What: For a book about a woman who's been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, Julie Hecht's collection of stories is surprisingly . . . pleasant.
The unnamed narrator's anxieties are the concerns of an affluent, and very earnest, life: trying to find food that won't kill you, worrying about the effects of household radiation, reconciling the Clinton/Lewinsky scandal with political beliefs.
The main character, a successful photographer, also appears in Do the Windows Open? and The Unprofessionals.
Comparable to: Fiction in The New Yorker. In fact, some of Hecht's stories were originally published there.
Representative quote: "I owed my neighbor a visit. She'd left a message on my answering machine just before Christmas. It started with the words 'All right, I'll leave a message . . .' People over eighty don't like answering machines, and I don't blame them. I'm like the Unabomber in that respect --- hatred of technology. And also, as I heard him described on the news, 'a follower of Thoreau.'"
You might not like it if: You find the narrator irksome. I personally like her, but I can see how it could go either way.
How to get it: It's worth noting that although Do the Windows Open? and The Unprofessionals came before this book, you don't really need to read them in order.
Comparable to: Fiction in The New Yorker. In fact, some of Hecht's stories were originally published there.
Representative quote: "I owed my neighbor a visit. She'd left a message on my answering machine just before Christmas. It started with the words 'All right, I'll leave a message . . .' People over eighty don't like answering machines, and I don't blame them. I'm like the Unabomber in that respect --- hatred of technology. And also, as I heard him described on the news, 'a follower of Thoreau.'"
You might not like it if: You find the narrator irksome. I personally like her, but I can see how it could go either way.
How to get it: It's worth noting that although Do the Windows Open? and The Unprofessionals came before this book, you don't really need to read them in order.
Connection to previous Wreckage: Do the Windows Open? was Rec. #321.
[Originally posted 1/5/11.]
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