Curious Affairs

Bitter, joyful, worn down, filled with wonder, acutely self-aware, and often deeply in need of perspectivesuch are the women at the center of Mary Jane Myers'' compelling debut short story collection. Lonely and stuck in lives that have begun to feel stale, these ordinary womenadministrative assistants, typists, accountantsawake unto themselves after brushes with the surreal. While light and playful in tone, the stories reflect the hollowness and toxicity that can come from ascribing too strictly to the popularly held values of our contemporary society and the confusion caused by wobbly religious beliefs in a secular world. Louise, an unassuming tourist, is accosted in a museum in Florence by the voice of Galileos finger bone promising to grant her greatest wish in return for a simple favor. Diane narrowly escapes a toxic relationship and sinks into a depression when she becomes convinced the gods are speaking to her through a stone from the lava fields of Maui. Helen, who has always wanted someone with whom to appreciate classical music, ends up playing host to Franz Schubert, when she meets the young composer wandering in the woods near her home in the Santa Monica Mountains. Witty, revelatory―and at times chilling―Curious Affairs allows us to see the strangeness in the ordinary.