There’s something very appealing about the satisfaction I get when I read a good, short story and it only takes me half an hour to finish.
Not only do I like the quick-and-dirty aspect of it, but I appreciate the skill it takes to create a captivating story with well-drawn characters, all in the space of 30 pages or less.
That’s not to say that every story in Katherine Heiny’s new collection, Single, Carefree, Mellowis spectacular, but many are well worth the read.
Heiny’s detached, yet sharp, writing style is just hip enough to let the reader know that love is not all hearts and roses. The women that populate her stories are unlucky, ill-fated and accursed when it comes to love and relationships.
They rarely want what they’ve got, and they can’t seem to ever get what they need. Full of funny, insightful scenarios, Single, Carefree, Mellowis an engaging read for singles and marrieds alike.
The humour is subtle and understated when Heiny shows us the countless incarnations of relationships, pseudo-relationships, non-relationships, and wannabe relationships. And for good measure, she sprinkles dalliances and gross infidelities around like they’re salt.
One of my favourites is the titular story Single, Carefree, Mellow, where the main character Maya lives with a guy named Rhodes, and has a dog Bailey who is dying.
While visiting the vet, Maya flirts shamelessly with him and wonders later in her car, if “…someday, possibly very soon, she would be a single, carefree, mellow, dog-less person, able to date full professors and vets and whomever else she wanted.”
Never mind that she has a loving partner waiting for her at home.
Another intriguing short story collection I discovered isThe Hidden of Things: Twelve Stories of Love & Longingby Yael Unterman. Featuring women and men who are desperately seeking a life-mate, despite their dismal dating histories, Unterman manages to turn love into a spectator sport.
We meet intolerant religious daters, ever-hopeful romantics, wise and tragic daters, and everything in between.
Covering territory from Jerusalem to New York to London, her characters are as unique as fingerprints, and as unsettled as hurricanes. Constantly seeking connection, be it spiritual, emotional or physical, they make their way through life with a single-minded purpose.
Unterman is masterful at irony and nuance, and her stories are irresistible.
For other popular reading suggestions, check out Richmond Public Library’s website at yourlibrary.ca/goodbooks/.
Shelley Civkin is the communications officer with the Richmond Public Library
