This Is Not an Accident

October 21, 2013
Wilder’s previously published short stories, along with a new novella, appear in an anthology that focuses on her characters’ emotional and romantic unraveling. Her gifts include a knack for sketching her characters’ thoughts and the ease with which she draws readers into their stories. In “This Is Not an Accident,” black humor accompanies a woman’s descent into obsessive-compulsive behavior. “We Were Champions” ends with an intriguing insight, as a woman finally determines the cause of her relationship’s failure. The most disturbing story is “Me Me Me,” in which the narrator writes letters to herself while avoiding phone calls from the social worker trying to vet her sister’s adoption of a little girl. In just 16 pages, Wilder captures the child’s bizarre behavior, the hopeful mother’s addictive personality, and glimpses of the none-too-emotionally stable narrator’s backstory. In “You’re That Guy,” the anthology’s symbolically rich novella, the death of a once-brilliant game theorist who ended up homeless and living on the streets sends his son into an emotional tailspin. Wilder draws on both humor and tragedy to deliver her insights about homelessness (“You only need to survive the transition”), loneliness, and death. Agent: Denise Shannon, Denise Shannon Literary Agency.

January 1, 2014
Seven short stories, a rough-and-tumble novella and a clever bit of metafiction on teaching punctuate this collection from Wilder. It's very lean, this striking collection of tales that remind one less of contemporaries like Monica Drake or Sam Lipsyte and more of the darker plays of Sam Shepard. Loosely based around the western setting that surrounds California-based writer Wilder, the stories often pivot on the upending of cliches but also focus equally on the difficult equilibrium of relationships between all sorts of people. The title story observes the inner lives of people in an odd traffic class who have become obsessed with the mechanics of driving. "All she had to do was actually hit someone," Wilder writes. "Not hit to kill. She only needed to make contact, feel the impact. Once she knew what it felt like to hit someone, she'd know what it felt like not to hit someone, and she would be cured." Nor does Wilder shy away from the most grotesque of imagery. In "The Butcher Shop," a divorce, suffering through a swanky steak dinner, loses a tooth, swallowing it in a sip of wine: "This felt strangely right and he imagined himself swigging Zinfandel and swallowing teeth, eyes, nose, arms, until he was nothing but a stomach digesting itself." "We Were Champions" offers up bitter survival instead of a gut punch with the story of a woman's reflections in the wake of the suicide of her high school baseball coach. Fortunately, Wilder offers readers a breather with "Creative Writing Instructor Evaluation Form," which offers commentary like "The instructor looks like she might be willing to #&%@ a few of us." The collection is nicely summed up with "You're That Guy," about a man trying to find reasons to live in the aftermath of his father's death. Excellent meditations on the human condition, well-suited to rest alongside the likes of Denis Johnson and Richard Ford.

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Starred review from March 15, 2014

The nine quirky stories in this collection by Wilder, whose work has appeared in Zoetrope, McSweeney's, and Guernica, detail absurd situations involving people either on the way to a breakdown or who have already reached their destination. By way of bad romances, outrageous friendships, or substance abuse--or all of the above--the feckless characters embrace their karma, even savor it, or at least do nothing to change their ways or alter matters. Wilder's observations are startling and effective, her descriptions clever and distinctive, and her writing stunning, impossible to ignore or take lightly; imagine Andy Warhol's soup can meets Vincent van Gogh's starry night. VERDICT Edgy, bizarre, exaggerated, this book can be exasperating yet very entertaining. Not for readers seeking sweetness and light along the lines of a Hallmark card-type read.--Joyce Townsend, Pittsburg, CA

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
Dark and introspective, this collection of stories dwells on the perversity of failed relationships and the destructive nature of the human psyche. From the woman looking to her boyfriend to excuse abuses in her past to the woman adopting a young girl in spite of barely being responsible enough to take care of herself, the characters here are all broken in some way, and all are very believable. A recently divorced man struggles with his status while at lunch with a new couple, and a woman grapples with the consequences of past decisions as she rekindles a relationship with an old flame. Wilder's voice is crisp and contemporary, burying meaning in the depth of her characters' thoughts and actions and leaving interpretation up to the reader. Among the short stories, Creative Writing Instructor Evaluation Form provides a humorous twist to the pattern, and the book's one novella, You're That Guy, emphasizes more broadly Wilder's talent for character sketching. Readers familiar with the short stories of Wells Tower will find similar explorations of troubled relationships here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)