All Fall Down Book

Disappointed in this ; too much in the direction of the conventional, even more so than The Star Cafe. But it should be noted that the final piece here, the novella "The Translator", originates from the same Italian sojourn as her fantastic Five Doubts. So you see her range.

Mostly stuff about relationships here, of the marital or fore=marital type. I don't know that the subject matter demanded the more conventional tone/structure/style. But that might be because I think there's some parody of some recent assumptions in a few of these ; noted below.

"Last Resort Retreat". Left right right. A dead deer and a joke about guys asking for directions. Try to save a marriage with a woodsy retreat. eh.

"Ashes Ashes We all Fall Down". A man facing a triple threat of mother wife daughter. The mother about to die. The wife about to give birth just about the same time. And he's not getting any, kind of joke. So, yes a woman can write from a male pov, and women's lives and mortal bodies can appear thusly refracted, perhaps as a threat(?), source of despair(?). Or, family life is difficult.

"Ill-Timed". A novella. So it's a lesbian relationship. Interracial :: one albino(a?) ; the other not black enough yet not credited with whiteness, and Harvard=privileged. The latter is also decapacitatingly depressed. Seriously disabled. It's an ordinary abusive relationship. And there's a really sweet ending to this one ; sweet enough to make me a believer in spoilers. Please don't miss it just cuz you despair over the characters' ridiculous mutual abuse.

"A Daughter in Time". Gives one the sense that every 9/11 story is written with the same precious self=regard tone.

"Junior Achievement". If you knew what was going on, this would reallyreally disturb you. The only one in this collection that goes into that experimental territory.

"The Translator". In which female author Caponegro parodies the male author whose female lead is available to the reader only through the refraction of the male narrator. The technique is widely practiced ; infamous exemplars found in Lolita and Darconville's Cat. And Caponegro gets that male=narrator's tone/voice quite precisely.

In sum, the third in my Caponegro ranking. Still have her Complexities of Intimacy to read.