3 out of 5 stars
Cut to the Chase:
Bender’s writing is heavily stylized, and her situations make up a large part of the story’s effect – often they are metaphors for some more overriding emotion or experience, and sometimes it’ll click, sometimes it won’t. In general, I’m a fan: I think her prose is crisp and clear, and I can buy into the mystical universes because her characters are often, partially because they are featureless and nameless, more fully characterized and realized by their actions and what limited background we get.This collection however, is kind of hit and miss. It’s enjoyable at times, but nothing really stood out (unlike some of her other works) and nothing was grab-my-attention memorable.
Greater Detail:
To give you an idea of her weird/interesting/sci-fi-y setups:
“The Leading Man” — a boy is born with only one regular finger; the other nine are keys. He spends his childhood and young adult life finding the closets, trunks, and safety deposits boxes they open while his father goes to fight a war no one has ever heard of or talked about.
“Dearth” — a woman wakes up to find seven potatoes which, no matter how she bakes them, throws them away, or mashes them up, keep coming back the next day, gradually growing into little potato children.
“Fruit and Words” — a woman who has just broken up with her boyfriend/fiancé, desperately craves a mango. She finds a store, just outside Vegas, that sells not only exotic fruits, but words made from the actual substances that are solids, liquids, and gasses(he word “Blood” cured in glass pipes, “Smoke” weaving through the air.)
“End of the Line”– a big man buys a little man who he keeps in a cage and likes to torture – he puts a bit of antihistamine in his water bottle and the man is woozy for days, he puts cleaning agent in the water so that the little man vomits and is sick, he wonders, “His little body was so small it was hard to imagine it hurt that much. How much pain could really be felt in a space that tiny? The big man slept heavily, assured that his pet was just exaggerating for show.”
And, for kicks, when the settings are realistic, the characters instead become twisted (but in ways that seem almost frighteningly understandable):
“The Case of the Salt and Pepper Shakers” — a detective investigates the dual murders of a husband and wife of twenty-five years. He marvels that they both hated one another so much, yet were so in sync with one another that they planned out the murders for the exact day and time, but in very different ways – one wants the other to know, and thus sharpens a knife repeatedly before stabbing them to death, while the other uses a poison that is slow-acting, completely painless and undetectable. Although the case is solved, the detective finds himself drawn to the couple, wondering whether they realized, in their final moments, the perfection of what they had done.
“The Mother#$$%^!” — a man specifically sets up to seduce and have brief flings with single mothers, and in this case stalks a rising starlet whose husband has left her for another man.
“Off” — a very rich young woman enters a party making a deal with herself that she will kiss three men tonight: one with black hair, one with red, and one with blond – the Neapolitan ice cream flavors of men.
“Debbieland” — the nameless “we” that becomes “I” later tortures a girl Debbie, for trying to be cool, “Debbie wore the skirt all the girls had been wearing, but she wore it two months too late. By then the skirt had lost its magic and was just a piece of cloth with some tassels at the bottom… “ For this, the nameless “we” punished her, lured her out and beat her, realizing afterwards that Debbie will never tell because Debbie will secretly hope that this is just an initiation before she is accepted into the “we”. “We think we could not despite Debbie more. But when we realize this, the loathing is bottomless.”
I think many of the set-ups and situations are interesting, and in general, I like her, but this collection was just kind of “meh” for me.
Comparisons to Other Authors/Books:
Aimee Bender is a contemporary writer whose short stories often blur the line between science fiction/ surrealism/fantasy and “literary” fiction. Although her characters are often nameless, even featureless at times, and her settings bizarre – there is nonetheless often a pull to the characters. Like Vonnegut, Bender is a writer you either love or hate – either you’ll come away feeling as though she’s created a magical, mystical universe where emotions are more purely conceived and communicated, or you’ll just walk away saying, “What the heck?” I would recommend Girl in a Flammable Skirt, her previous collection, before this work, and this particular collection as a “must buy” only for the avid fans.