A magnificent collection of short stories which continue to stand the test of time

There are many virtues which, when they fall into the lap of a writer, can spin pure magic.

A keen sense of the beauty of the everyday.

A nose for the complexity of self-discovery and self-love.

A gimlet-eyed view of the inner workings of the modern family.

An ability to draw intimacy and innermost thoughts from characters.

Jeffrey Eugenides has long been renowned for all of these qualities, even while tackling some big issues and conceits in his work.

His output may not be as prolific as some of his fans might like, but regardless, Eugenides is a writer of blazing originality.

In the event that he does publish a book, the world sits up and takes notice.

And so to Fresh Complaint, his first collection of short stories.

Most of them have been written between 1988 and 2017, and of the 10 stories in the collection, two may be already familiar to fans. Air Mail, a young traveller’s journey on the road to himself, featured in Annie Proulx’s 1997 edition of The Best American Short Stories; Baster, a story about Thomasina, a woman whose donor insemination party goes slightly awry and kick-starts a series of unfortunate events, was published in the New Yorker as far back as 1996.

With a plot that goes hither and thither, it is a stand-out moment in the book.

As one might expect from a compendium almost 30 years in the making, Fresh Complaint is threaded with the most delicious, tantalising ideas.

Did each one start out with the intention of becoming a fullblown novel?

It’s hard to tell, but in almost each instance, the characters are so intriguing and alive that they could easily carry a reader for several hundred pages.

Onyx-dark humour, pathos, intensity — it’s all here.

Short story collections have become a much bigger story in publishing of late.

A new wave of writers have fought back against the cinching constraints of the genre with audacity, edginess and experimentation.

Eugenides, though, is more a fan of keeping things simple and straightforward.

For most writers, simple and straightforward is damning praise, but not here.

Eugenides demonstrates a classic, timeless style which ensures his stories, haven’t dated.

Nor are they likely to.