Week

This weird collection of micro-stories pulled me in and engulfed me with its strangeness and humor. The narrative voice is searching, often grappling with what it's trying to say, but it also feels concise and assured in a nice way. I started to think of Diane Williams toward the end, but it's actually more satisfying than Williams's last few books. It also has some traces of contemporary poets like Dorothea Lasky or Mary Ruefle. A couple of pieces left me scratching my head a little, but that's what happens when you're an author trying something more daring. I highly recommend this sometimes mindblowing book. Recommended By Kevin S., Powells.com

Fiction. Literary Nonfiction. Women's Studies. Art. THE WEEK presents models of minds shaped by the 21st century American realities that they also construct. The stories are unconventional in their arcs and uses of characterization, and in their foregrounding of the instabilities in representational practices; they obsess over life and death, female sexuality and family, the economy and language and try out various forms inadequate to their figuration/expression.