This month's book "Show don't tell" was a lively collection of short stories by a relatively unknown (in the UK) American author, Curtis Sittenfeld. Her earlier book "American Wife", based loosely on the life of Barbara Bush, was a best seller and these short stories similarly reflect Sittenfeld's apparent obsession with mid-life, college educated and privileged American women. For want of a copy of the book group choice, I read a different collection "You think it, I'll say it" but my enjoyment was much the same as the group's.
The stories are well written, fun to read, providing lightweight entertainment but with 'american' language that is often sufficiently irritating to make it exhausting to read from cover to cover. They are clever and revealing about the lives of these families, gossipy, even 'bitchy' in part, and 'laugh out loud' funny in places. Some characters seem to be stuck in the adolescent arrogance of their college days, bored now with married life and wishing for romance, intimacy or escape. Although divorce is feared as a 'communicable disease'!
Other characters tend to be judgmental, envious and critical of their acquaintances. These are the 'smart, knowing' American women who mislead themselves, get themselves into situations that are 'cringe-worthy'. Sittenfeld is not asking us to be sympathetic to her characters, she is clever at showing us the mismatched expectations of men and women, the frictions within 'small-town' social groups and the ways some women attempt to puncture the egos of their self-important male partners.
Despite the fact that some of the Group were not familiar with the short story format, we agreed these collections provided an enjoyable read and led to an interesting discussion. Overall scores: 3.5 for a recommendation to a book group, 3 to a friend.