A dazzling collection of short stories from the New York Times bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and Eligible Curtis Sittenfeld has established a reputation as a sharp chronicler of the modern age who humanizes her subjects even as she skewers them. Now, with this first collection of short fiction, her "astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers' heads" ( The Washington Post ) is showcased like never before. Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I'll Say It, Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships, and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. In "The World Has Many Butterflies," married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences. In "Vox Clamantis in Deserto," a shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate's seemingly enviable life. In "A Regular Couple," a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. And in "The Prairie Wife," a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome-lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie.
This short story collection is the first of Sittenfeld's work I've read, and I found it both interesting and easy to read. As a collection, these stories are about women in relationships -- short and long, past and present, perceived and actual -- but never neat and tidy. Overall the tone is quite cynical, but I didn't mind that. A couple of the stories revolve around characters that are thinly veiled versions of real people, and there is political talk, if you're sensitive to that sort of thing.
I did think this was a solid collection of stories, and well worth the three nights I spent reading it. I'm glad we chose it for our book club!
