KITTENTITS

A fantastical debut novel set against the backdrop of the 1992 World’s Fair in Chicago (which, outside these pages, was canceled before it opened).

Molly is 10 when a woman named Jeanie comes to live at the “House of Friends: a Semi-Cooperative Living Community of Peace Faith(s) in Action.” Molly is immediately smitten with the 20-something ex-con, but their mentor-protégé relationship begins in earnest when the grown woman invites the young girl to pull the tampon from her vagina. As Jeanie laughs and runs away, Molly runs after her. “I’m on her heels so fast, my heart banging hard, her badass blood mixed with the scabs under my fingernails. I’ve never been so happy.” From Molly’s perspective, her story is about the radical power of being purposefully objectionable. A scene like this is clearly not for the squeamish, but it’s far from the worst Wilson has to offer. What really feels like getting punched in the face is the frequency with which Molly and Jeanie use -tard as a suffix. Fucktard, asstard, crotchtard…The profanity and crudeness are hardly noteworthy after Wilson sets the tone with the tampon scene, but this language just feels mean and—worse—pointless. Readers who are not put off by the casual cruelty will find a coming-of-age tale that mixes real pathos with absurdities like a psychic medium in an iron lung and a ghostly pen pal. Molly’s desperate need to be seen and respected as a whole person in a world that sees her as a little girl resonates, as does her ambivalent relationship with the mother who died before she was old enough to know her. But, eventually, the narrative begins to sag under the weight of Wilson’s cabinet of curiosities.

If the title makes you the least bit uncomfortable, this probably isn’t for you.