I might be too old for this one. The Bed Moved has been in the pile of short story collections at my bedside for several years, and this week I finally dipped in. I’ve only read the first five stories so far, but all center around a Millennial protagonist who’s having trouble adulting. I’m just not the target market. That said, Schiff’s stories are smart, compact, and funny, though not so much laugh-out-loud funny as witty in a gut-punching sort of way. For example, when the main character—I’m not sure whether she’s the same character throughout the collection—visits her widowed mother, she reports: “She kept my father’s computing magazines by his side of the bed, in case he came back to life and needed to order some outdated PCs.” That’s a particularly irreverent line, although the story is ultimately both wry and strangely touching. At times, Schiff’s voice reminds me of a Steven Wright standup routine: “I went to a website for idealists looking for jobs. None of them were ideal.” Of all the blurbs printed in the first pages of the paperback, this one from the writer Patricia Volk best sums up the stories I’ve read so far: “Rebecca Schiff’s spiky prose white-knuckles your heart while making you laugh.”
What are you reading this week? Let us know in the comment section below!
On my way to finish The Count of Monte Cristo. It has been quite a ride as I've been reading it with a group of friends for months now.
I have found with a few books that it is an age thing. I cannot connect sometimes and won’t waste my time if I’m not enjoying a book. There are too many amazing books out there. Happy Easter!