Naomi Wood, an English author not yet well known in the U.S., has written three historical novels, including the well-regarded “Mrs. Hemingway,” about the four wives of Ernest Hemingway. During the Covid lockdowns, when her kids were confined at home and she had less time to herself, she turned to the short story form. The result, “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” is an astonishingly good debut collection that often incorporates the bizarre, life-altering reality of the pandemic into the plots.
The main characters tend to be 30-something women trying to have it all. Kids, relationships, satisfying careers — the “seductive slipstream of productivity.” They also strive to be good citizens of an ailing planet and have sex with their partners more than once in a blue moon.
In “Comorbidities,” which won the 2023 BBC National Short Story Award, a couple with young children tries to spice up their marriage by making a sex tape. In an abundance of caution, the man pauses the action to read up on digital security and adjust his devices. Hours later, when the glow has worn off, the woman has a panic attack, worrying it might somehow end up in the “deadly slime of the internet.”
Her female protagonists happen to be a lusty bunch, enjoying sex in flavors that some might consider kinky. But once the little ones arrive, everything changes. Fathers might leave, but these mothers wouldn’t dream of it. “They’re the grand love affair, in the end. The kids. No one else,” says a character in the story “A/A/A/A.”
But don’t think for a minute that they’re selfless or saintly. Feminism has freed them to enter the 21st century labor market and take on high-powered jobs, where they prove to be just as scheming, selfish and manipulative as the men.
“Recently, I had started to notice my bad energy, and I began to follow it, wondering where it would take me,” says the main character in “Wedding Day.” And where was that? To a scheme to disrupt her ex-boyfriend’s wedding by insisting he leave the party early to bring their daughter home for her bedtime. But revenge is bittersweet because once he is back in the apartment they used to share, she is overcome with painful memories of their powerful erotic attraction.
For all their flaws — and they have lots of them — the women in these delectable stories are insanely fun to be with because they are so fully imagined and true to the way we live now.
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AP book reviews: https://apnews.com/hub/book-reviews
Ann Levin, The Associated Press