Darling Endangered

The voice narrating Carol Guess’ newest book is that of a playfully effusive but meticulous cataloguer of our darker inquiries and oddities, a suburban former dancer with the inner life and vision of an epic librettist. Darling Endangered is nothing short of exceptional, a rare breed of hybrid that works between the “flash” of short fiction and the swift bite of the lyric. From the dizzying, battered nostalgia of youth remembered to the experiential trappings of maturity, Guess’ collection maps the journey of a singular, sensitive existence through an ever-illuminating world of wayward hawks and track star meth addicts, avalanches and hot dog carts, zombie buildings, the works of Balanchine and Pachelbel, and the promises of love and love’s disorders. You will not read another book quite like it.