Russian Lover and Other Stories

I loved this collection of short stories. Jana Martin is a literary stylist, which means that her stories are less about plot than they are about character and, perhaps even more importantly, the language used. Each word choice is perfect and resonant. There's a strong sexual undercurrent that runs through many of the stories in this collection, replaced only occasionally by an equally strong sense of nostalgia for family life, and almost always told from a female POV. There's a great deal of humor pulsing under the skin, too. If you like well written literary fiction, you should definitely check this one out.

At their worst, the stories read like chick-lit for the suicide girl set. At their best, they recall Flannery O' Connor and Tennessee Williams. A great capture of American zeitgeist in the last days of superpowerdom. Clearly, the collection spans at least a decade of Jana Martin's writing. I think she'll only get better. I would look forward to a novel from any of these short stories. My favorites are: Why I Got Fired, Goodbye John Denver and the title track (if you will) Russian Lover.

Sharp prose, comical timing, strange and evocative emotional landscapes presented in these not-so-simple simple stories, the cumulative effect of which resonates long after you finish reading them. I look forward to Ms. Martin's next book.