Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
Fiction. In five stories of genre and structure, of dissolution and fracturing, GENERICS explores the edges and ends of female identity: societal expectations of beauty, the transience of girlhood, postpartum depression, cinematic stereotypes of women in love. From a romantic comedy played in reverse to an instruction manual for women in the workplace, these stories ask us to test the fragility of genre and identity, and the assumptions that uphold them. These stories are woven together--and catalyzed by--brief, semi-autobiographical interludes that provide a connecting thread: interludes about family, growing up, and what it means to be from a place and of a people. The collection finds cohesion through this fragmentation; ultimately, GENERICS becomes a collection that talks to and about itself, crossing the boundaries of reality and fiction.