Turf

April 24, 2017
A daring piece of literature delicately teetering between story and observation, Crane’s fourth collection is an encounter with her inimitable “turf”—a profoundly scrutinized world. Opening with the stunning “Everywhere, Now,” Crane skips from city to city, continent to continent, capturing the same moment in time across the globe and elevating the quotidian as part of the full breadth of life. A monthly gathering of the überintelligent features incredibly accomplished men who are clueless about matters of the heart in “The Genius Meetings.” The author’s penchant for lists shines in several stories: “Where Time Goes” is an encyclopedic repository that is both poignant and humorous; “Some Concerns” catalogues a panoply of fears from mundane fashion mishaps and household mistakes to the heartrending fear of not being able to measure up. Whether she’s revealing how a story might be put together (“Notes for an Important American Story” and “Notes for a Dad Story”) or parsing relationships (the varied and complicated factors bringing people together in “Mr. and Mrs. P Are Married,” or the futuristic “Today in Post-Apocalyptic Problems,” in which Janie and Dan’s Spartan lives are briefly brightened by the appearance of a baby on their doorstep), Crane demonstrates insight into our deepest fears and desires and what makes people tick.

April 1, 2017
Twenty-two often witty, sometimes-disquieting short stories from chameleon stylist Crane (The History of Great Things, 2016, etc.).Crane tends to rely on droll gimmicks in her short fiction, but when she does stick the landing, it's often an elegant, unexpected solution. There's a lot of obsession with stuff here--in "Roosters" (a stream-of-consciousness hunt-and-peck through a grocery store), "Here Everything's Better" (more shopping), "We Collect Things" (a sly indictment of hoarder culture), and "Looking" (a catalog of the things the narrator likes). Elsewhere, Crane skewers the hubris of intellect in "The Genius Meetings," tabloid culture in "Star Babies," and the weighty self-importance of literary fiction in "Notes for an Important American Story." It's not to say that Crane can't be quite poignant, even in the short form. Two fragments about friendship, "Best Friends Seriously Forever" and "Old Friends," flip from silly to heartbreaking and back on a dime. But then the collection slides straight into insubstantial dalliances like "Justin Bieber's Hair in a Box" and "Stella's Thing," which can't even be bothered to belabor its own point: "Anyway, this wasn't that long ago. So we don't really know how it's going to turn out. Probably, this won't be the rest of her life. Does it have to be?" Other devices are more successful, like the musings on the fluid nature of time in "Where Time Goes" and the existential catalog of fears in "Some Concerns." When the stories stretch out, it makes a difference, most notably in the kinky Hollywood melodrama "Mr. and Mrs. P Are Married" and the stellar "Today in Post-Apocalyptic Problems." Despite the author's dependence on literary sleight of hand, sometimes the truth sneaks out, as it does in the opening story, "Everywhere, Now": "It's still me, you know that right? It's always me." Autobiography and imagination walking hand in hand into the sunset.

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May 1, 2017
Crane, author of several short-story collections, including We Only Know So Much (2012), and the stellar novel The History of Great Things (2016), returns with this insightful collection of friendly, talkatively voiced stories. Readers will be delighted to finally learn where time in fact goes ( Another myth exploded: What happens in Vegas goes here ). Sometime after the apocalypse in New York, a middle-aged couple raises a child (not theirs) they found one morning in a paint bucket (their own) on their front porch. No one quite understands a boy's choice of superhero, or his own burgeoning supernatural abilities. Some stories are short-short, some are made up of lists; most have previously appeared, sometimes in different forms. In the beautiful closing piece, Notes for a Dad Story, a writerreferring to herself as a kid, now growntries to just focus on her father for once, while her long-gone mother, or the other parent, persists in hoovering up every scene, as usual. Another absorbing, imaginatively written, and inviting collection from Crane.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)