Show Don't Tell
Stories
-
-
4.3 • 6 Ratings
-
-
- $16.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy “blends acerbic wit, shrewd insight and sharp-eyed observation [in this] bravura collection” (The Washington Post), including a story that revisits the main character from her iconic novel Prep
“Each of these witty, intelligent stories is a slice of modern life.”—People
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A DENVER PUBLIC LIBRARY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.
In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.
Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sittenfeld (Romantic Comedy) zooms in on urban Midwesterners dealing with middle-aged disillusions in this witty story collection. The protagonists, who skew liberal and are often blind to their upper-middle-class privilege, bumble into sticky situations. In "A for Alone," set in 2017, floundering artist Irene conducts a project involving a series of lunch dates with men, after which she asks them to fill out a questionnaire about the "Mike Pence rule," a reference to Pence's refusal to spend time alone with a woman other than his wife. "The Hug," which takes place in the summer of 2020, starts with the flimsiest of premises: Daphne, a St. Louis accountant, tells her husband she plans to hug her ex-boyfriend when he visits them during a road trip from Montana. But with Covid raging, a hug is not just a hug; Daphne plans to isolate from her family for six days afterward. As the couple discuss the plan, they're forced to examine their assumptions about intimacy and faithfulness. In "Lost But Not Forgotten," Sittenfeld revisits Lee Fiora, the protagonist of her 2005 novel Prep, as Lee attends her high school class's 30-year reunion. In one sparkling comedy of manners after another, the author documents with a clear and affectionate eye how tiny prejudices and blind spots lead her protagonists astray. These stories entertain and unsettle in equal measure.
