This collection of stories by Lisa Glatt is not for your lighthearted moods. It's not quite dark (unlike Mary Gaitskill's "Secretary," which has none of the whimsy injected into the film version) but it doesn't sugarcoat.
The men and (mostly) women in the stories are involved in an array of unbalanced relationships - between friends, lovers, and others who come in and out of one's life. The first, "Dirty Hannah Gets Hit by a Car," is about a little girl and the bullying older girl who torments her. Another story is about a couple attempting to recover from the husband's injuries from lightning strike; two others feature the internal struggle between maintaining one's integrity and giving into what will make a loved one happy, whatever happiness really means. It is not surprising that most of these relationships are also troubled, and while it's not clear precisely what the future holds for these various characters, it's difficult to imagine a series of happy endings. Satisfactory ones perhaps, but not happy.
Glatt's is an intriguing voice. And the stories easy to read. She has also written a novel, A Girl Becomes a Comma Like That, and I'll be reading that to see how she holds up over a longer length.
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