DIRTY SUBURBIA

A short-story collection plumbs the depths of girlhood, life, and suburban survival.

Hosey channels the lives of young women across the expanse of 10 tales that are alternatingly titillating, shocking, harrowing, poignant, and compelling. In the opener, “Christine,” two suburban adolescent girls befriend and then start parenting a toddler they meet at a playground, which begins as a fun project but becomes too serious when they escalate their efforts to care for the child on their own. The title story is striking and clever as it depicts two girls, both in love with the same abusive, cheating video store clerk, who agree to participate in the man’s robbery scheme but wind up bonding in other ways instead. Elsewhere, a nun’s fall from grace in “Blessed Virgin” comes as a blessing when she realizes she can finally be the queer woman she feels she is inside without consequences or judgment. Plenty of phallic humor permeates the comical and family-centric “Not For Everyone,” one of the volume’s longest tales. Hosey has a firm grasp of the minor details that give readers a fully illuminated image of the characters she depicts and the nostalgic era, mostly the 1980s and ’90s, in which they live. Preteen girls, “both summer-brown overlaid with pink sunburn on their shoulders and cheeks,” chew grape gum and gossip about the TV series Dynasty; others use pay phones, star-69 one another, and obsess over the musician Dave Matthews. A calm, comforting man becomes the equivalent of “human Xanax” for a needy woman in one story. The author’s knack for characterization is keenly realized throughout these tales with remarkably descriptive flair. The Walden Pond tour guide in “Land Mammals,” about a downtrodden college teacher who is enlivened by a Thoreau impersonator, is described as a “sickly-looking older woman who probably believes that old lie about how it is impossible to be too thin.” There’s also a refreshing range of locales, from the wintry setting of suburban Wisconsin to the leafy, wooded historical community of Concord, Massachusetts. Every story in Hosey’s distinguished, engrossing collection is memorable, suffused with meaning and emotion, with characters exhibiting the grace and wisdom of age or the testiness of youth. This is splendidly entertaining reading, particularly for fans of women’s fiction.  

Measured, witty, captivating tales starring a series of resilient, likable female characters.