The latest from author Curtis Sittenfeld is a short story collection titled SHOW DON'T TELL. The author has been quite popular in recent years with hits like Romantic Comedy and You Think It, I'll Say It; having read only one of her earlier books Eligible, I was intrigued to see how far she’s come with her work. While I enjoyed Eligible, this collection of short stories was more on the average side for me.
In this collection, she explores marriage, fame, and friendships and I felt the underlying theme for me was the protagonist, mostly female, being part of an impactful event. An event that has left a mark on them for various reasons; some of their own making, some pressed on them by society or surroundings.
Many of the women we meet in this collection of 12 stories are middle-aged and part of a family unit, group or simply a bystander to the happenings in some instances. From committing a racial faux pas, well-intentioned as it may’ve been to knowing famous personalities from when they were starting out; there's a bit of everything in this collection. We witness these events where the protagonist is in a personal or part of a social situation. The whole event unfolds in a way that we experience it from start to end and later the protagonist analyzes, making sense of it with their partners/friends or being self-reflective about it.
The author takes us on a journey via the POV of the central character where they live through this situation filled with chaos, missed chances or mistakes and later reflect on and live the after-effects of it. I enjoyed up to 70% of the initial stories however the underlying theme and cohesiveness that I experienced at the start is lost towards the end. It started strong on social and to an extent personal commentary on their experiences. As it raced towards the end, the last few stories gave a vibe of something missing, of trying too hard or not trying at all to be part of the group. I would pick up this collection only if I am in the mood for something light with a hint of social commentary or in a mood to meditate on human behavior in the presence of social and peer pressure.
A funny, fiercely intelligent, and moving collection exploring marriage, friendship, fame, and artistic ambition—including a story that revisits the main character from Curtis Sittenfeld’s iconic novel Prep—from the New York Times bestselling author of Eligible and Romantic Comedy
“[Sittenfeld’s] perfectly contained stories are a joy.”—Booklist, starred review
In her second story collection, Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long held beliefs are overturned.
In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel Prep a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.
Hilarious, thought-provoking, and full of tenderness for her characters, Sittenfeld’s stories peel back layer after layer of our inner lives, keeping us riveted to the page with her utterly distinctive voice.
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