ARE YOU HAPPY?

These nine startling stories capture the subtleties of feeling—and being made to feel—out of place.

The protagonists blend into one another—most are queer women living in New Mexico and/or connected to Minnesota by a strained cord—but the situations they find themselves in are distinct. In “The Bus Driver,” a college student visits her austere hometown and runs into her childhood best friend, a young, hardened mother working in a chicken factory and longing to return to the adolescent trauma which set her down this path. “Clear as Cake” places us in a creative writing class led by Marvin Helgarson (always invoked by his full name) and populated by offbeat, hostile students. The narrator is struck by things “left over from an earlier life,” and how alien, even ridiculous, they can feel in this one. “The Stalker” exemplifies the current of hazard that runs through the collection, particularly for women and queer people: An adjunct professor begins to feel cornered by a student who insists on behaving inappropriately, in and out of class. The final story is “Just Another Family,” a novella featured in The Best American Short Stories 2024 and the standout of the collection. The protagonist, Sybil, returns home after her father dies to be greeted by her dysfunctional Midwestern family, a childhood bedroom full of rifles, and a urine-stained mattress. “My father spent the last year of his life discontinent,” Sybil narrates. “He’d always had trouble with prefixes.” As the aftermath of the death unfolds (and her mother’s mind unravels), Sybil struggles between the life her upbringing laid out for her and the life she’s made for herself. The disgust and fear these characters feel when confronted with unsettling moments or direct threats to their wellbeing is leavened by world-weary humor, materializing as the author lays bare the absurdity of everyday interactions. These stories are not comfortable worlds to inhabit, but they are precise and endlessly fascinating ones.

Ostlund proves herself a master of the form.