May 28, 2022
This week we have five expert stylists playing with form: a modern twist on classic fairy tales, a writer’s homage to romance novels, short fiction from an acknowledged master of character, personal essays that combine comedy and tragedy from our favorite humorist and an accomplished debut poetry collection selected by our bookseller Harry Bard Cash.
Happy reading,
Melanie Fleishman
Buyer, The Center for Fiction Bookstore
Featured Books
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You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty
By Akwaeke Emezi
Published by Atria Books
Emezi has style to burn. Their 2017 debut fiction, Freshwater, shortlisted for The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize was followed by novels, young adult fiction, memoir and poetry. As a tribute to their Nigerian childhood obsession and what became a solace in their adult life, Emezi has written a refreshingly sexy romance already being developed for film. Feyi is an artist mourning the death of her partner, trying to balance that grief with the desire to carry on. Through romantic encounters, glamourous Caribbean travels, and with the support of her best friend she tries to put her life together again. Emezi has triumphed once more.
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How to Be Eaten
By Maria Adelmann
Published by Little, Brown and Company
Adelmann’s debut novel concerns five women in group therapy damaged by the traumas that continue to haunt them. She has said her transition from short to full-length fiction was a challenge, so this framework allowed her to tell five different stories connected by the group setting. The women are based upon various fairy tale characters including Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin and Gretel. It’s a conceit that works beautifully as we get to know each of them through their stories when they meet with their facilitator once a week in a New York City YMCA. The novel feels innovative—witty and feminist, too.
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You Have a Friend in 10A
By Maggie Shipstead
Published by Knopf
Shipstead’s (Great Circle) first collection of ten new and previously published stories illustrates her uncanny ability to describe a character (or animal) in one sentence, i.e. “The dog was a black and white thing, patchy and shaggy as though stitched together from pelts of smaller animals,” from “La Moretta” or “…she was so skinny that the whole of her beanpole body fit neatly inside the circle of shade cast by her hat,“ from “Cowboy Twang” which was included in The Best American Short Stories 2010. Enough said.
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Happy-Go-Lucky
By David Sedaris
Published by Little, Brown and Company
If you have followed Sedaris over the years, you might see how his tone has shifted as he ages. And while his observations still sparkle with dry wit as he finds comedy in some dark subjects, the superb title essay about his difficult father’s death at 97 has both humor and heart. Hence Sedaris’s comment on his father’s funeral instructions: “It’s a lot of running around for someone who couldn’t be bothered to pick us up from the airport.” This and other stories make up another irresistible book to make you laugh or pause and think. His wit and wisdom prevail.
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Impastoral
By Brandan Griffin
Published by Omnidawn Publishing
Reading Brandan Griffin’s Impastoral feels like digging your bare feet into the earth after a storm. Griffin gives voice to the natural world around us, allowing for a renegotiation of the boundaries between life and decay. Making use of some truly inventive neologisms and an anarchic attitude toward spelling, the voices that comprise Impastoral seem to overcome language. This book demands that it be read outdoors, so head to your local park, dig your feet into the dirt, and spend some time in this enchanted world.
