LAUGH LESSONS
Curtis Sittenfeld is a hoot, and so is her sharp collection of short stories
Iget a kick out of Curtis Sittenfeld.
The author of previous novels “Eligible,” “American Wife” and “Prep” is a sharp observer of human nature and human relationships — especially the male/ female variety — and she’s a hoot.
These qualities are on vivid display in “You Think It, I’ll Say It” ( Random House, $ 27), a witty, breezy, zeitgeist- y collection of 10 short stories, her first.
Sittenfeld is a Midwesterner ( born in Cincinnati, she now lives in St. Louis), and many of these tales take place in the “heartland.” Her characters, though, would fit right in at a Brooklyn dinner party. They’re mostly middle- aged, uppermiddle- class professionals, bright, opinionated and often totally clueless when it counts.
No doubt that Sittenfeld, with her razorsharp, often- hilarious zingers, is a formidable dinner guest herself. Here’s the droll way she begins “Gender Studies,” the opening story:
“Nell and Henry always said that they would wait until marriage was legal for everyone in America, and now this is the case — it’s August 2015 — but earlier in the week Henry eloped with his graduate student Bridget.”
Note the date. Trump and the 2016 presidential election factor into the two stories that bookend “You Think It, I’ll Say It.”
In “Gender Studies,” the recently dumped Nell, a professor, is in Kansas City for a weekend academic conference. Her shuttle driver, a younger guy in his 20s, strikes up a conversation about Trump ( he’s a fan), to which Nell thinks, “You’re a moron.”
Nell realizes she’s “insufferable,” though this seems not to bother her. She recognizes that she and Henry, during 11 passionless, marriage- less years together, finely honed their elitist bona fides by being “deliberately childless,” eating “free- range beef ” ( very occasionally) and watching only “high- quality television.” Raise your hand if that’s you!
When she gets to her hotel room and realizes she’s lost her driver’s license, Nell calls the shuttle driver, who zips right over. What ensues is a modern- day, faintly unpleasant, sexed- up comedy of errors.
Characters make erroneous judgments and learn unexpected ( and sometimes discomfiting) lessons about themselves in Sittenfeld’s well- crafted little gems of suburban wisdom, served with a side of poignancy.
This is particularly true in the two most pointed stories: “The World Has Many Butterflies” and “Plausible Deniability.”
In the first, Julie convinces herself she’s madly in love with Graham ( both are married) when they start playing a game at parties called “You Think It, I’ll Say It,” which thrills Julie by bringing out her sublimated worst instincts as a bitchy, judgmental gossip.
In “Plausible Deniability,” a bachelor and his sister- in- law forge an intense, inappropriate connection through an ongoing, clandestine email exchange about, of all things, classical music.
Sitting on the sidelines, observing these human foibles, we readers get to vicariously play the “You Think It, I’ll Say It” game. It’s a lot of fun, even when it makes you wince.