THE FRAGILE BLUE DOT

Environmental crises drive the characters in West’s debut collection of short stories.

In the story “The Real Manhattan,” New York–based journalist Abbie Dial scores a chance to interview a famed “climate crusader.” But just a few minutes spent with subject Tillie McBivens may beget an entirely different piece than Abbie anticipates. Such world-threatening issues as global warming play a central part in each of this book’s 15 tautly written stories. “Cowabunga Sunset,” for example, unfolds inside a dome with a virtual, programmable beach setting—a resort for people to escape the outside world, where beaches are disappearing under rising sea levels. West aptly develops the characters, depicting grounded individuals in struggling relationships and families juggling various sorts of melodrama or misguided youths whose wavering sense of purpose can take alarming directions. The author portrays distinct, not-always-desirable ways of handling global concerns—some characters voice creditable ideas for rectifying these crises while fears of climate change and the like precipitate woeful actions and disconcerting mindsets in others. Although the overarching theme of environmental peril recurs in literal ways, it occasionally acts as a metaphor to enrich the stories’ casts: One couple tours the slowly melting glaciers in Alaska as their uncertain future and lack of compromise seemingly forms an icy barrier between the two (“If Anything Changes”). Elsewhere, a “roaring” forest fire perfectly illustrates a character’s growing rage (“Smoke, Fire, Ashes”). The collection’s standout story is also its longest: In “The Burning Planet,” aspiring documentarian Luke Mayfield films a one-on-one with Hollis Tozer, a drunk whose proposed solution to global warming is population control. Years later, Luke finally edits Tozer’s interview into a one-hour documentary; the public’s frighteningly plausible reaction will haunt readers long after closing the book.

Perceptive tales that boast memorable characters and a potent, sweeping message.