Fresh Complaint

May 15, 2017

Pulitzer Prize winner Eugenides, whose novels have also been runners-up for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, now comes up with a first collection of stories dealing with sexual confusion, adolescent angst, and identity crisis, as when a poet who feels left out of the financial boom becomes an embezzler.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 7, 2017
Best known for the Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Middlesex, Eugenides here collects the stories he has been steadily producing through the years. The earliest story, “Capricious Gardens,” originates from Eugenides’s M.F.A. thesis. In it, two American backpackers spend the night at the home of a recently divorced Irishman. Its plot (the host desires one of the travelers, but her companion has other plans) is of less importance than the structural experimentation. In the humorous “The Oracular Vulva,” “the famous sexologist” Dr. Peter Luce (also featured in Middlesex) makes one last, uncomfortable attempt to salvage his theory of intersexuality and his prestige by journeying into a remote jungle village to do field work. “Airmail” is an epistolary account of a young man’s journey towards enlightenment—and gastric peace—in India. “Baster” is a tale of a woman taking her fertility into her own hands with a marvelous O. Henry ending. The title story is an adroit and moving exploration of an Indian-American teenager’s desperate attempts to avoid an arranged marriage. “The Great Experiment” is the collection’s highlight: working for a small press called Great Experiment—run by Jimmy Boyko, an elderly former pornographer turned free speech advocate—Kendall spends his days collecting quotes from de Tocqueville’s Democracy in America for a slim volume to be entitled The Pocket Democracy. When Jimmy’s accountant tells Kendall over drinks, “If you and I weren’t so honest we could make a lot of money” by embezzling from Jimmy’s publishing venture, Kendall must weigh the price of his integrity against taking his slice of the American Dream. The collection is uneven, but even the weakest story is never boring, and Eugenides’s prodigious abilities are showcased throughout.

Starred review from July 1, 2017
Well-off, well-intentioned people find their just-so lives upended, often in curious ways, in this first collection of short stories by Eugenides (The Marriage Plot, 2011, etc.).Two of the stories here are close cousins to Eugenides' novels: "Air Mail" features Mitchell, the lovelorn spiritual seeker in The Marriage Plot, battling a case of dysentery in Thailand, while "The Oracular Vulva" concerns a researcher studying the same intersexual characteristics that stoked the plot of Middlesex (2002). But neither of those stories reads like a lesser dry run for a more serious work, and the collection throughout is marked by a rich wit, an eye for detail, and a sense of the absurd. The plots often involve relationships hitting the skids, as in "Early Music," in which a couple watches their artistic ambitions crash into the brick wall of fiscal responsibility, or "Find the Bad Guy," about a green-card marriage gone awry. (The contents of the narrator's pockets tell a pathetic tale in itself: "loose change, 5-Hour Energy bottle, and an Ashley Madison ad torn from some magazine.") Eugenides enjoys putting his characters into odd predicaments: "Baster" centers on a woman pursuing a pregnancy via the title's kitchen gadget, while the writer who narrates "Great Experiment" contemplates defrauding his wealthy but stingy employer, using de Tocqueville's writings as a rationalization. But Eugenides never holds up his characters for outright mockery, and the two fine new stories that bookend the collection gracefully navigate darker territory: "Complainers" is narrated by a woman confronting her longtime friend's dementia, and "Fresh Complaint" turns on a young Indian-American woman's provocative scheme to escape an arranged marriage. We humans are well-meaning folk, Eugenides means to say, but life tends to force us into bad behavior. Sprightly or serious, Eugenides consistently writes about complex lives with depth and compassion.

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Starred review from August 1, 2017
Pulitzer Prizewinning Eugenides' first story collection, and his first book since The Marriage Plot (2011), is gifted with the strong voices and luminous prose his novels are known for. Readers will recognize familiar characters and themes: In Air Mail, The Marriage Plot's Mitchell is in India, seeking a kind of nirvana by enduring the stomach complaint otherwise known as amoebic dysentery through willfulness alone, and in The Oracular Vulva, Dr. Peter Luce can't believe he's doing fieldwork again at his age, but ever since a rival sexologist undermined his theories on human hermaphroditism, he's got something to prove. In the title story, a teenager's desperate attempt to evade an arranged marriage requires the involvement of a hopelessly unknowing professor. Stories probe aging and agency, sex and death, with Eugenides' trademark wit and deadpan grace. Cunning, comic, and clueless characters hatch plans to restore their unfairly sapped potential and deal with the resultssome successful, some unanticipated, some unsavorywhile Eugenides captures the places they're in, both physical and metaphorical, with precision. Early on, old friends wonder, What was it about complaining that felt so good? Readers will enjoy lamenting that this complete and utterly human collection must, after all, end.HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: New fiction from Eugenides has been thus far a once-per-decade event; readers will rejoice for both the shorter wait and the short form.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

Starred review from September 1, 2017

Among our most highly regarded contemporary writers, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Eugenides (Middlesex; The Marriage Plot) offers his first collection of short fiction. Not unexpectedly, the work is superb, but perhaps most noteworthy is the compassion and generosity of spirit that informs it. Notable also is Eugenides's ongoing focus on the fluid nature of personal identity and the transitional moments in our lives when we must grapple with who we are, who we wish to be, and who we find ourselves becoming. The title story is a disturbing portrait of a 16-year-old Indian American woman who goes to extraordinary lengths to avoid an arranged marriage. "Find the Bad Guy" is a humorous story about a divorced husband and father who is irresistibly drawn back to his home and family despite a temporary restraining order. "Complainers" tells a beautiful, heartbreaking story about the end of a 40-year friendship. These stories skillfully explore the often elusive quest for happiness and self-knowledge, along with the many complexities that attend relationships with family, friends, and lovers. VERDICT Essential for all fans of literary fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 4/24/17.]--Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT

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