Single, Carefree, Mellow

September 15, 2014
Dissatisfied teenagers and bored housewives, clueless boyfriends and cuckolded husbands, and 11 variations on the recurrent theme of infidelity and its fallout populate Heiny’s first collection of stories. “The Dive Bar” shows a woman cajoled into having drinks with her lover’s more sophisticated wife; unsurprisingly, the tête–à–tête ends doesn’t end well. “Blue Heron Bridge” finds a physique-obsessed mother consumed by an affair with an aging personal trainer. In the second-person “The Rhett Butlers,” a teenager embarks on a tour of seedy hotel rooms and blah sex with her smarmy high school history teacher. A man leaves a dalliance with a woman he met on Facebook for a gal whose tweets he admires in “Cranberry Relish.” Three of the offerings—“Dark Matter,” “Grendel’s Mother,” and the title story—follow the romantic entanglements and discontented musings of one character through marriage to her long-time boyfriend and pregnancy. But it’s hard to care about her fate when her snarky asides about life’s superficialities and near-constant critique of herself (and her relationship) continue unabated, despite her changed circumstances. First printing: 50,000 copies.

Starred review from December 1, 2014
Heiny explores sex, relationships and the internal lives of young women in this charmingly candid collection of short stories.The women who populate the pages of Heiny's disarming debut are girlfriends, mistresses and wives. They are best friends, roommates and lovers. They are intelligent but not always ambitious-keenly insightful but sometimes, perhaps willfully, blind to their own deeper desires-with loyalties and libidos that may be at odds and morals that may be in question. Despite the title, not all are single (or carefree or mellow), but they are all singular, and following their stories is like sitting at a dive bar tossing back deceptively pretty, surprisingly strong drinks with a pal who may not always make the best decisions but always comes away with the most colorful tales. In fact, "The Dive Bar" is the title of the first story. In it, we meet Sasha, an attractive 26-year-old writer whose boyfriend has left his wife for her. After a confrontation with the boyfriend's wife, Sasha reluctantly mulls the morality of her choices, but for her, morality is really (boringly) beside the point, and she instead finds herself sinking sideways into the next chapter of her life, a happy one, from all indications. Heiny's characters often find themselves propelled through life by circumstances: The death of a beloved dog can lead inexorably to marriage, pregnancy and secret affairs, as it does for Maya, the protagonist of three of these stories, and her kind, kindred-spirit boyfriend/fiance/husband, Rhodes. Not all the women here are as appealing as Sasha and Maya, and the less we like them, the less charmed we may be by their careless misbehavior. By the end of the book-as by the end of a night at the bar with our metaphorical, engagingly louche friend-we might not find ourselves overly reluctant to part company. These young women are sympathetic and slyly seductive, sometimes selfish and maddeningly un-self-aware, but they are beguilingly human, and readers will yield to their charms.

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January 1, 2015
Adultery abounds in Heiny's engaging debut collection, in which various female characters dissect their longings in the midst of everyday reality. In The Dive Bar, New Yorker Sasha agrees to a sit-down with her boyfriend's wife but becomes increasingly agitated in advance of their meeting. Set in suburbia, Blue Heron Bridge follows housewife Nina as her extramarital affair with a personal trainer unravels owing, in part, to her own insecurities. In the astute Cranberry Relish, the married Josie finds herself passed over by a former lover, whom she met on Facebook, for his newfound Twitter companion. Several stories follow librarian and web designer Maya, who begins to question the boundaries of her long-term relationship with her quirky boyfriend, Rhodes. The standout title tale juxtaposes their relationship against the terminal decline of Maya's beloved dog. In Dark Matter, the bond between the two is further put to the test when Maya strikes up an affair with her boss. Heiny's 11 stories are heightened by her depictions of her characters' internal struggles as they candidly confront their infidelities and other desires.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

Starred review from October 1, 2014

In this funny and heartfelt debut story collection, few characters are single and even fewer are carefree--though most long to be. Instead, they are remorseful about their disloyalties, torn between spouses and secret lovers, and guilt-ridden over the betrayals they commit in the name of love. In the title story, we encounter Maya as she faces the death of her beloved dog, Bailey, contemplates leaving her boyfriend of five years (she is sadder about the dog), and confronts her feelings for her alluring veterinarian. Maya, who appears in several more stories in various stages of life and love, is one of many captivating characters expertly imagined by Heiny. For instance, in the "The Dive Bar," a woman receives a phone call from her lover's wife, asking her to meet for a drink, and in "How To Give a Wrong Impression," the finest story in the collection, a young woman yearns for her roommate--a man oblivious of her feelings who comes to her for dating advice. VERDICT Essential reading for short story and fiction lovers, this is an exceptionally humorous collection by a talented new writer. [See Prepub Alert, 8/25/14.]--Lisa Block, Atlanta

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2014

Lots of short story collections have been coming my way lately, and early 2015 seems especially rich in that regard. This debut collection, featuring women facing emotional conundrum, bowled me over on first read. The 50,000-copy first printing says a lot.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2014

In this funny and heartfelt debut story collection, few characters are single and even fewer are carefree--though most long to be. Instead, they are remorseful about their disloyalties, torn between spouses and secret lovers, and guilt-ridden over the betrayals they commit in the name of love. In the title story, we encounter Maya as she faces the death of her beloved dog, Bailey, contemplates leaving her boyfriend of five years (she is sadder about the dog), and confronts her feelings for her alluring veterinarian. Maya, who appears in several more stories in various stages of life and love, is one of many captivating characters expertly imagined by Heiny. For instance, in the "The Dive Bar," a woman receives a phone call from her lover's wife, asking her to meet for a drink, and in "How To Give a Wrong Impression," the finest story in the collection, a young woman yearns for her roommate--a man oblivious of her feelings who comes to her for dating advice. VERDICT Essential reading for short story and fiction lovers, this is an exceptionally humorous collection by a talented new writer. [See Prepub Alert, 8/25/14.]--Lisa Block, Atlanta

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.