This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 12 AOÛT 2024

The characters in this nuanced if slight collection from Wood (The Godless Boys) are loosely connected by themes of motherhood and the tensions brought about by having children. The narrator of "A/A/A/A," separated from her husband, agrees to accompany her friend Marissa to Paris for the day, without telling her husband what she's up to. Her secrecy leads her to ruminate about the limits of a parent's obligations, prompting Marissa to respond, "We all want to leave. No one wants to stay. But they're the grand love affair in the end. The kids." In "Lesley, in Therapy," the title character cuts her maternity leave short while dealing with postpartum depression. Her nanny, an older Jamaican woman, tells Lesley she's "better off at work than wanting to dash the baby's brains out on the kitchen counter." In "Flatten the Curve," set during the Covid-19 pandemic, Deborah navigates lockdown with her family and develops a crush on her neighbor, the father of her daughter's best friend. Hints of consequential drama suffuse most of the stories, and the characters are deliciously complex, but too often the entries end abruptly. Ultimately, this one's a bit underwhelming.