Friday Flashback: Rec. #73: When the Messenger Is Hot

I decided to start doing Friday Flashbacks in case you missed some early posts the first time around. You're busy; I understand.

What: When the Messenger Is Hot is Elizabeth Crane's debut collection of short (some of them very short) stories. Most of them are written in the first person, and many of them come across as extra-chatty monologues.

Comparable to: Erika Krouse, with some of the confessional zeal of Alan Bennett's characters in Talking Heads.

Representative quote: 

"Someone finally took a picture of me I don't hate and since I was wearing a red shirt I thought it would be the perfect holiday card. I made fifty copies and put a special nondenominational greeting on there (Hey, Happy Holidays! I thought the Hey gave it a personal touch) and sent them out. Then I started to get some cards back with some peculiar responses like, Good for you!, even though I hadn't written any news worth praising on that particular card and then I finally got an e-mail from someone who said she hoped she'd caught me before I sent too many out because she didn't want me to embarrass myself and I looked at the card again to see if I was exposed in some way or if the printers said, Hey, Merry Christmas!, by accident. But the card was just right, and so I e-mailed her back and said I didn't understand what she meant and she e-mailed back that most people who send photos like that also have husbands or babies in the photo. I e-mailed her back again and said that I am not most people." 

["Good for You!" In its entirety. Really. That's the whole story.]

You might not like it if: You just read that story and didn't like it.

How to get it: I think it's out of print, but you can buy it used or get it from your library. It's also Kindle-able.

Connection to previous Wreckage: When the Messenger Is Hot got a blurb from Kate Atkinson! We love Kate Atkinson (Rec. #3, Rec. #69, Rec. #137, Rec. #192, Rec. #270, Rec. #282, Rec. #301). A lot.

Elizabeth Crane also wrote All This Heavenly Glory (Rec. #314) and You Must Be This Happy to Enter (Rec. #245).

Erika Krouse's Come Up and See Me Sometime was Rec. #122.

[Originally posted 3/13/11.]