Circling the Drain: Stories

The art of the short story is a tricky one. You can either tell too much, and then you might as well write a novel, or you can tell too little and leave your readers scratching their heads, wondering what the heck just happened. Davis falls right in the middle. Her surrealism is slight enough to warrant curiosity but not confusion. Her characters are introduced slowly, even if the story is only a few pages long. As a woman, you will understand at least one, if not more, of her female characters. We've all been there - whatever "there" is -- and we can understand the pain and the sadness her characters feel. Each character has a strength to them, even if it's one tiny strength out of 100 weaknesses, that will make you root for whatever it is the character has decided to do. I am in awe by Davis' writing and saddened that her life was cut short years ago because I would be one reader who would gobble up each of her books as they came out. She tells so much with so little, which is a style of writing I absolutely love.

These are miraculous stories, mostly, and the ones that are not quite perfect just make the reader mourn for losing Davis's future output. Her clear, often magical voice leads the reader through both Carveresque real life and Dahlesque fantasy (sometimes in the same story). You'll walk away happier, sadder, and with a sigh for what might have been. Please get yourself this book. It's a gift from a wonderful talent.

I found this book in a friend's pile, pulled it out, and didn't surface for hours. I can't believe it took me this long to get to it. It's diabolically funny, seeringly honest, and remarkably well-written. This is a must read.

Amanda Davis' first collection of short stories gets her career off to a resounding start. "Faith or Tips for the Successful Young Lady" is perhaps her best story--a perfect portrayal of teenage years, when every problem seems like the end of the world. "Prints" shows that Davis understands the power of the "short-short" story. She gets more out of five pages than most writers get out of an entire novel. While some have described her work as dark, many of her stories, especially "Faith," are full of humor.

BOOKS Shorts: "Circling the Drain" BY VANESSA GRIGORIADIS In her first collection, Circling the Drain (Rob Weisbach Books; $23), Amanda Davis delivers the stuff of good short stories: passionate writing, empathetic characters, themes of alienation and loss, and beautiful language that keeps stinging long after you read it. A daughter who runs away from her past confronts a mentally incapacitated father who no longer knows anything of it. A woman is haunted by the memory of her murdered older sister: "Lucy! I screamed and spun around. Lucy! Lucy! Lucy! The field was a green sheet cake surrounded by a ring of tiny trees and I was its centerpiece, a ballerina, a hollow figurine." The most affecting stories are simply told, with the sweet, kooky humor of Grace Paley. In one, a boyfriend once named Fred Luck pops up unexpectedly: "It's Jack now, he said. . . . Jack Luck, I asked? I was thinking with noodles. I was thinking with duck sauce and white rice." From the May 24, 1999 issue of New York Magazine.