When the Messenger Is Hot: Stories Book

Elizabeth Crane has that thing all writers wish for: a distinctive voice. In this volume (I'm eager to get to her three others), it's caffeinated, deliriously self-conscious, and strangely buoyant. I wouldn't necessarily want to be the young women in these tales--they are by and large confused, directionless, and not so lucky in love--but boy do I like to listen to them. Many of the stories in the collection are deceptively light and comic, but wrap up with a dark, rich note that takes the reader someplace deeper. Others (including one of my favorites, "Year-at-a-Glance," which deals with a mother's terminal illness) are heartbreakers all the way through. Apart from "Year-at-a-Glance," my biggest thumbs-up go to "The Archetype's Girlfriend," "The Super Fantastic New Zealand Triangle," "An Intervention," and the delightful, brief, savage "Good for You!" Some of these stories contain magical elements, but Crane makes one feel that the magic isn't any weirder or harder to believe in than the tricks our ordinary mental life plays on us.