Kirjahaku

Cavemen Roam The Suburbs, Morality is questionable, teens are angsting, and alcoholics abound. This is the world as Stacey Richter sees it. In spite of--or perhaps because of--this alarming cast of characters, Richter's stories are infused with wit, humor, and keen observations of what makes humans tick. There is no sentimental hand-wringing about alcoholic or absentee parents, lost loves, or the most terrible suburban neighborhood Christmas displays. Richter's characters live, exist, play, and often drink too much because that is simply what they do. Carrying on is the only option. Richter writes with volatile energy, hurtling through her stories while coasting seamlessly between the regular and mundane. She sees the repercussions of bad parenting, forgotten kids, and while she may scoff, her caustic observations never demean her characters. By turns heartbreaking, mirthful, sardonic, and wise, her stories occasionally take a turn into the bizarre. Still, Richter's flights of fancy are not about whimsy or science fiction. They are one imaginative woman's clever and naked view of the absurdities teeming around her.

In the sense that all stories have been written before, a truly startling piece of fiction may be the greatest literary feat possible. Enter Stacey Richter, a virtuoso contender for that very prize, whose offbeat characters manage to toe the line between eccentricity and banal daily life. Each story is organized around a pair of characters, and these characters are permitted to reach their full bizarre potential against mundane backdrops. The result is fiction that drives toward a place of surreal revelation, in these sometimes disturbing, often funny, short pieces. In Twin Study, Richter beautifully captures  albeit through unlikely exemplars  the essential experience of humanity.