Single, Carefree, Mellow
by Katherine Heiny
Publisher: Knopf
Pages: 221
Format: ARC
Buy the Book: Amazon
Goodreads: Maya is in love with both her boyfriend and her boss. Sadie’s lover calls her as he drives to meet his wife at marriage counseling. Gwen pines for her roommate, a man who will hold her hand but then tells her that her palm is sweaty. And Sasha agrees to have a drink with her married lover’s wife and then immediately regrets it. These are the women of Single, Carefree, Mellow, and in these eleven sublime stories they are grappling with unwelcome houseguests, disastrous birthday parties, needy but loyal friends, and all manner of love, secrets, and betrayal.
In “Cranberry Relish” Josie’s ex—a man she met on Facebook—has a new girlfriend he found on Twitter. In “Blue Heron Bridge” Nina is more worried that the Presbyterian minister living in her garage will hear her kids swearing than about his finding out that she’s sleeping with her running partner. And in “The Rhett Butlers” a teenager loses her virginity to her history teacher and then outgrows him.
Kritters Thoughts: Another collection of short stories and I am growing to love these in the middle of long, heavy novels. There were a few of the stories in this book that had the same characters and as an amateur short story collection reader I am not used to repeat characters that are intermixed with other short stories.
On that note, I loved Maya's stories. I wouldn't mind a full novel that took those stories and flushed out the rest of her story.
After finishing the collection I did read some reviews and I agree that there were quite a few books about cheating spouses and they got a little old, I wish that there had been a little more variety in the topic of stories. I wouldn't have minded the theme of the stories if I hadn't read them back to back.
Final thought - I loved her writing, so I would be open to reading more of Katherine Heiny.
Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row
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