Mood Swings

This collection of oddly comic stories takes the reader into the surrealistic world (see the cover) of Iris Smyles. Her sophisticated intellect overflows the pages over fourteen stories. In “Medusa’s Garden,” an ultimately poignant story of finding oneself in the world, a young woman studies ballet, becomes a flight attendant and then a living statue in various beautiful European cities. Another is told in the diagrammed sentences of a schoolchild, and one through the messages in fortune cookies. The work is reminiscent of Miranda July, in that it’s hard to place her eccentric brand of humor because it is totally original. A real find.

Music figures prominently in Albert’s provocative and timely fiction about one woman’s struggle to become a mother. Her journey becomes a rollercoaster ride of infertility, as our heroine decides how far to go to get what she thinks she wants—or what her family wants. We follow Aviva, the Jewish punk-rocker who lives with her husband in Albany, through the cycles of her exploding career and her ticking biological clock. Hers is a singular feminist voice that shines a light on society’s expectations of women, the emotional costs of medical intervention and the complicated consequences of fame. The novel bustles with raw energy, wit and the pathos of a serious subject made raucously relatable.