The new collection of short stories by Curtis Sittenfeld 'Show Don't Tell': Review

The author “Prep” and “Romantic Comedy” Curtis Sittenfeld lives in comically clumsy. In her collection totally diverted from 12 news, “Show Don't Tell”, she envisages insecurity and the first love of youth; the dilemma of privilege; Friendship satisfactions; the disappointments of marriage; and the perils of writer ambition. Its protagonists are mainly women who come in their own or confronted at the ripe age with both a acute sense of sardonic and a deep reservoir of self -compassion. They can laugh at the absurdities and challenges of life – not to mention their own quirks and failures – even if they obsessed for them. Sittenfeld's world vision is more utopian than dystopian; Jane Austen as, she treats her characters with humanity, even when their actions cause teeth.

Take Jill, the protagonist of “White Women Lol”. She was described as Karen on social networks for having faced five customers of the black restaurant on their presence in an area designated for the birthday party of her friend Amy. Stressing that there is a private event in progress, Jill suggests that they take their drinks and move elsewhere. “Do you feel dangerous?” Are you going to call the cops? ” One of them retorts. Realizing too late that her interference is to read as a racist, she tries to smooth things. “It is not political,” she protests, which only increases the tension. The exchange is captured on the iPhone of a guest and becomes viral, after which Jill finds himself watching and reviewing the video, reflecting that she “tried stronger than usual, more difficult than she would have done with a group of whites, to seem friendly and diplomatic”. In the meantime, friends stop responding to her texts and she is suspended from her business work while waiting for an HR survey. To repent, it goes to extreme measures to locate Shih Tzu missing from its black neighbor.

It is a delicate territory, and Sittenfeld manages it with nuance and balance. Jill is first in the disbelief that anyone – in particular those who are close to it – could badly interpret it so blatant. But thinking about past events, she wonders if there were no moments when she acted with unrecognized prejudices and rights – a theme that is reproduced in several of the other stories in this superb collection, the second of the author.

The history of the title, “Show Don't Tell,” Who was initially presented in the New Yorker in 2017, takes place in the middle of the crucible of a higher education writing program. Sittenfeld, who obtained his master of Fine Arts in 2001 from the Iowa writers' workshop, rightly captures the meaning of the promise that permeates, as well as the anxieties that warm friendships and Egos, in such contexts. It is also very aware that in terms of who will eventually be published, “Luck falls unevenly”.

While waiting to know who will receive a coveted scholarship, Ruthie drags with classmate Bhadveer, a misogynist in the making. He knows that he has already obtained one of the places, but Ruthie is still on tent dishes. They in turn guess who will get the sign of the head. Ruthie speculates that their colleague Aisha is the most likely candidate, but Bhadveer does not agree: “The great literature has never been produced by a beautiful woman”, he pontificist. When Ruthie denounces the declaration as ridiculous, he doubles: “There is tend to be an opposite relationship between the warmth of a woman and the quality of a writer.” “It is literally the most stupid idea I have ever heard,” explains Ruthie. But Bhadveer moves forward: “It is because you must be hungry to be a great writer, and the beautiful women are not hungry.”

Several years later, after Bhadveer and Ruthie became well -known authors, they met during the book tour. Bhadveer is perceived as being more “literary”, on the right track to win a pulitzer. Ruthie had more bestsellers, but “my novels are considered” female fiction “. Bhadveer does not have such humility. His success did not make him more generous, and now he cannot help but let Ruthie know that he has not read one of his seven novels. He also laughs at their former classmates with enthusiasm: “It is funny that no one that we succeed, isn't it?”

Sittenfeld, who edited the 2020 volume of “The Best American Short Stories”, saves him best for the end. “Lost but not forgotten” revisits Lee Fiora, a character who appeared for the first time in “Prep”. Lee is a graduate of Ault for decades, and she finds herself at the Massachusetts boarding school for her 30th meeting. She is now single and founder of an eminent non -profit organization that supports the imprisonment. After going to Ault on Stock Exchange, Lee remembers that “I have always felt that I implicitly apologize for not being rich enough and preppy and privileged”. Irony is that she recognizes now that even if she often felt like a foreigner in Ault, her attendance at school made her an automatic initiate: “In all the years who obtained my diploma, I said to myself with how rich, prepared and privileged.”

In Reunion, she binds to Jeff, a student whom she barely noticed at the time. She finds herself to open up to him – and to her longtime friend, dede – in a way that she would never have had when she was younger. “The biggest difference between my adolescent and my average age,” she reflects, “it is that I had once made root with thoughts and opinions and aspirations which, I suspected, were strange or shameful or simply inexpressible, and therefore I did not express them. As they are aging, it is not the thoughts and opinions that have disappeared; only in time, their deletion. “

A radiant contents permeate these stories. They are retrospective but do not keep the passage of time. He is a writer who is comfortable in his skin. Sittenfeld is a lively observer of social mores and a clever judge, but it is never cruel – it is the opposite of a misanthrope. As Ruthie confides in a visiting writer: “Some people are boring. But even boring – they are generally boring in an interesting way.”

Haber is a publication writer, publisher and strategist. She was director of the Oprah reading club and editor -in -chief of books for O, Oprah magazine.