Paperback, 304 pages
Published Jan. 11, 2022 by Penguin Books.
“Kirby has mastered the art of short fiction…A stunning collection from a writer whose talent and creativity seem boundless.” —NPR “Kirby takes joy in subverting the reader’s expectations at every turn. Her characters might be naïve, even reckless, but they aren’t about to be victims: They’re strong, and brave, and nearly always capable of rescuing themselves.” —New York Times Book Review Margaret Atwood meets Buffy in these funny, warm, and furious stories of women at their breaking points, from Hellenic times to today. Cassandra may have seen the future, but it doesn't mean she's resigned to telling the Trojans everything she knows. In this ebullient collection, virgins escape from being sacrificed, witches refuse to be burned, whores aren't ashamed, and every woman gets a chance to be a radioactive cockroach warrior who snaps back at catcallers. Gwen E. Kirby experiments with found structures--a Yelp review, a WikiHow article--which her fierce, …
“Kirby has mastered the art of short fiction…A stunning collection from a writer whose talent and creativity seem boundless.” —NPR “Kirby takes joy in subverting the reader’s expectations at every turn. Her characters might be naïve, even reckless, but they aren’t about to be victims: They’re strong, and brave, and nearly always capable of rescuing themselves.” —New York Times Book Review Margaret Atwood meets Buffy in these funny, warm, and furious stories of women at their breaking points, from Hellenic times to today. Cassandra may have seen the future, but it doesn't mean she's resigned to telling the Trojans everything she knows. In this ebullient collection, virgins escape from being sacrificed, witches refuse to be burned, whores aren't ashamed, and every woman gets a chance to be a radioactive cockroach warrior who snaps back at catcallers. Gwen E. Kirby experiments with found structures--a Yelp review, a WikiHow article--which her fierce, irreverent narrators push against, showing how creativity within an enclosed space undermines and deconstructs the constraints themselves. When these women tell the stories of their triumphs as well as their pain, they emerge as funny, angry, loud, horny, lonely, strong protagonists who refuse to be secondary characters a moment longer. From "The Best and Only Whore of Cym Hyfryd, 1886" to the "Midwestern Girl Is Tired of Appearing in Your Short Stories," Kirby is playing and laughing with the women who have come before her and they are telling her, we have always been this way. You just had to know where to look.
Sometimes funny, sometimes reflective, and a very feminist short story collection. My favorites are: "Shit That Cassandra Saw That She Didn't Tell The Trojans Because At That Point Fuck Them Anyway" "A Few Normal Things That Happen A Lot" "Jerry's Crab Shack" "Here Preached His Last" and "We Handle It."
It took me a minute to decide how to rate this one. I really enjoyed a few of the stories. At first I was worried that “Shit Cassandra Saw” and “A Few Normal Things that Happen a Lot” (the latter involving a pandemic of women turning into cockroach hybrids, terrorizing men) were a bit aggressively feminist in a way that would turn off a lot of people. Now that I’ve read more of the collection, I think they serve as a good first shock and ease you into some of the more grounded stories that still explore how women navigate contemporary life: where we are still and probably always will be potential victims, but are capable and mostly fearless despite knowing that. “Friday Night”, “Here Preached His Last”, and “Scene in a Public Park at Dawn” were refreshing depictions of women occupying roles men have always taken by default but …
It took me a minute to decide how to rate this one. I really enjoyed a few of the stories. At first I was worried that “Shit Cassandra Saw” and “A Few Normal Things that Happen a Lot” (the latter involving a pandemic of women turning into cockroach hybrids, terrorizing men) were a bit aggressively feminist in a way that would turn off a lot of people. Now that I’ve read more of the collection, I think they serve as a good first shock and ease you into some of the more grounded stories that still explore how women navigate contemporary life: where we are still and probably always will be potential victims, but are capable and mostly fearless despite knowing that. “Friday Night”, “Here Preached His Last”, and “Scene in a Public Park at Dawn” were refreshing depictions of women occupying roles men have always taken by default but are now claiming for themselves, and changing the shape of them in doing so. “Jerry’s Crab Shack” and “An Apology of Sorts to June” explore the same from an (imagined) male perspective. My favorites were “Midwestern Girl is Tired of Appearing in Your Short Stories” and “Marcy Breaks Up With Herself”, as they have the women a stronger sense of vulnerability and culpability, but still gave them room to be themselves, however flawed they may be. That’s probably the strength of this collection. These women aren’t heroes or villains, they’re both at the same time, and it’s nice to see them being given the chance to just exist, because it means all of us can too. Fans of Broad City and The Refrigerator Monologues Catherynne M. Valente will find a lot to like here.
