed debut novel, Early Work (2018). The 11 stories all feature young people struggling to find authentic connections to friends, family, work, and culture in a modern America not particularly interested in them or their opinions. The settings range across the United States, from Missoula to New York to suburban landscapes that could be just about anywhere. None of the protagonists are likable in a traditional sense, but they're all trying to do their best in a time that feels like the twilight of an empire. The characters suffer from various anxieties, addictions, and maladies, but primary among the things that ail them is a cruel awareness that they're not actually suffering. When thinking about her anxiety over the state of the world and politics, Cassie realizes that "the anxiety was tolerable. She could, to her relief and regret, live with it." The protagonists of these stories know their suburban angst is, in reality, quite shallow, which just makes them feel worse. Each character suffers from the knowledge that no matter what they're doing there's something better and more satisfying out there somewhere. "The big problem that Leslie had, as far as she could tell, was that she was still, at twenty-seven, a person without well-established and verifiable thoughts or opinions about things." She handles this feeling by drinking with friends and stumbling into relationships that leave all involved parties exhausted and puzzled. Martin's writing, however, is as light and lively as his characters are frozen and hesitant. Frequently hilarious, Martin's stories are insightful, and the characters are both truthful and authentic. Each story rings with wry, modern truth even as the characters are frustrated at every turn. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
