26 Oct / You Think It, I’ll Say It by Curtis Sittenfeld [in Booklist]
That Curtis Sittenfeld bookends her first short story collection with references to Trump seems to signal that bad behavior – dishonesty, betrayal, resentment, even hatred – will be plentiful in between. The agitation she immediately incites with the opening story, “Gender Studies,” about a recently single woman who sleeps with her pro-Trump airport-shuttle driver, continues to buzz through to the final story, “Do-Over,” about onetime high-school-government rivals who meet decades later for a post-Trump-election dinner.
Emily Rankin effectively voices eight of the 10 stories, using slight shifts in inflection, tone, and pacing to distinguish her diverse characters. Mark Deakins voices the fifth and tenth entries, deftly moving between neediness and detachment in both. For these women and men, ethics seem more like esoteric suggestions than rules to live by: friendship, marriage, familial bonds, and shared history provide few boundaries.
Beyond astutely entertaining us, Sittenfeld clearly means to exasperate and disturb; Rankin and Deakins prove to be ideal aural ciphers to enhance her provoking intentions.
Review: “Media,” Booklist Online, October 12, 2018
Readers: Adult
Published: 2018