So We Can Glow

January 1, 2020
A collection of 42 stories about the complexities of girlhood, womanhood, love, longing, and grief. Cross-Smith (Whiskey & Ribbons, 2018, etc.) uses many forms--from more traditional first- and third-person narratives to email and text exchanges, plays, and recipes--to explore these themes. Most of the stories are quite short and feature vivid sensory detail; the author has a gift for describing smells in particular and using them to conjure emotion. But the stories tend to lack layers; they are beginnings without middles and endings, as if they were drafted from writing prompts and then polished, by a skilled author, without further development. The story "Girlheart Cake With Glitter Frosting" mimics a recipe. It begins, "POSSIBLE INGREDIENTS: Too much black eyeliner. Roses. Champagne from a can, champagne in a bottle. 'Music to Watch Boys To' by Lana Del Rey," and then lists more singers, authors, celebrities, songs, movies, and objects for another two pages. "You Should Love the Right Things" reads, in its entirety, "Not how it hurts when you press down on a yellowish-blue, purple-black bruise, but the feeling you get when you lift up. Let go." The language is rich and rhythmic, the sentiment fresh, but devoid of context, it resonates only so deeply. Even the more traditional stories read like vignettes, constellations of pretty images and ideas that make for scenes, not stories. Sometimes characters recur or side characters from one story emerge as main characters in another. But too often characters who are supposed to be close family, friends, or partners explain things to each other for the benefit of the reader. The book includes some promising characters and premises as well as flashes of brilliant writing and insight, but ultimately, the individual stories and their cumulative effect don't live up to these moments. Pithy turns of phrase and wordplay can't carry a whole collection.

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January 27, 2020
Cross-Smith’s rich collection (after Whiskey & Ribbons) follows women exploring desire, desperation, and despair. The brief opener, “We, Moons,” an explosion of slam cadence (“We’re okay, our hearts, dusted with pink”), serves as a battle hymn of self-determination and sisterhood that thematically unites the subsequent narratives. “Teenage Dream Time Machine” unfolds as a texting conversation between two mothers worried about their young, wild daughters and remembering their own impetuous youth. In “Pink Bubblegum and Flowers,” a young woman crushes on one of the men rebuilding the deck on her parents’ house and navigates a tense scene of toxic masculinity. In “California, Keep Us,” a Kentucky couple, mourning the loss of their baby, retreats once a month for a weekend in California to assume different identities with one another and resolve not to “talk about death.” The delightfully idiosyncratic prose (“She felt guilty about lusting over Clint. It was lazy, like cold French fries”) distinguishes each of the narrator’s points of view within common themes of love, friendship, sex, and loyalty. These stories showcase the wide range of Cross-Smith’s talent. Agent: Kerry D’Agostino, Curtis Brown.

March 13, 2020

Two short story collections center on the broad themes of women and womanhood. Glow contains 42 tales about female desire and the things that may accompany it, such as obsession, frustration, and love. Senseless collects 12 daring pieces featuring adventurous plots about women who don't seem senseless at all. Debut author Wallman writes in a traditional narrative style, while Cross-Smith (Whiskey & Ribbons) employs a variety of epistolary storytelling methods such as email, text messaging, and plays. Both authors display skill and a knack for detailed descriptions. Notable stories include Cross-Smith's "The Great Barrier Reef Is Dying But So Are We" and "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik," both about a married couple with trust issues, and Wallman's "The Malanesian," a two-character, back-and-forth dialog about survival. VERDICT Though uneven, several entertaining stories make these collections best for voracious short story fans.--Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY

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